hmm, if only they moved out of eachothers way – one moved left and the other right
and in the case of 3 menu's one stays still :)
i think that would have to be handled by the browser though, there would need to be an easy way for it to identify a 'context menu' (not sure if there is already)
   – imma

I don't have a problem with Google Docs (Firefox 3 Beta 3) but since I started using 3 Beta 1 I do have that problem with Meebo

Guess that some coding methods work while others don't

Could the browser off an option to close the right-click context menu given that it will always be on top? That would be a sensible workaround. Or perhaps there could be an option to display it when you double-right-click and allow the DHTML context menu appear otherwise.

About the context menu in Google Docs, I have fill an inquiry last week (or 2 weeks?) and I have asked to allow users to disallow Google Docs' contextual menu :)
Sure it's annoying...

this ust shows that usablity , UX & human interactions studies need to focus more on the holistcal whole , and just not on the app alone.. the context of usability extends 3 fold, the browser, the application as well as the OS..

> Could the browser off an option to close the right-click
> context menu given that it will always be on top?

That is a great suggestion for a workaround.

In fact, I just checked... at least in Firefox & IE, you can close the FF context menu by pressing Escape, and it won't trigger the Google Docs menu to close as well. An excellent workaround! I updated the post.

Nice!

BTW, although the standard Firefox context menu appears when I'm editing a Google Docs document, it doesn't appear on the Google Docs home page / document list even though I'm not allowing scripts to disable it. Is that the same for other people? (I seem to remember discussing this before too but can't remember the outcome...)

For IE you could probably use the 'oncontextmenu' event.

It would be great if browsers would make it possible to extend the main right click menu in the same way as it is possible with flash.

well, probably the best solution is a javascript extension to tell the browser about your custom context menu. the DOM object (link, textbox,...) gets an associative list of text and javascript code to execute. that would solve everything.

(and about downloading images that are "disabled" or "prohibited" : in FF just try CTRL-I and in "media" you have a nice list!)

I know when I use FCKeditor there is a option in the config to allow context menu on ctrl+rightclick

Maybe this should become a standard for developers that want to replace the context menu but also allow users to still use it.

just my 0.02

> BTW, although the standard Firefox context menu
> appears when I'm editing a Google Docs document,
> it doesn't appear on the Google Docs home page

I remember having had this issue in Google Presentations...

IIRC, HTML5 has a specification for how UAs (browsers) can support methods that let web pages add to the native context menu, so that a page like Google Docs can request to add its desired entries without causing this kind of conflict. Of course, browser still have to implement this specification.

I suppose the web apps chould supply the browser context menu with contents rather than making a separate context menu for each app?

This way the context menu will be aggregated each time based on what app or site I am on, plus I will end up with _one_ context menu instead of two (or more).

>I wonder if it’s possible for web apps to test if there is a collision >appearing in the first place, to only then go for fallbacks like relocating >the context menu?

I haven't written Javascript for years, but shouldn't it be possible for the web app to monitor if the mouse cursor is in it's context menu? If yes there's no "real" context menu and if not there is a real context menu and the web app could move it's context menu.