With auto-hide panel active, can't select shortcut after pressing super

[NathanShirley]

When the panel is set to auto-hide intelligently (likely standard auto-hide too?), if you press the "super" button and then use the mouse to click a shortcut on the panel, it won't launch the program. Instead it just hides the panel. Is there a way to change that? I can't think of a reason for it to behave that way. You can press super and then use the mouse to click a shortcut in the menu.

I know you can bypass super, and just move the mouse to the bottom of the screen, but if you're in full-screen mode that doesn't work (so super is handy).

[dorsetUK]

... I can't think of a reason for it to behave that way.

Hi NathanShirley.

I can, it's designed that way.

When I press the super key I see the cursor in the search box, so it's expecting input from my keyboard and not my mouse.

[spamegg]

Please see this
viewtopic.php?t=414466

You can tell the developers to change the design: https://github.com/orgs/linuxmint/discussions

[Jo-con-Ël]

IMO super key is intended to display Menu only (not both Menu and panel) when working with keyboard as dorsetUK said (typing to search an application and pressing enter to execute). It works as expected when panel is set to always hide or always show panel.

If panel is set to auto-hide "intelligently", it works too but also it shows (I'm not sure if pretended or as a side effect) a not working panel.

Maybe what you would like to get is keyboard shortcut to tongle auto-hide panel, but if your are going to use the mouse when panel is hidden just move pointer to the up/down border and click on Menu button if needed.

[NathanShirley]

Please see this
viewtopic.php?t=414466

You can tell the developers to change the design: https://github.com/orgs/linuxmint/discussions

Ah thanks, I'll do that.

When I press the super key I see the cursor in the search box, so it's expecting input from my keyboard and not my mouse.

Except you can click menu items with the mouse, just not items in the panel...

Maybe what you would like to get is keyboard shortcut to tongle auto-hide panel

I suppose that would be one optional workaround. The intelligent auto-hide is almost perfect though, definitely superior to Window's non-intelligent system.

but if your are going to use the mouse when panel is hidden just move pointer to the up/down border and click on Menu button if needed.

I use full screen mode in several programs when teaching, and the panel isn't accessible in full screen mode (except by pressing super, but then it's a fake panel). It seems like if the panel is going to appear along with the menu when pressing super (which is logical), it would only make sense to be able to use it...

But anyway, I'll make the suggestion to the Mint team. Thanks for the responses.

[spamegg]

It seems like if the panel is going to appear along with the menu when pressing super (which is logical), it would only make sense to be able to use it...

Read the topic I posted.
Users coming from Windows wanted their Windows habits replicated,
but Mint devs didn't quite understand what they meant (since they don't use Windows and don't have Windows habits).

Opening the Menu is different than making the Panel appear.
They are separate actions in Mint.
But Windows users' habit is to use the Super (Windows) key to make the Taskbar (Panel) appear as a side effect of opening the Start Menu.
(Because there is no keyboard shortcut in Windows for "making the Panel appear".)
Because for whatever reason Windows "tied" the Start menu and the Taskbar into "one thing", opening Start menu with the Windows key had the side effect of making the Taskbar visible.

Other issues are: on Linux, switching the focus away from fullscreen to other things can work differently.
But again we Windows users expect everything to be exactly the same.
On Linux we don't have the same "get out of fullscreen easily whenever you want" type of thing. Depending on the app, even Alt+Tab sometimes does not do it.

What we really need is a "make the Panel appear, and make it focused in the foreground" keyboard shortcut.
This should be completely separated from opening the Menu.

[NathanShirley]

Yes, I read your link and get your point about Mint not just copying Windows.

My point is just that if pressing super brings up the menu AND the panel (which it does), then it would only be logical to be able to use both, not just one.

There are many things Linux/Mint does better than Windows, there are many things where they're basically the same (often for good reason). I think the intellect auto-hide is an improvement over Windows, but not being able to use something that is normally usable is a step back (feels like a bug).

I like your idea of having a separate shortcut for calling us the menu vs the panel. In my mind it would be ideal if super called up both (as it does, but with a working panel) and if two different shortcuts called up the menu and the panel separately...though personally I'd likely just use super for both, because why not?