right clicking activate context menu entry

[Jonathan Ernst]

Steps to reproduce :

1) Right click in any application that shows a context menu (Firefox, Nautilus)
2) The context menu is shown
3) Right click on a menu item

Expected results :

Nothing happens

Actual result :

The entry is activated like if I left clicked on it

Additional problems :
The problem also arises when you release the mouse button, so if you right click on your desktop and let the button release after having moved a some pixel in the direction of the first entry, you have juste created a new folder or went to a file propertie
Right clicking on the

[Dan Trevino (dantrevino)]

 Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[LumpyCustard (orangelumpycustard)]

I agree, the menu option should be activated on left click only. It would be good to see if this has been raised upstream...

[Przemek K. (azrael)]

This looks like a job for supe^H^H^H^Hpapercutters!

[Dylan McCall (dylanmccall)]

Big or small, this is not a bug; it is entirely a fact of GNOME's design, quite possibly backed by usability research. It is mirrored by similar behaviour across the Gnome desktop environment and supported applications. Note, for example, that you can operate a menu in a single click by clicking, scrubbing across the menu and releasing the mouse button. You can open a menu in a GTK menu bar using any mouse button.

The specific behaviour you mention (right clicking menu items to activate them) is also the case in most operating systems I have personally used, including Windows and MacOS. The unusual, unexpected behaviour would be to limit interaction to left clicks.

If you consider this a usability issue, please feel free to discuss it upstream: http://mail.gnome.org/

This type of design debate is very complex and does not make a good papercut. Even when the technical implementation appears straight-forward, the implications for usability need to be researched extensively. It is not a simple task. Simple is "password field uses stars instead of dots," for example ;)
Please see this page for an up to date definition: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PaperCut

Thank you!

[Przemek K. (azrael)]

Just as Dylan said, this is a big design change, not a small bug so it can't be addressed by Ubuntu.
Please discuss it with the Gnome devs on ther mailing lists.