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I20070410-1043 - new workspace - close intro - on the workbench window toolbar, open context menu - There's an action "Toggle Toolbar Visibility": - action name should tell what it does, not Toggle XXX - no mnemonic - I fear I cannot really "toggle", since the toolbar (including its context menu) will disappear when I execute the action - run the action - toolbar disappears, no hint as to how I get it again - the Window menu has miraculously got a new entry "Show Toolbar" - run Window > Show Toolbar - Window > Show Toolbar disappears again - toolbar context menu now has an action "Hide Toolbar" => An action should not change its name => I find the "Hide me" context menu action dangerous, since it is not trivial to find out how to get the toolbar again. I would remove the context menu action. => The main menu action visibility should not depend on window state. Window > Show Toolbar should always be in the menu (as a checkbox menu item).
My two cents: I think the context menu action on the toolbar should be kept. Most apps with toolbars seem to have this, and it's the first place I look when I want to hide a toolbar. One technique that is used to solve the problem of showing the toolbar again is for the same context menu to also be available on the menu bar, and in the blank spaces to the right of the menu and tool bars. Firefox and Office apps do this, for example. Having "Hide Toolbar" also available in the window menu makes sense to me, for those who might not discover the context menu. That way "Show Toolbar" is always available in the same place as "Hide Toolbar". One other minor nit: in the context menu, "Hide Toolbars" and "Lock the Toolbars" have the same mnemonic character 'T'.
(In reply to comment #1) > [..] One technique that is used to solve the problem of > showing the toolbar again is for the same context menu to also be available on > the menu bar, [..] Sounds good to me. I guess that would require the menu bar be a toolbar as requested in bug 44649 and bug 56629.
The general dissatisfaction with the use of hide/show toolbar is already documented in bug 157984, which I've sent to the UI Guidelines bucket. Retitling and focusing this bug on the suggestion in comment 1.
This bug hasn't had any activity in quite some time. Maybe the problem got resolved, was a duplicate of something else, or became less pressing for some reason - or maybe it's still relevant but just hasn't been looked at yet. If you have further information on the current state of the bug, please add it. The information can be, for example, that the problem still occurs, that you still want the feature, that more information is needed, or that the bug is (for whatever reason) no longer relevant.
