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How to get rid of the new open/close menu system?

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Scot

Scot
Scot
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The new thunderbird has adopted the open/close menu system that so many apps and sites are using. Not sure why because this kind of system only serves to take more time away from being productive as I have to to back and forth and back and forth to find what I'm looking for. It's quite annoying.

How do I disable this open/close style menu and go back to being more efficient?

Better yet, since the animation is nice, at least put the original top level tree items on the left side of the secondary slider menus so it's easy to look around without having to open/close a bunch of different slider panes.

I don't get why new features often force the user to spend more time doing something than it took before.

The new thunderbird has adopted the open/close menu system that so many apps and sites are using. Not sure why because this kind of system only serves to take more time away from being productive as I have to to back and forth and back and forth to find what I'm looking for. It's quite annoying. How do I disable this open/close style menu and go back to being more efficient? Better yet, since the animation is nice, at least put the original top level tree items on the left side of the secondary slider menus so it's easy to look around without having to open/close a bunch of different slider panes. I don't get why new features often force the user to spend more time doing something than it took before.

All Replies (4)

Matt
Matt
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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I really have no idea what you are trying to describe, but I assume it is the new app menu. That is not going to change. You could enable the top menu bar. right click on the line with get messages etc and select menu bar. Back to the menu system still used for Linux and Mac and for those of us that turned it back on when it was turned off by default.

Scot
Scot Question owner
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Why on earth would developers change something as simple as the menu so that it takes literally twice as much time to browse around and find the option I'm looking for?

Left-right sliding menu systems that cover up the original options are going to go down as one of the worst UI decisions in the history of UI.

Thanks for the tip on the top bar menu, at least that hasn't been ruined.

Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Definately talking about the new App Menu. It is a real pain and so cumbersome. When someone needs images of what process to use, it cannot be done with just one screendump. I really do not know why Thunderbird has this urgent desire to mimic Firefox. You hardly use that Menu icon in Firefox so do not really notice how awkward it is. But in Thunderbird you could be using quite a lot and after a while you fed up with all that toing and froing - aweful design. So I concur with your feelings on this.

Best to use the Menu Bar toolbar as Matt advises. You could try to vote to get an alternative option back. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1599844

Scot
Scot Question owner
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It's not just firefox, the silly sliding menu panel idea has been showing up in UI's all over the place, and every time all it does is serve to use more time to get the same things done. Hopefully this fad will fade away eventually.