Maximised window title should be shown in the panel

[Mark Shuttleworth]

When a window is maximised under Unity, the window title should be displayed in the panel. When the mouse is over the panel, this should be replaced with the menu.

[Vish (vish)]

Bug #640585 is more specific about the keyboard access behavior of the menu. While this bug seems more regarding the mouse behavior.

[David Prieto (frandavid100-gmail)]

Since both the window title and the menu are displayed on the panel... how about ellipsizing long titles to make room for the menus, but show the whole title if you hover the mouse over it?

[zp (zekopeko-deactivatedaccount)]

I have a suggestion that might help improve how this is presented.

A little ASCII diagram of the panel when the window is maximized:

CoF | X _ + File Edit Vie | Window Title | Indicators

CoF | - circle of friends button with the separator

X _ + - window controls

File Edit Vie | - applications menu. Note the " Vie | " part. It's the menu item named View but it was cut with the | which isn't a separator here (at least not like the one right of CoF). It is a fade effect (similar to the one that is/was above the Trash icon when you have lots of icons in the launcher) that nicely cuts the rest of the menu after which the Window Title follows.

Window Title - the windows title but in bold as is now.

| Indicators - separator like the one right of CoF (so a vertical line) followed by the indicators

My suggestion would improve discoverability of the menus while retaining plenty of the Window Title. This would help with people wondering where the menus went.

This could tie into accessibility via keyboard shortcuts. I liked the keyboard shortcuts on the launcher in Unity 10.10/2.x and I think that this should be expanded on the entire launcher + panel interface. Similar how Office 2007+ displays them (http://officeimg.vo.msecnd.net/en-us/files/029/222/ZA010167826.gif). When the user presses the Windows (or Alt) key they get an overlay that has every item mapped to a key. So pressing [0-9] keys interacts with the launcher. Pressing F (or what ever is assigned to it by the app) selects the File menu item etc.
When the user presses Win/Alt key another thing should happen. The fade effect should consume the Window Title and show the entire menu options with the corresponding keyboard shortcuts.

[zp (zekopeko-deactivatedaccount)]

Rough mockup of what I had in mind.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

@zekopeko

Nice mockup! But centering the title creates all sorts of complications
when it gets modified. And the fade makes it harder to know where to
click to drag the "window" away from the "panel". So cool work, but
we'll stick to the current plan.

[zp (zekopeko-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks! Since there is no public spec for Unity (AFAIK) I'm stabbing
in the dark here. I guess that you are going to left-align the window
title (is the name of the app going to be between the window controls
and the menu, similar to OSX?). Will the menu only show when you
mouse over the panel or will it fade in/out as a function of pointer
proximity? I'm also confused about the drag to unmaximize since once
you are over the panel you have the menu so what exactly would one
drag?

Any merit in my other suggestion for keyboard shortcuts overlay ala MS
Office 2007/2010? Should I open another bug/feature-suggestion for it?

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Mark Shuttleworth
<email address hidden> wrote:
> @zekopeko
>
> Nice mockup! But centering the title creates all sorts of complications
> when it gets modified. And the fade makes it harder to know where to
> click to drag the "window" away from the "panel". So cool work, but
> we'll stick to the current plan.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/657449
>
> Title:
>  Maximised window title should be shown in the panel
>

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

@zekopeko, the behaviour in the current Natty version of Unity is what
was designed. We expect to polish and refine the transitions involved,
and many apps need work in order to fully use the system, but broadly
speaking the placement of the various pieces is now correct.