Project: SWT
Bug 54878 Drop down coolbar/toolbar menus and combo boxes take too many clicks
Reported: 2004-03-15 14:23:39 | Status: resolved fixed

Drop down menus: Open the SWT Controls example and select the Coolbar or Toolbar example. Press and hold the mouse down on one of the buttons that has a dropdown menu. What should happen is that the menu should come up, and as you move the mouse it should highlight menu items. When you release the mouse, it should select that menu item. However that's not what happens. SWT requires that you click and release the mouse button on the dropdown menu control, then click and release the mouse button on the item to select. Combo boxes: Same problem. Open the Combo box SWT example. Press and hold the mouse on the combo menu (the triangle button to the right of the combo value). You should be able to see the menu of values immediately, move the mouse down to the one you want, and release the mouse button. However that's not what happens. SWT requires that you click and release the mouse button on the combo drop-down menu, then click and release the mouse button on the item to select. Another example: Open the plug-in manifest editor on any plug-in, go to the extensions page, open up the properties view for any extension. Select some property that has a list of possible values. It takes about three clicks to select the value you want, when it should be a simple task of click-drag-let go. The example that annoys me the most that prompted me to write this is the dropdown toolbar menu for launching External Tools. I have to click on the arrow and let go (being careful not to click on the button next to the arrow which will just launch the last tool), then look down the list and click on the tool I want and let go. I alternate between two external tools, and do this operation dozens of times a day. The frustration finally built up into a bug report. :) This is on Windows XP. There is some inconsistency about how these controls work in native applications (for example I notice that in this web page on IE, the combo boxes require the mouse down/up,move,down/up sequence). However many applications that I'm used to (for example MS Outlook) work the way that I've described it should work above. Also combo boxes and dropdown menus that occur in toolbars / coolbars seem to universally NOT require the extra steps in all the apps I've tested. For them it's just click-drag-release, just like top level menus. Top level menus, even in Eclipse, support both ways of working. I think supporting the extra steps is important for accessibility, but supporting the quicker way too would be good.

Files changed in fix:
bundles/org.eclipse.swt/Eclipse SWT/win32/org/eclipse/swt/widgets/Menu.java