User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030325 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030325 Accel+W is the standatd shortcut for closing windows on MacOS and BeOS. This shortcut is also becoming more common on Windows as a replacement for the awkwardly placed Alt+F4 (see Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer). In bug 133585 ("accel-W should close the chatzilla window"), Robert Ginda mentioned that Ctrl-W is "backward delete word" on UNIX, so this shouldn't be implemented under UNIX for windows with editing fields. A few notes: 1. This bug is *not* a dupe of the above bug, what I'm asking here is a universal keyboard shortcut for closing any window, not just Chatzilla's. 2. This bug is *not* invalid, for two reasons: 2a. It is needed. The current Windows shortcut (Alt+4) sucks (having to lift your elbow just to close a window is crazy) 2b. Accel+W doesn't collide with any other standrad shortcut. 3b. Having two shortcuts that do the same thing is common in Mozilla. Typical examples: Switch tabs (Accel+Shift+Tab/Accel+Tab and Accel+PageUp/Accel+PageDown); Go to the address-bar (Alt+D and Accel+l); Find Next in Find-as-you-type (F3/Shift+F3 and Accel+G/Shift+Accel+G). in most of these cases, I actually use both options, depending on whether my right hand is on the mouse or on the keyboard. Offering an additional shortcut would not be accessive, it would be useful. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Open the Download Manager (many other windows from the Tools menu also display this problem under Windows) 2. Press Accel+W Actual Results: Nothing happens. Expected Results: The window should close. The problem is most evident under Windows. Under the OS X version of Mozilla, some of these windows are rendered as simple dialogs or as sheets (without a close-window widget). In these cases, Esc works instead of Command+W. For windows don't have that widget, using Esc is also reasonable. Prog.

That was meant to be "three reasons" and "2c" instead of "3b", oh well... Prog.

Other related bugs: Bug 61011, Bug 129097, Bug 137325. Do not know wheter these bugs block this or the other way around.

This bug probably needs a new title. Reason being, a tabbed browser window has a close window widget, but accel-w doesn't (and shouldn't) close the whole entire window. Another thing to consider is that accel-w (generally) dismisses a screen worth of information, whereas alt-F4 dismisses an entire window's worth. In chatzilla's case, therefore (if it was to close anything) it might be better to close the current tab. Also, setting shortcuts that are peculiar to mozilla and don't follow the expected behaviour of the operating system generally lead to holy wars - look at bug 52821, for instance. Finally, using 1.3 on windows 2000, accel-w does close the download manager.

> This bug probably needs a new title. > Reason being, a tabbed browser window has a close window widget, > but accel-w doesn't (and shouldn't) close the whole entire window. I disagree. This is not a close-window widget, it's a close-tab widget. If you have any doubts, simply compare their location and shape. The two widgets are completely different on BeOS (orange square vs. |X|) and MacOS (red drop vs. |X|), while on Windows, the shape is indeed similar, but the location is different (a close-window widget is always placed on the top-right corner of the window) > Another thing to consider is that accel-w (generally) dismisses a screen worth > of information, whereas alt-F4 dismisses an entire window's worth. In > chatzilla's case, therefore (if it was to close anything) it might be better > to close the current tab. That's right, if any of the affected windows also displays information in child windows, Accel+W should close the child window like we do with tabs. > Finally, using 1.3 on windows 2000, accel-w does close the download manager. I also tried 1.3 on Win2k (SP3) but here the Download Manager doesn't close when I press Ctrl+w. The same goes for the following windows: * Form Manager * Cookie Manager * Image Manager * Manage popup permissions window * Password Manager * Javascript Debugger * Switch Profiles window * File bookmark For some reason, Accel+W *is* implemented for several other windows (for instance, the Bookmark Manager and the History view). I don't get this, where is the big difference? all of these windows have a close-window widget. Oddly enough, many of these examples can be closed by pressing Esc, but since they don't look like dialogs, no-one will try that. Prog.

Lewis Jardine, Come to think about it, I do agree with your comment about the title. So, Accel+W should close any window that has a close-window widget, unless it has more than one tab open ...in which case, Accel+W should close the active tab. Prog.

For what it's worth, here's the bahaviour of mozilla 1.5b (2003082704/windows XP) when accel-w is pressed. The behaviour is the same, whether classic or modern theme is used. <pre> Download Manager closes Form Manager doesn't Cookie Manager doesn't Image Manager doesn't Popup Permissions Window doesn't Password Manager doesn't Javascript Debugger internal error :) Switch Profiles Window doesn't File Bookmark doesn't Bookmark Manager closes History closes Preferences window doesn't </pre>

err. 'no'. Dialogs are dialogs. Windows are windows. Most managers are dialogs even though they should be replaced by windows. What you see is mostly correct. dialogs can be closed w/ cmd-. / escape.

In reply to bug 137325, comment 12: Timeless, even Microsoft's own software isn't consistent in regards to Ctrl+W. In Explorer this keybinding *closes* the window, but in Management Console it *opens* one. Go figure. IMHO, expecting users to guess when to use Esc and when to use Accel+W is unreasonable. Wouldn't you consider a single, well laid out keybinding for closing windows to be a step ahead of Microsoft's clumsy Alt+F4? Prog.

no. part of the reason for alt-f4 is that it should require effort. if a window has nothing of value then escape should work. if it has value then you should have to consciously choose to close it. (don't worry, i get bugmail)

In windows, isn't ESC a shortcut for 'press the cancel button'? I would be surprised by a window that closed when I pressed escape, if it didn't have a cancel button. AFAIK (and it has been a while since I used one), accel-w means 'close this window', a window being defined as a single document (as per the mac's 'documents are windows, applications live in the menu bar' philosophy). Accel-w seems to be quite a familiar shortcut to windows and mac users, but on the other hand, it does mean other things in other applications As well as MMC, pico/nano uses it to mean 'search', presumably with a mnemonic like 'Where is?'. (On the other hand, pico's shortcuts seem to be peculiar to pico and pine, so can probably be discounted). I'm sure many other applications use this to mean something else as well. It could be argued, though, that throughout mozilla accel-w means the same as (I think) it does on a mac, and thus a user would expect it to close a window (and maybe even cancel a dialogue).

Well we have some issues here... Key Function Esc Discard changes Enter Save changes Accel+W Prompt to save changes I don't think we can go around adding Accel+W to modal dialogs, or even many modeless dialogs, but there are definitely some windows such as Download Manager and Advanced Message Search which should use Accel+W to close, but also some dialogs, such as Cookie Manager, which already allow Esc or Enter to close, but could additionally use Accel+W to close at the discretion of the module owner.

Neil, your comment reaffirms my view that this bug is valid. Confirming. Prog.

*** Bug 137325 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Neil, you want to take this one don't you? :)

In 1.8 (SeaMonkey 1.0), the Download Manager does close when pressing Ctrl+W. I hope this is a sign of things to come... Prog.

Command-W (Mac) should also close the Thunderbird About window (which does have a red close button), but doesn't. 1.5.0.4 (20060530)