Tablets, and popup menu auto-closing on mouse distance

Archive Usability
1

PROBLEM
When using a graphics tablet (particularly one without a built-in display), the popup menu close-when-mouse-leaves behaviour is in conflict with the tendency of the stylus to roam and wander.

Specifically, if you took the stylus away from the tablet, it is difficult to put it back in the exact same place. If you’ve developed the habit of sliding the stylus in from the side to home in on a target, that will work against you here.

This issue is most apparent when keyboard shortcuts require both hands or are just better positioned for the writing hand, or your other hand is occupied holding a drink or propping up your head.

 

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

  • Enlarge the region around the menu where the mouse is considered “in” (doesn’t really solve so much as defer the issue)
  • Ignore large instantaneous jumps of the mouse, but consider the jumped-to position as a starting point for seeing where the mouse is going. If it moves in the direction of the menu then keep it open.

 

2 Likes
2

Another possible solution:

  • Keep the context menu open until clicking somewhere else.

I don’t know what the convention is on Linux, but Windows itself doesn’t have a distance at which it closes the context menu, and I don’t know of any programs that do this, other than Blender. The convention is to close the menu when interacting with something else (i.e.: clicking somewhere else)

What purpose does the menu hide serve? I imagine this might be related to the industry-incompatible keymaps, such as the Blender default, in which case it might make sense to make it a toggle under Interface > Menus > Context Menus