Re: [Usability]Re: Right Click the same as Ctrl+LeftClick???

[Tom Insam <tom jerakeen org>]

On Fri, Nov 29, 2002 at 06:17:27PM +0000, Alan Horkan wrote:
(heavily trimmed)
> ..I really have been asked what do you mean "double click" (quickly click
> twice in row) and yes i really have had to explain what do you mean by
> "left click" (click using the left mouse button),..

This has been bothering me recently. I see a lot of people double-clicking
toolbar buttons, and the launcher buttons on the taskbar under windows, for
instance, and getting very confused when two copies launch. IE has an option
to catch double-clicks of URLs (something else I see a lot) for this very
reason, but it's only for URLs and not icons, etc. (AFAIK).

But the /only/ place a hypothetical very basic user needs to double click a
lot is in the file manager. There's window maximising/shading (I feel these
ocmments apply both to Windows and GNOME here), and expanding tree view
nodes, but both of those I'd class as 'medium user' level stuff, and can
very easily be done with a single click on a button. Then there's word/line
selection (oooh, try getting someone to reliably tripple-click on something)
but again, that's a hold and drag operation.

So what's with the obsession with double-click as an idea? clicking is
simple. Double clicking is /hard/. Well, mostly. I've been using Nautilus in
single click mode for a while to test this, and it's perfectly usable. You
could combine this with my earlier click and hold thought, and have all
functions available using one mouse button and two operations - click the
button, and hold the button.

must stop rambling.