Blender menu goes against common sense and standards

Archive User Feedback
21

My biggest complaint while adopting Blender over the last year has been the file browser. Why is Blender the only one that has to have its’ own? Something to do with Linux or something? Oh how I wish Blender would be able to use the Windows file browser.

22
  • Remove the “App” (icon) menu, all help/about in the “Help” menu
  • Rename the “Help” menu to more generic “About”, if you want
  • Reduce amount of links to blender.org, there are too many links to the same site
  • Add “Developer” submenu for all dev. items
  • Or there might even be a top-level “Developer” menu when Developer Extras is enabled

It will be one compact “Help” / “About” menu, no need to separate it.
No duplicated Blender icon on the Windows OS.

23

In which case, Blender is forcing the Mac platform paradigm onto Windows users – but, not doing it well.

Now I, personally, use both platforms, and can easily adapt. Both have their advantages and disadvantages for someone like me who hops back and forth, a lot, between the two platforms.

You are right: on the Mac, Preferences and Quit are in the App menu (displaying the name of the application, not the icon) which sits between the System and File menus. This works great for the Mac interface model because the Mac only supports ONE menu – i.e., the application menu of the active window.

The blender icon is “kind of like” the app menu. But, it really isn’t – because it doesn’t really look like the Mac version – and it isn’t like the Window version.

To really reach ALL user types and be consistent with the platform on which they do most of their work, then the real solution is to have a menu bar that represents the platform on which it is running.

Then, the user can say Blender works more closely with the other apps in their pipeline That’s not an easy solution, I understand. But, it is the most user friendly.

Otherwise, by trying to join the two platform paradigms into a common model, you will alienate one, or the other, or both types of user.

3 Likes
24

Not that long ago Firefox had a big orange Firefox button containing everything I’d usually need to help someone with an issue over the phone without being able to see their screen. It was great. I miss it so much.