So this is a rather specific question I feel. I want to be able to pre-load the Firefox context menu. I'd like this to happen each time a new tab and/or window is opened. I want the menu and all its associated items to be rendered upon such a request, but I don't want the menu to open as well.
And just to preface, I have e-mailed the developers of OneTab about this, no reply.
(This next section's a bit rambly, but it does explain how I came to the above question).
To contextualise why I'd like to do this: I use an addon called OneTab. It's an awesome addon (and this isn't a plug, just what I think). It can transfer some/all of your current tabs in Firefox into a singular tab for reviewing etc later. So each time you send a bunch of tabs into OneTab, it creates a new group for them. You can name these groups too which I like to do. Helps stay organised. I habitually create a lot of tabs when I'm browsing. So I've also got a lot of tab groups. Now another feature is OneTab's context menu. This is pretty much the method by which you send tabs to OneTab. Now once you've created tab groups, you can then send future tabs to those groups, via the context menu.
Rendering all those options each time the menu is opened on a new tab, takes about 3 seconds for me at the moment. It also stops me interacting with any part of Firefox for that time. Here's an example of the (current) menu structure. Example of OneTab menu structure. At the top right of the menu structure, where it says "Surge protection", there are 4 sub-menu headings. This is the case for all the other tab groups. So that's a lot of entries to render at once. I'm not surprised it takes a while.
One other thing: after I've loaded the context menu once (on the particular tab I'm on), it's just there. The next time I right-click it loads instantly, which is what I want to happen in the first place!!
So this is why I'm asking if it's possible to change the behaviour of the context menu from the Firefox source code. So that all the items are pre-rendered each time a new tab/window is created, but the menu is still opened normally via a right-click. And I think I'd like to utilise Workers for this. Because I know that Workers are background. They don't prevent user interaction. And that's exactly what happens currently, for 3 seconds. And if there's a way of doing this via an addon then so much the better. Whatever works!
Does this all make sense somewhat? I'm sorry if I've broken any formatting rules or something by posting such a long and wordy question! Just thought I might as well be detailed.
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While it's simple to pin/block a link-screenshot in the new beautiful tab page in firefox I see no way to edit the list of blocked/pinned items, does anybody know how to do it?
E.G. I blocked a page but now I woukld like to unlock, how to do it?
Thanks.
This is for FF17 on Windows, Mac/Linux users cf below
To unlock a blocked page quit Firefox, download sqlitebrowser at sourceforge.net (~6MB as of now, Windows only), use it to open chromeappsstore.sqlite in your "Profiles" directory. On Win Vista that's eg:
[DRIVENAME]:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\
Firefox\Profiles\[ALPHANUMERICSTRING].default\chromeappsstore.sqlite
Switch to the "browse data" tab, open the edit view of the value corresponding to the "pinned links" key (double click on it). Replace one entry (eg a null) with
{"url":"YOUR_URL","title":"YOUR_TITLE"}
apply changes, save changes.
There's a key "blocked links", too. Intuitively, deleting blocked urls from its value should help, but it didn't when I tried. The trick above is clumsy, but so far I couldn't google anything more elegant. I couldn't find anything useful searching Firefox' about:config tab, either. I found this solution when doing a string search for the blocked url in my profiles directory.
Mac/Linux users should find other sqlite browsers. When using the firefox addon SQLite Manager you would need to make a copy of the database file first and edit that. Afterwards quit Firefox and replace the old file with the new one.
Here's the bugzilla entry ("Bug 722234 - [New Tab Page] provide an option to undo remove a site "), status is assigned, not solved. On comment reads: "Currently, there is now way to undo removal of a site or resetting the page using the new layout."
There's an easier way to do it without downloading, especially for people who may not navigate computers very well. Mozilla does have a way to do it, they just label it poorly and it's a bit roundabout.
Make the page you blocked on your new tabs page a Favorite, then click and drag to an empty space on your new tab page and it will autopin. The one downside is that if you unpin it the site will disappear again. I was frustrated for weeks after I removed Google and there doesn't seem to be much help out there that's simple.
"Make the page you blocked on your new tabs page a Favorite"
What does that mean? Bookmark?
I clicked the PIN icon on a couple and instead of pinning it, it seemed to completely remove that page from the New Tab selections altogether...and indeed, I see no way to get it back. Why would pinning something take it away!? And they were pages I use many times every day; very disappointed.
And those that I clicked ARE in my bookmarks ('Favorites' is an IE term), but they have not reappeared as suggested above.
The sqlitebrowser approach above is too complex and I can see it going awry trying to get all that right. Sad day here for me.
In Xcode 4 (4.2), is there a way to keep the Project Navigator view open and Debug Navigator view open as well. Must a user have one or the other, but not both? And the other navigators?
Apple seems to have decided that if you want to see the debug view, you don't want to see the files in your project. WTH? Am I getting this wrong? Did Apple Xcode UI guys even talk to developers before designing the UI for Xcode 4?
Sigh...
You can indeed have more navigators open at once, if you are prepared to have multiple windows open. I know it's not exactly what you're asking for, but for multiple display setups it's very handy. Xcode provides "behaviors" to help automate this process if you only want certain things showing at certain times.
For example, a common pattern that developers follow is to setup a behavior for "Run starts" that opens up a new window setup for debugging. Start by creating a new tab in your main Xcode window by pressing command-T, and double-click on the tab's title to rename is "Debug", or whatever you like. Then drag that window out (or leave it as a tab if you like), and customise the view as required - for example, for a deb window you might have the Debug area showing at the bottom (or even covering the whole editor view), and remove the toolbar at the top by right clicking and selecting "Hide Toolbar".
Next, go to "Xcode > Behaviors > Edit Behaviors..." and choose "Run starts" in the left panel. Check the box for "Show tab" and enter the name of your newly created tab. You can also ask that tab to automatically show the Debug Navigator, and show the debugger with variables and/or console view. If you like, you can then choose "Run completes" and show the original "tab" (window), which I've setup to be called "Coding", and show the required navigator (in my case, Project Navigator).
On successfully running, Xcode will now open up your new window (or bring it to the front if it's already open) with all the settings you left it with. On stopping, your main editor will be brought back to the front.
There are loads of useful behaviors, so I would really recommend looking through them and taking the time to setup Xcode to suit your style as best as possible. All software dictates to the user how to go about doing things, and the developers can never please everybody when they decide to change the UI. The best anybody can hope to achieve is to customise the interface as best as they can to fit their style of working. If it's still an issue for you, you can either adapt to it, or, if possible, move to something else.
I'm not a fan of every new interface feature in Xcode, but I've "made it mine" with some customisations and I can still be very productive. That being said there are a lot of things that I do really like about it, and for that I can forgive it for some of the less friendly features - after all, you can't please every user.
Xcode finally added tabs but the problem is that they behave very strange. For example they will keep a tab open only if it was opened to a new tab.
If you open a file just by clicking in the project tree, Xcode will close your tab as soon as you are clicking on another file in the tree.
Is is possible to make them behave like real tabs and prevent Xcode from reusing them? How?
I use a method similar to franks:
In Preferences > Navigation (or Preferences > General in versions of Xcode prior to 5) you can set Optional Navigation to Uses Separate Tab
Now opt-clicking a file in the file navigator will open it in a new tab
Better yet, opt-clicking links in the code opens the destination file in a new tab
The big feature missing is swapping to an already open tab containing the file if there is one (or staying in the current one).
UPDATE for 2020:
Finally, almost 10 years later, Xcode 12.x now appears to mostly resolve the issue described here. There is a new Navigation Style option in the Navigation settings panel that controls this behavior.
The behavior has some new quirks/design-choices that seem to make sense, but I'm still getting used to the new experience. For example, a tab will get re-used unless the file in that tab has been edited recently; such a tab is indicated with an italics title.
PREVIOUS ANSWER
I don't think you can currently get the behavior you desire (or I desire). While the tabs work like Safari, they don't work like tabs in other popular IDEs (Visual Studio or Eclipse). And for me this kind of sucks.
In general, I expect IDE tabs to keep more than 1 file open. So if I click a file in the project tree, I expect that it will switch to the tab I have opened with that file - if I have already opened it. Instead, XCode 4 changes the current tab to the file I clicked - making 2 tabs with the same file. Having 2 tabs with the same file is fairly useless.
This forces the user to scan the tab bar first to see if the file is currently opened; if it's not opened then you can look to the project tree. But if you click in the project tree first (which is what I tend to do) then you get punished because you will have just killed a tab.
This isn't really an answer insofar as it contains a solution; I mostly just want to join in the griping. But upvoting will make you feel better and prove Apple wrong. :)
The problem with Xcode 4's implementation of tabs is that Apple has implemented them as workspace tabs. In other words, creating a new tab essentially creates a new workspace, each with its own sub-panes with their configurations, etc. It's essentially a whole environment in each tab. There are a number of problems with this choice.
This differs from most IDE/text editors' implementation of file tabs wherein a tab (generally) represents a single file, and each file has its own tab.
The problem with workspace tabs is there are only so many potential different workspaces we could benefit from, severely limiting the actual use of tabs in this way. Beyond this, the additional workspaces just become a liability, introducing more things the user of the application needs to concern him/herself with: for example, what the navigator view is, what editor mode is active (standard, assistant, version), whether the debug console is open, etc. etc. Suddenly switching to a new tab means you now have to worry about getting the environment back in the form you need it, because there's a good chance the other tab wasn't left in the state you expect to find it in. This actually discourages the use of tabs because it introduces more work in the workflow.
File tabs don't have this problem (not counting special cases like split view panes) because all that's changing is the file you're looking at, not your whole environment. Moreover, if implemented properly, file tabs work great as an immediate history, allowing one to quickly switch back to a file that was worked in recently, with little effort. The only way to do this in Xcode is to explicitly set up a new tab environment for each file you want to work with, but you have to be careful not to change the file in that tab or your file all of a sudden becomes lost: again, more work for the user.
Workspace tabs are also significantly heavier-weight than file tabs, because there is much more to remember and switching workspaces involves much more than switching files.
The truth is (and I think most will agree with me on this), to a developer, file tabs are much more useful than workspace tabs, and as it stands Xcode still lacks a proper implementation of this feature that many would consider basic required functionality in an IDE/editor.
Xcode->Preferences->General->Double Click Navigation and from the list, choose Uses Separate Tab.
Well, not a real answer but my personal workaround. The real problem for me is, that a file opened in a tab goes away so easily in xcode 4. Finding a file again can be time-consuming, so I like them to be in a tab and stay there.
I solved this (somehow) for me by exactly identifying the actions I do which cause the tab to switch to another file and replace them by their equivalent actions which open a new tab instead.
Instead of single-clicking a file in the navigator, I always double-click which I have set to open a new tab
Most time I do not use the navigator, as it has a different state of opened and closed folders in each tab. Not useful for me. So I switched to using Option ⌥ Command ⌘ O. When opening a file from this list I keep ShiftOption ⌥ pressed. In the small window appearing I choose 'new tab'.
When clicking on links in code I press ShiftOption ⌥ Command ⌘, too, and open in new tab.
I keep two fixed tabs around for editing target-related settings and to view build results. I completely disabled all automatic tab switching in the prefs, because I noticed this distracted me to much.
I would really love to get something like the xcode 3 favorites bar in xcode 4, this was so simple to use..
I imagine my answer won't bubble up for a while, but if you want this to work like visual studio or intellij (or at least closer)
Preferences->General->Double Click Navigation->Uses a separate tab
Double Clicking a file now will stop opening it in a new window and open it in a new tab.
Single is still dumb and takes over your tab. But if you get used to double clicking (which I was already) this will save you some headaches. I suppose.
I absolutely hate how tabs work in Xcode. However, the only workaround i found that works decent is using the OSX tabs shortcuts:
CTRL + CMD + ->
CTRL + CMD + <-
I found my way in Preferences-Behaviors!
I hated Xcode 4 first for the tab issues discussed here, mainly because the debug information kept opening new files in tabs and changing the navigator
in Behaviors you can define a Debug tab and make the Run and Build jump there in various ways. in the Debug tab I give more space to navigators left and bottom
for similar reasons I have a Find tab, too
the other tabs are for files I am writing in. I start them with the .h which is usually small enough so I need only one view, and then with single clicks in the navegator I open 2-3 versions of the .cpp file so I can set them to the locations where the recent hot spots in the file are. then I close the navigators in those tabs
this does not invalidate the care and tricks given in the other answers here, but makes them far less hard
happy coding!
I found out that when pressing option a.k.a. alt when opening files in the navigator, you will jump to the tab already open with the file and a new tab will open in case it was not yet open.
This technique also works when opening files via cmdshift-O and opening the suggestion with option-enter in stead of simply enter...
Now, if there would be some way to make this the default, i.e. the need to keep pressing option all the time would be removed, that would be a big step forward.
Also I use Behaviors to keep my tabs from being recycled after test or build failures.
(Like other people, I totally mislike Xcode's tab behavior. Apple should take a look at IntelliJ...)
xcode tab bar is so suck, I think Apple should enhance the feature of the tab navigation to avoid followed 3 points.
1. double click a file will let xcode open another tab if it has already been there.
2. for more tabs, the tab will become small and thus I don't know which file in which tab, I want the tab show full name
3. for even more tabs, new tabs will be hidden, instead of two lines of tabs. I want to it show two lines of tab bars.
If you have the tab bar enabled (View/Show Tab Bar) and you double click a file, it appears in it's own window, with a single tab (Be sure the Tab Bar is enabled in both the new and old (main) windows).
Now all you have to do is drag that new window from its tab and drop it into the tab bar of your main window.
It will stay docked as a separate tab, showing that file.
To change the file open in that new tab, go Project / Reveal in Project Navigator, which opens the project navigator at the left hand side.
Tabs in Xcode 4 work like tabs elsewhere on Mac OS X, for example in Safari and Terminal.
I'd like to know if it ever makes sense to provide some functionality in a piece of software that is only available to the user through a context (right click) menu. It seems that in most software I've worked with the right click menu is always used as a quick way to get to features that are otherwise available from other buttons or menus.
Below is a screen shot of the UI I'm developing. The tree view on the right shows the user's library of catalogs. Users can create new catalogs, or add and remove existing catalogs to and from their library. Catalogs in their library can then be opened or closed, or set to read-only.
The screen shot shows the context menu I've created for the browser. Some commands can be executed independently from any specific catalog (New, Add). Yet the other commands must be applied to a specifically selected catalog (Close, Open, Remove, ReadOnly, Refresh, Clean UP, Rename).
Currently the "Catalog" menu at the top of the window looks identical to this context menu. Yet I think this may be confusing to the users as the tree view which shows the currently selected catalog may not always be visible. The user may have switched to the Search or Filters tab, or the left pane may be hidden entirely.
However, I'm hesitant to change the UI so that the commands that depends on a specifically selected catalog are only available through the context menu.
The Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines for Windows 7 and Windows Vista states (pg233):
“Don’t make commands only available through context menus. Like shortcut keys, context menus are alternative means of performing commands and choosing options.”
The Apple Human Interface Guidelines states (pg189):
“Always ensure that contextual menu items are also available as [pulldown] menu commands. A contextual menu is hidden by default and a user might not know it exists, so it should never be the only way to access a command.”
In your case, opening and closing the catalogue appears already available through the +/- buttons in the tree itself, so you’re already consistent with the Windows guidelines, if not the Apple guidelines. IMO, the only reason to put them on the context menu at all is if they're the default (double-click) action (which they're not right now). Rename may also already be available by directly selecting the name of a selected catalog, but you may want a pulldown menu item for that any way since that may be no more discoverable than the context menu. The rest of the commands probably belong on a pulldown menu in addition to the context menu.
As far as the Catalog pulldown menu being redundant with the Catalog context menu, you may want to consider organizing your pulldown menus by type of action, rather than class of object, in order to provide an alternative organization. As you’ve realized, context menus already organize commands by class of object. In addition to providing an alternative organization that some of you users may find more intuitive, this may simplify your menubar. For example, rather than a Catalog and Family menus, you can have a single Edit menu with Add, Delete, Rename, Copy, etc. where these commands apply to whatever is selected, whether it be a catalog, folder, or family. If they don't apply to the current selection, they're disabled, but if it makes any sense in your app, make them apply.
BTW, what’s the difference between Add Catalog and New Catalog?
In general, it's a bad idea to have menu items accessible only through a contextual menu. Many users may not think to right click on an item to find out what actions can be performed on an item.
From your description, it sounds like it would make sense to have a 'Catalog' menu that disables menu options that are not currently relevant. For example, if no catalog is open, the 'Close' menu item would be greyed out. Similarly, the 'Open', 'Remove', 'Refresh', etc. items would be greyed out if no catalog is selected.
I suppose this depends on your user base, and who you're targetting your software at. Personally I wouldn't expect the user to be able to deduce what functionality is available when it is essentially "hidden" until they right-click on the correct item.
If it were me, I'd have a toolbar shown with the functionality exposed on there. By default the buttons would be disabled, and clicking on a node would enable the appropriate buttons based on the context. You could have this in addition to your current right-click options.
As a rule, I've always treated right-click menus as a redundant (i.e not necessary for operation of the software) shortcut to functionality for "power users".
I would leave the menu item out because the user doesn't have a way to see what catalog they are modifying if the treeview is hidden which can create problems if they think a different one is being shown.
Though, the accessible solution would be to trigger it with the keyboard also.
Yes. One key feature of UI is "discoverability": can the user find the function?
If you think that having a top-level menu doesn't make sense, based on the context, then you could have a menu button (scroll down) labelled (e.g.) "Actions" at the top of the pane.
My application is context-sensisitve and I dynamically build menus for the main window / context/popup, and other places. I typically know if a given menu command will be valid given the current state of the application. Is it better practice to DISABLE/GREY the menu options which currently do not apply OR since I'm generating the menu anyway, OMIT them entirely?
The application is a Java/Swing is anyone is curious. The question seems GUI toolkit agnostic but may be platform dependent.
The old apple guidelines say to Disable for fixed menus (in the menu bar), and omit for context menus.
I guess the motivation is that a context menu is supposed to only show options that are available to the particular context, and the main menus are supposed to show all commands, so the user knows where "Save" would be even if it's not selectable at the moment.
For right-click menus, I'd say that if the item is applicable to what was right-clicked but is for some other outside reason unavailable, disable it. If it is not applicable to the right-clicked thing then hide it as there's no chance of it ever showing up. Case in point:
When I right-click on the background area of this page in Firefox the first four items are Back, Forward, Reload, and Stop. Forward and Stop are disabled because they aren't valid actions right now (I have no forward history and the page is not loading anymore). These four guys are very consistently offered, they are expected, global, often-used commands. They are the four main "navigation" controls and by default they have toolbar counterparts (in the form of big dedicated buttons).
However, if I right-click on an image, I get completely different options in the context-menu all related to viewing, saving, and copying the image under where I clicked. These options don't appear at all (not even disabled) under normal use because they are very specific to what I right-clicked on. When right-clicking on the background area, Stop and Forward, while currently not valid actions, are still applicable to what I clicked on (the page) but they are unavailable for other reasons...
Like the rule for menus on the top menu bar, the goal is not to surprise users with commands suddenly appearing for, from the user's point of view, inexplicable reasons.