Bookmarks menu overflow

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pepp5
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Screenshot of multiple-column menu

Post by pepp5 »

Here is a screenshot of how Netscape Navigator 4.7 handled bookmark menus that went off the screen. Note the submenu in the third column that displays itself partially obscuring the second column, but because its position is offset and staggered properly, and because of the shadow on the menu, you can distinguish between the submenu and the area of the menu column behind it. (Actually, the offset is only horizontal as far as I can tell, but even that helps to see what is going on. It really should have a vertical offset as well.)

<img src="http://www.oz.net/%7e%64%61%72%69%6E%66/book2.gif">

- pepp
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shoestring
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Post by shoestring »

thumperward wrote:
pepp5 wrote:In what way is it horrible? Please explain. We are not talking about a preferred method of item organization mind you, but simply the UI concept of multiple column menus when the number of menu items overflows beyond the edge of the screen. I don't see how that is horrible.


Because it's at odds with having a bookmark hierarchy. ...


Nonsense.

I don't claim to be a paragon of bookmark management, but, like many a used-bookshop owner (to take a pertinent example), I can often place my "hand" on the "volume" I'm looking for pretty quickly. And that's in the disorganized section of my bookmarks.

Oh, I do try to arrange them into hierarchies. Doesn't always work. For one thing, stick stuff in a folder and it tends to get hidden -- unless you keep all your folders open all the time. I've tried this, and find it unacceptably clumsy.

Basically, I keep stuff of relatively current interest out in the open, near the bottom of my "New & Unsorted" folder, which is always open. As stuff becomes less immediate, I tend to move it into sub-folders. This means I end up with many folders for the same type of material. So periodically I try to consolidate these, and weed out the deadwood while I'm at it.

I also make judicious use of separators in the "recent arrivals" section. And elsewhere.

Now, drag-dropping bookmarks was pretty efficient in NS4; in Phoenix, to be blunt, it sucks. I find it hard to understand how it became hundreds of times (?) slower. But I still greatly prefer doing business this way.

All that said, I tend to agree with the original poster about the bookmarks menu: I greatly prefer the old multicolumn arrangement. Working back and forth with PHX and NS4 (mostly PHX these days, though), I find myself constantly comparing the bookmark menus - and finding the new way wanting.

(On a sidenote - I've been using Win98SE for quite some time, with 98lite in the "sleek" configuration. This means it uses the Win95 shell, which is smaller and faster. Just recently, I had to switch to the "chubby" config, with the 98 shell, because Phoenix/Mozilla's handling of "mailto:" links is incompatible with the 95 shell.

The 95 start menu worked basically like the NS4 bookmark menu: multiple columns; the 98 start menu, like Phoenix, has those damn top-and-bottom scroll buttons. Again, I find the new way of doing things clearly inferior (with some reservations). I like to be able to see the big picture all at once, as it were. All this scrolling wearies me, and it's harder than ever to find that elusive program I need to use - did I ever make a shortcut for it? if so, where did I put it? is it in a submenu, or what? - things are rarely as easily categorized as one might wish, so I may have to look in two or three places before I find it. This is made just that much harder with all this extra scrolling around thrown in.

Point being, the same goes for Phoenix.)
Bill Phillips
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shoestring
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OBTW (OT)

Post by shoestring »

... I just found out how to restore win95-style start menus to win98. It's a simple registry hack. Should be as simple in Phoenix!
Bill Phillips
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pepp5
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Looking for answer still

Post by pepp5 »

Does anyone know anything about this? See original post.

1) Provide the place where I read that it was coming or is already there. I can't find it in newsgroups, mozillazine old forum, mozillazine new forum, phoenix pages, etc.

2) Tell me what the plan is for this in the future

3) Tell me it's already there in 0.4 and I have to do something I don't know about to enable it.
asa
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Re: Looking for answer still

Post by asa »

pepp5 wrote:Does anyone know anything about this? See original post.

1) Provide the place where I read that it was coming or is already there. I can't find it in newsgroups, mozillazine old forum, mozillazine new forum, phoenix pages, etc.

2) Tell me what the plan is for this in the future

3) Tell me it's already there in 0.4 and I have to do something I don't know about to enable it.


It doesn't exist in Phoenix. It's unlikely to exist in Phoenix. It was never planned to exist in Phoenix.
Perhaps someone will do a Phoenix extension for it. Organize your bookmarks into folders and you'll have a much easier time.

--Asa
"You'd PAY to know what you REALLY think." --Dobbs 1961
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alanjstr
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Re: Looking for answer still

Post by alanjstr »

asa wrote:
pepp5 wrote:Does anyone know anything about this? See original post.

1) Provide the place where I read that it was coming or is already there. I can't find it in newsgroups, mozillazine old forum, mozillazine new forum, phoenix pages, etc.

2) Tell me what the plan is for this in the future

3) Tell me it's already there in 0.4 and I have to do something I don't know about to enable it.


It doesn't exist in Phoenix. It's unlikely to exist in Phoenix. It was never planned to exist in Phoenix.
Perhaps someone will do a Phoenix extension for it. Organize your bookmarks into folders and you'll have a much easier time.

--Asa


Also, you can use the Find feature.
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shoestring
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Re: Looking for answer still

Post by shoestring »

alanjstr wrote:
asa wrote:It doesn't exist in Phoenix. It's unlikely to exist in Phoenix. It was never planned to exist in Phoenix.
Perhaps someone will do a Phoenix extension for it. Organize your bookmarks into folders and you'll have a much easier time.

--Asa


Also, you can use the Find feature.


Speaking of the Find feature:

It is abysmally slow for me (I do have a lot of bookmarks, but NS4 finds stuff about 100 times (guesstimate - could be 1000) faster). I think this is set up as an incremental search, which could explain some of the slowness. What can be done to make this faster? It's close to useless in its present state ...
Bill Phillips
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