Getting a usability patch into gnome-panel package?

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

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On Feb 10, 2008, at 11:01 PM, Ivan Sagalaev wrote:
>
> Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
>>
>> The panel could copy this behavior: Alt+dragging could move the panel,
>> while normal dragging does nothing. That way people would be much less
>> likely to move the panel by mistake.
>
> Matthew, do you have any suggestions on how discoverability of this can
> be improved?

I like Martin Ahnelöv's suggestion of adding a sentence of inline help
to the "Panel Properties" window. After all, dragging the panel is
functionally equivalent to changing the "Orientation" setting in this
window.

In the short term it would make sense to add the same sentence to the
"Add to Panel" window too (though I think eventually that window
shouldn't exist).

> I don't think Alt+dragging is a well known concept to general public 
> or am I wrong?

You're right, though I don't think it's particularly important for it
to be well-known. Most people won't need to use it.

Another way of making it better-known would be to use it consistently
throughout Ubuntu, for anything that could be draggable but shouldn't
normally be.

For example, for any kind of GTK control where clicking on it does
something, if you press the mouse button but drag away before releasing
the button, that cancels the click. This works for (almost) every kind
of control, including menus, *except* the menus in the "Main Menu" and
"Menu Bar" panel applets. If you drag away from an item in those menus,
they assume you're trying to create a launcher (or in the case of the
"Places" menu, copy the files!). This inconsistency could be fixed by
making the menus behave like normal menus with an unmodified drag, with
Alt+drag invoking the create-launcher behavior. Epiphany and Firefox
could adopt the same behavior in their Bookmarks menus.

Cheers
- --
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/
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