Annoyed by Sticky Drop Down Menus? Find Out Why They're Not Going Away!

[Stephen Tashi]

The drop down menus ("My PF", "Inbox" etc.) are very irritating when the display is showing only the compose-a-reply editing field on the screen (in Firefox). Clicking on that part of the screen doesn't dismiss the drop down menus. ESC doesn't dismiss them. There is a thin bar at the bottom that you can click in and dismiss them, but that is tedious and the bar isn't always visible if the reply is lengthy.

 

[Nugatory]

I'm seeing this behavior in Firefox and also an ancient Safari - "irritating" is a gentle and polite word to describe it. There's an area at the top of the page in which a click will dismiss the offending dialog, and life has gotten better since I found it.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

For me clicking inside the editor does not hide the popup but anywhere outside the editor works fine.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

For me clicking inside the editor does not hide the popup but anywhere outside the editor works fine.

That's true for me. However, to write a reply (and see what I'm doing) the editor part of the window often fills the whole screen.

 

[LCKurtz]

What about making the drop-down menus active only on click instead of on rollover? I also find them very irritating and in the way.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Can you guys increase your screen resolution? :)

 

[Bystander]

Hit the blank white space in the PF header --- big target.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

Can you guys increase your screen resolution? :)

I can, but if that puts more of the page on the screen, I'll just have to increase size of the display to get stuff big enough to see well.

I have a theory that there is a generational divide in computer interface design. Young people can tolerate a crowded page with lots of small writing on it. Old guys need big type. I have a 21" monitor and I sit near it and yet I still need the message editor to nearly fill up the display in order to see what I'm doing.

 

[jim hardy]

Amen Steven
Those (participle deleted)dropdowns are (participle deleted) annoying . I usually have a reference open in a separate tab and when mousing up to switch tabs the (participle deleted)dropdowns jump in front of me . It's hard on my blood pressure.

Old guys like me set our mouse speed sort of slow so we can find the doggone cursor .

PLEASE can we make those (participle deleted)dropdowns require a click to activate, or move them to a vertical row on left side, or make them have at least a 3/4 second dwell time?

 

[LCKurtz]

Amen Steven
Those (participle deleted)dropdowns are (participle deleted) annoying . I usually have a reference open in a separate tab and when mousing up to switch tabs the (participle deleted)dropdowns jump in front of me . It's hard on my blood pressure.

Old guys like me set our mouse speed sort of slow so we can find the doggone cursor .

PLEASE can we make those (participle deleted) dropdowns require a click to activate

Amen to that!

 

[Evo]

Amen to that!

I agree that would be preferable to them opening when you accidentally move your mouse over them and then they won't close until you go out of your way to do so. Greg, please, I know you've been asked to stop these from opening and not closing before and you seemed to think it was a good thing, I don't remember why. It's really irritating and serves no purpose but to aggravate members. Don't hate me, but it's really irritating. If I want to open a drop down, I will do so.

 

[StevieTNZ]

I agree -- if you hover over it let it display, but once you hover out of any space it displayed, make it disappear.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I'm trying to understand the difficulty. I have made a video showing for me at least that it's a quick and easy functionality. Is this not how it's working for everyone else?

 

[Evo]

No, the drop downs open without clicking on them and they will not close until you close them.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

No, the drop downs open without clicking on them.

Watching my video, how does that improve my efficiency?

 

[Evo]

Watching my video, how does that improve my efficiency?

If you do not want the drop down to open, and you have to go out of your way to close them, then a second later another or same box opens without you opening it, and you have to stop and close it and it keeps happening again and again, why would that be a good thing?

In the video, you are intentionally opening the boxes, we're talking about them opening without us clicking on them. Can you disable that feature? If you could fix it so that the drop downs only open if they are clicked on, that would be perfect!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If you do not want the drop down to open, and you have to go out of your way to close them, then a second later another or same box opens without you opening it, and you have to stop and close it and it keeps happening again and again, why would that be a good thing?

If you don't want a menu opening, don't hover your cursor over the navigation. Right? How does a box open without you opening it?

 

[Evo]

If you don't want a menu opening, don't hover your cursor over the navigation. Right? How does a box open without you opening it?

If you move your cursor over it, it opens and won't close. It only takes a fraction of a second for it to open. Maybe you can either require a click or to hover for 2 seconds. Make sure that people actually want it to open.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If you move your cursor over it, it opens and won't close. It only takes a fraction of a second for it to open. Maybe you can either require a click or to hover for 2 seconds. Make sure that people actually want it to open.

For me personally that is just too slow and unresponsive. There is about a half second window where you can pass without activating a window. As you can see in this video I have no trouble. I can imagine this is what should happen if you pass through the navigation trying to access a browser tab.

 

[Evo]

It drives me crazy. I'm having to stop and close these all day every day, and it seems others are having the same problem. Maybe post a poll to see how bad it is?

 

[Drakkith]

On my laptop (chrome, windows 8.1), menus don't even open automatically. I have to click on them to open them. (Not really an issue for me)
On my desktop (chrome, windows 7), menus function the same way they do in your video, Greg.
Occasionally I have trouble getting a menu to close on my laptop, but not usually.

 

[jim hardy]

Thank you, Evo.

Greg - Your video shows how they open and close, indeed.

Your video doesn't show the tabs at top of screen.
I frequently mouse up there to for checking a reference I'm quoting or trying to understand.. and cross the buttons en route, activating them .
Do another video this time running your mouse up to that "Bandit" logo as if you want to see something inside it. Those dropdowns are like an annoying housecat that plops right on the page you are trying to read. I have actually screamed at them.

It's almost as annoying as microsoft's "select" leaping clear to the end of a sentence instead of stopping where i stop the cursor, or the drivers side window going all the way down by itself instead of stopping when i release the button. How dare software presume to it tell me what i want .

7, Firefox

 

[jim hardy]

Maybe post a poll to see how bad it is?

For me it's extremely frustrating.
Being an old guy i had to set my mouse speed on the slow side else it's uncontrollable.
I notice my kids all have theirs a lot faster, and judging from the video i suspect you have more nimble hands than i.

Given how many PF members seem to have decades of experience i suspect I'm not unique.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Your video doesn't show the tabs at top of screen.

My second video shows that you can pass through the navigation without opening a menu.

 

[jim hardy]

My second video shows that you can pass through the navigation without opening a menu.

my bad i didnt notice there was a second video.

Have you lengthened hover time to actuate?
If so, thanks.
Lengthen it by half again and see if people complain ? It's still a bit short for me, goes off when passing through.

 

[jim hardy]

Seems better now. Whatever you did, thanks ...

 

[jim hardy]

Tried again - definitely better for my tired old hands. If it's not too slow for other folks, maybe i can speak for several of us - thank you again. Really.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Honestly I didn't change anything, but I am glad it's working better

What screen resolution are you at and do you have an increased zoom level?

 

[jim hardy]

What screen resolution are you at and do you have an increased zoom level?

not zoomed, don't know how to find out resolution.

something has changed somewhere. Machines sense frustration and stress...

 

[dlgoff]

It drives me crazy.

Still driving me crazy.

 

[jim hardy]

my machine is nuts .

I have to shut down and restsrt browser to make a post, it ignores preview and post. it's not new.

before Microsoft computers were frustrating but at least consistent

 

[Evo]

Still the same for me, I just had to close a pop up that I was passing over and I've only been logged on 5 minutes. I'll just try to stop navigating through that area when I need to get to something above them. Obviously I don't move my cursor fast enough.

 

[Evo]

Aha, I've discovered what causes the problem the most, when I want to refresh the homepage to check for new posts, I click on "Physics Forums" top left, then my cursor wanders over and usually hits "MY PF" and the drop down opens, and then I have to close it, as I refresh constantly during the day, I constantly get the drop down.

 

[jtbell]

I usually have several tabs open in my browser (Firefox, Mac OS). When I want to switch to something else after browsing PF for a while, I roll the mouse up to the top of the window to click on a different tab. If I pass over the PF menu bar along the way, a menu drops down and I have to stop and click somewhere on the page to dismiss it.

Similarly, I often accidentally get a sub-forum menu when I mouse over one of the folder icons on the home page on my way to somewhere else on the page.

It feels a bit like an obstacle course for my mouse.

 

[dlgoff]

It feels a bit like an obstacle course for my mouse.

You got that right. I have an extra mouse for back-up, as the left button on my current one is getting loose from not successfully making it through the course.