Suggestion: 'Contact List' menu item in the menu bar icon

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remain
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Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:51 am

Suggestion: 'Contact List' menu item in the menu bar icon

Post by remain »

Currently (as in 1.2b2), the "Contact List..." menu item is in the "Contacts" sub-menu of the Adium menu extra.

I would suggest moving it to the menu itself instead of having it in the sub-menu.

Right now, it's a bit inconvenient to reach it, especially if the Contacts sub-menu is very long. (You have to click the menu extra, move your mouse down, then move the mouse back up diagonally.)

I think having it on the menu would make it easier to reach.

Considering the Contact List is arguably the most important window in Adium, IMO it's important to be able to easily and quickly open it.

(especially in certain specific situations, when clicking the Dock icon isn't enough, for instance, if the Contact List is closed and there is another Adium window open)
Last edited by remain on Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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zac
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Post by zac »

Hold option when clicking on the status menu item, it should be the top entry.

Eventually this will be the right click menu (instead of holding opt) but I've been a little too busy to implement it yet. It's on my todo list, and should be faster than hitting opt to get to contacts/the contact list.
remain
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Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:51 am

Post by remain »

Oh! Very nice!

That's a great idea, actually, putting that menu as the right-click menu.


However, I've still got a tiny suggestion: how about also putting "Contact List" at the top of menu that appears when you left-click?

I mean, I think one of the main important tenets of Apple's UI guidelines is (or perhaps "was," considering how flaky Apple's UI design is sometimes these days) that commands/actions must be doable/discoverable with only a one-button mouse.

This sharply contrasts how in Windows, a lot of programs has commands that are only in context menus/right-click menus.

Certainly, context menus are less discoverable.

I mean, I probably would've never figured out that Option click thing if you haven't told me, because Option click isn't the main click (left click).

So I do think that it's a good idea to have it for the right-click menu because I consider a menu with all your contacts for quick access an "advanced" feature, which the average user might not know, but power users would.

However, opening the Contact List isn't something that only power users do, which is why I think that menu item should also be present at the top of the regular menu of the menu extra.



That's my 2 cents.

Thanks for your time!
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