What is the point of having all three items (Open, Open in a new tab, Open in a floating window) on

If you right click on the Library button, you get a menu with three options (I'm quoting the Help screen here to describe what each option does):

• Open: opens in a floating window.
• Open in a new tab: opens as a panel on the left side of the main window.
• Open in a floating window: opens in a floating window.

The first and third of these do the identical thing. Why have both of them, then?

Same goes for right-clicking a title in the library, however in this case, Open opens in a new tab. The fact that it behaves differently from the Open in the Library button case seems random. Why not do away with the redundancy by omitting "Open" altogether from both of these right-click menus, and thus make the behavior of the menu items crystal clear, not open to guesswork?

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Comments

MJ. Smith

good catch

Dave Hooton

• Open: opens in a floating window.
• Open in a new tab: opens as a panel on the left side of the main window.
• Open in a floating window: opens in a floating window.

The first and third of these do the identical thing. Why have both of them, then?

It's quite logical. The default is to "Open in a floater". If already open in a tab, Open does nothing, but the third option works. Now suppose the default was to "Open in a new tab"?

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/43321#Comment_43321

• Open: opens in a floating window.
• Open in a new tab: opens as a panel on the left side of the main window.
• Open in a floating window: opens in a floating window.

The first and third of these do the identical thing. Why have both of them, then?

It's quite logical. The default is to "Open in a floater". If already open in a tab, Open does nothing, but the third option works. Now suppose the default was to "Open in a new tab"?

The rule seems to be "if the library is already open and you're requesting to open it in the same format that it's already open in, do nothing. If you're requesting to open it in the other format from how it's already open, then close the existing one and reopen it in the other format." For that rule to be implemented, you still only need two menu items Open in a new tab, and Open in a floating window. They should ditch the default "Open" which is redundant, as it is the same as Open in a floating window. This is an arbitrary default. The default could just as well have been Open in a new tab. People should never have to guess what the "default" behavior of a menu item will be when there are two possibilities of what it could be. So I don't see why there is a need for an Open menu at all. Simply because people expect there to be an Open menu in Windows apps is not a sufficient reason. Logos 4 pushes aside standard Windows app menus anyway, so they wouldn't need to stick to that.