Right-click Context Menu on Properties

I am hoping to get some discussion (and maybe consensus) on changes to the popup menu you get when you click on properties.

Right-click on the “Render” button and you get a list of options that start with “Change Shortcut”. The first two options don’t line up with the rest but that can be easily fixed. Right-click on “Transform Location” and you get a huge ugly list of options. I’d love to add “copy to clipboard” and “paste from clipboard” to that list, but it is already so long and disorganized.

I wrote a patch that puts the key and driver options together, the documentation items together, and adds copy and paste:

http://projects.blender.org/tracker/download.php/9/127/33052/22611/RightClickMenu.png

However, someone said it used too many icons (easily fixed). There was another complaint about having “insert keyframe” on a submenu (but if you worried about that wouldn’t you just hit “I”?). And “documentation” was not a good description of the one submenu (can’t think of anything better though).

Any thoughts?

Not sure about non-windows users, but your proposal is something most of us should be used to already. To me it makes it easier to find something in a short list than a giant long one. As long as shortcuts are available for the items people most need, I don’t see why it wouldn’t help in most cases. I do however agree about the icons and think they make it too cluttered.

As for the icons, would you remove all of them, just the duplicates, some in particular, or replace some? The order of everything can be changed too, so “keys and drivers” could move above “reset all to default values”, for example.

Harley… I like the fact that you actually spend time thinking about these things… Things that just usually annoy me but don’t really think about raising a discussion… Kudos for that… Please don’t stop. I still feel that I use way too much time trying to find the menu item I want even when I know exactly where it is. It interferes with the work flow. Even the chosing the editors throws you a little when it turns upside down depending on where you are on the screen…

I’d say that the whole change and remove shortcut is frankly a waste of space. How often do you really use that anyway?

And I agree with the keyframe shortcut thing… Which brings up the question why those shortcuts aren’t seen in the pop-ups… It’s not like you need to restrict the space, since you aren’t likely multitasking while using a menu.

I’d also add some spacings between the groups of functions… Like the clipboard is one, the resets are one and so on…
Heck… Why not have a header that explains the general idea of the menu in the first place?

As an added thing in the keyframe part… If you already have a few keyframes put in, why not have an option to go to the next or previous keyframe?

Oh and the icons… Maybe just have one for each group of functions… Less clutter, better focus point for your brain to find what you’re looking for and you don’t have to use the same icon for two different things.

Overall looks okay to me. Thoughts

  • I definitely agree about too many icons - with that many they seem to hurt more than help.
  • Documentation being in a flyout I think is better (and I think that one should keep it’s icon)
  • It’s probably beyond your scope here, but I think the Edit Source, and Edit Translation are dev features rather than appealing to the average Blender user. They should probably be off by default, with a flag in the options to turn them on.

I think if they ever get a UI team going you should be on it. :stuck_out_tongue:

I second that…

Yes, those are not shown to regular users.

Do we need more icons removed than these? I also moved keying up a bit in the list

http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=43325

hmmm…interesting ideas,I agree with groupîng icons and whatnot

but…what about the “select last used item” paradigm of Blender? Will you be inside the submenu immediatly? or only the top menu ,always?

Ideally what you propose could be a good default,but for those who know python perhaps, make it customizable? (just wondering if this could be done)

one thing I also suggested one time and would be nice to have added
is a rightlick menu for when you click on panels (not buttons)
This should present you with the functions and mostly hidden shortcuts that are present in Blender.

to name a few:
-show/collapse panel (A)
-Hide all other panals (CTRL+LMB)
-switch toolshelf side (F5)
-make size smaller/bigger (numpad +;- )

But that’s my opinion…

:open_mouth: Holy handgranade! Had no idea about these shortcuts! My goodness, that just made my day!
Thanks! And yes, I definitely agree with that. Especially with useful shortcuts like that that aren’t obvious.

Much nicer in that new layout.

A couple more suggestions (assuming they’re possible and even in the scope of this change):

  • a bit more padding between the icon and the text. I think on lower res monitors, it all might looked squashed together. Windows right-click menus actually have etched lines separating the two columns and even between sub groups.

  • can the shortcuts for the menu items actually be in the text? This is probably more about uniformity when new things are added, but I find there are some menus that show the shortcut and some don’t. Alt-P for clearing a parent comes to mind first. The menu shows Ctrl-P to make the parent, but not to clear them. It just say “Clear Parent”. I realize this pertains mostly to the main menus in the different windows and not so much the right click one, but I figure that if keeping things consistent is a requirement, then your changes here should carry over to the normal menus?

+1 for your proposal

IMHO no icons please, better to have shortcuts in a grayish tone then icons.
Icons are too distracitve, specially because they are in (different) colors, look at File menu!

Im also for a Right Click menues all over the Blender. (during a few projects i had Dynamic Spacebar menu Addon maped to RMB)

Cheers

There was another complaint about having “insert keyframe” on a submenu (but if you worried about that wouldn’t you just hit “I”?).

No. This menu is one of the few ways to add a single keyframe. Pressing I over the transform location properties would keyframe the location of all axes. I only want to keyframe what I want, not get the graph editor clogged with unneccessary channels.

Before changes you should find what people actually use this menu for so the commom actions are most easily accessible. Add keys and drivers is at the top of the current menu so maybe that is the primary use. Why then hide in a submenu ?

Instead of “Documentation”, it might just say “Help”. I guess that’s the usual way to do it.

Icons yes, submenus no. BIG NO. :wink: Mostly for Keys and drivers it’s not good idea.

Just remembering google chrome… It’s menu is quite nice, the ability to insert predefined templates (e. g. [-][100%][+]) or custom templates (widgets) in the menu could be a pleasant feature for addon devs. This would require a lot of programming work, though.
http://i.imgur.com/ZlQEj.png

That is exactly what this discussion is.

I don’t think we are seeing any consensus forming. There are a few changes proposed in this but none of them are liked by everyone. There have been some “that looks nice”, some people who are pro-icon and others anti-icon, and many not liking having sub-menus. Without grouping into sub-menus we are left with the original issue that the list is so damn long and (to me) difficult to quickly select one item. I certainly wouldn’t add “copy to clipboard” and “paste from clipboard” to that already-long list.

Stealing from that idea we could remove some duplication in the popup menu by doing something like this:

http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=43371

Just a thought…

I would argue that the term “hide” is a based on bias rather than anything else.

It isnt hidden, its categorized and organized. It is the difference between having a desktop full of icons for every different application and a desktop with folders organizing them.

The mind, from a behavioral science standpoint is able to function better with categorization and organization. When too much is presented at once, and not necessarily organized within clearly identifiable groups, “hidden” or otherwise, the brain must go through a constant recognition, process and action pattern. When too much of this has to occur, it actually makes it worse as opposed to better.

There is a lot of science behind UI design and why interfaces are presented a certain way.

add: Even better to limit and categorize functions while allowing eventual power users to hotkey their most used function, than to present it all at once.

Another option is similar to what we see in certain music applications. If you listen to certain songs more often, they can be presented in a list or menu for easy access. IN blender’s case, if you use that function a few times, it will appear in the most commonly used function menu or list, thus dynamically working with what the user needs at the time.

I like that one with the All on the side of some options.