[Users] Suggestion to remove "Mark all read" from message context menu

[Michael Gmelin]

On Sat, 11 Aug 2012 15:41:24 +0200
Colin Leroy <colin at colino.net> wrote:

> On 11 August 2012 at 13h02, Michael Gmelin wrote:
> 
> Hi, 
> 
> > I would suggest removing "Mark all read" from the "Mark" section of
> > the message list context menu or the following reasons:
> > 
> > - This is the only entry in the entire menu that doesn't work in the
> >   context of the selected message(s), but on the folder as a whole
> > - The option already exists in the folder tree context menu (where
> > it belongs in my opinion, since it works in the context of the
> > folder)
> > - It's right next to "Mark as read", which is a commonly used action
> >   without a default keyboard shortcut and it's really easy to select
> > it by accident
> 
> Don't forget about thousands of users who like this menu item there.

That's kind of a though-terminating argument though :)

> It may be easy to select by mistake, but it has its place in the main
> menu, 

I was talking about the context menu (right click on message list), not
the main menu - I don't think it's wrong to have it in there. I just
think that a context menu should always work on the selected item(s)
(general UI paradigm).

Personally, I don't have much need to mark all emails as read anyway
(not part of my work flow), if I had to I would probably use
CTRL-A to select all messages and then select the action I want to
apply (read/unread/mark/watch etc.).

> and also there's a confirmation asked when one chooses Mark all
> read, unless it has been dismissed with "Don't ask me again". 

That's useful.

It also might be useful to add an extra menu separator before the menu
entry, like:

Mark
Unmark
----------------
Mark as unread
Mark as read
----------------
Mark all read
----------------
...

> In that
> case, the confirmation dialog can be re-enabled using
> Configuration/Preferences/Summaries - "Confirm before marking all
> messages in folder as read".

For some reason I managed to get all my messages set as read, even
though the dialog was configured to be on - and I just tested it shows
up - probably my mistake.

Maybe it was the labelling of the buttons (No/Yes questions tend to be
dangerous) [ Mark all unread ] [ Cancel ] might be a more fool proof
alternative.

>  
> Short answer, I'm not in favor of removing it...

I'm not expecting to get it my way ;)

-- 
Michael Gmelin