Nelson Bolyard <nonelsons...@nobolyardspam.me> wrote:
On 2010-10-02 21:50 PDT, Leonidas Jones wrote:
Nelson Bolyard <nonelsons...@nobolyardspam.me> wrote:
Ever hear of these symptoms? Know of any cures?
SM2 (latest version as of about 2 months ago) on an Intel Mac Mini
running Leopard is behaving VERY STRANGELY. Left clicks on buttons,
menu items, and certain other UI features that ought to cause
actions, often cause a pop-up menu to be displayed, in addition to
whatever action they're supposed to take. If one is not careful to
move the mouse out of the menu before releasing it, one ends up
performing unintended actions, which may have very undesirable
consequences.
This is a brand new OS/X install on a clean disk with SM2 and almost
no extensions or plugins (quicktime, Adobe PDF reader). It has an
Apple two-button "mighty mouse", and the buttons were configured
properly (right mouse separate from left mouse, buttons not
reversed)
recently. She's being careful to left-click.
Any ideas gratefully received.
The problem is due to "slow clicks". With OS/X, if you take longer
than
about 1/2 second between pressing down and letting up the mouse
button,
you get this behavior where the left click actually behaves like a
right
click.
It's a difference between OS/X and all older versions of OS (e.g.
OS/9,
OS/7). No programs on older MacOS have this problem. On older MacOS,
you
can hold down the mouse for a large part of a second, or more, and as
long
as you don't move the mouse before you let it up, it's just a click.
I never do these "slow clicks", but my aged relative, who's been using
OS/9 for most of the last decade, has been doing this all that time
and
thinks this is normal click behavior. Very difficult to unlearn after
all
that time. If I try to do slow clicks, then I see the same behavior
she
does.
Is this only happening in SeaMonkey?
It affects the dock and most Apple programs, but not any Microsoft
programs for Mac. Doesn't affect word or Excel, etc. Definitely
affects
SM.
I wish I could get SM to act like the MS programs, and not treat slow
clicks like right clicks.
I'm also getting questions like "all my correspondents use Mac Mail,
so
why should I use SeaMonkey?" An answer like "because SeaMonkey
doesn't
have fits with slow clicks" would be just the ticket.
Any ideas how to achieve that?
This is not a SeaMonkey issue, but rather an issue with OSX. If my
answer does not solve your issue, I suggest that you seek out a Mac
group to troubleshoot it further.
The behavior you describe as "slow click" is actually "click and hold".
It is one of two ways of invoking the context menu with a traditional
Apple one button mouse. The other is control+click, holding the control
key down while clicking the mouse button, which is the more common way.
Control+click is more common because it always works. Click and hold
has a limitation. If you click and hold on an item that could be moved,
the OS assumes you are using click and drag, in order to move the item.
When you release the button, it will respond as a normal click. That is
the response your relative is seeing. Even with a two button mouse,
(actually the mighty mouse is a three button with the scroll ball acting
as a third button or for scrolling), the OS will still react to the
click and hold.
On OS9 there was little point in click and hold. There was no dock,
applications were opened from the Applications folder, or via aliases on
the desktop, using a double click to open. A slow single click would
activate click and drag, but once the button is released, it would react
as a regular single click. The "slow click" was never intended as
normal click behavior.
I am guessing that your relative's problem relates to clicking on Dock
icons, which are designed to open with a single (left) click. Click and
hold does open the context menu. A quicker single click is required. By
the way, MS product Dock icons behave just like all others in that
respect.
I know of no way to disable click and hold. There may well be a
Terminal command that would do that, but I don't know it, it had never
occurred to me to want to disable it.
I suggest two courses. First, and preferred, would be to see if she can
adapt to a faster left click. That is actually the normal click behavior
in all Mac OS's, Classic and OSX.
If that is just not possible, open System Preferences and disable the
Dock. Then create aliases for her favorite programs on the desktop.
This should then behave exactly as OS9 did, and solve her problem.
I do work with older computer users, and I find they can more adaptable
hen you might think.
Lee
