Well I downloaded the new Firefox extension at work, where I have to use a Mac, and my “right click” function doesn’t seem to work. As an avid “open in new tab” person, this is seriously hindering my web browsing abilities. I’ve put in a complaint with Firefox. Might want to hold off downloading the new Firefox for awhile if you’re a Mac user.

Stephen Ward, you’re a web geek right? Help?

UPDATE: Firefox got back to me and explained that this wasn’t a problem:

Since Netscape 4, the NS and Mozilla have used click-and-hold as a shortcut into
the context menus to allow for a quick mechanism for single-mouse users on the
Macintosh platforms. The Apple HIG, however, states that click-and-hold should
be an equivalent operation to click, except for in certain circumstances (such
as Dock tiles). Instead, Apple’s recommended route to context menus is ctrl+click.

Safari, Camino, Opera and IE 5 for Mac all use the standard ctrl+click to get
context menus, and do not respond to click-and-hold. The only click-and-hold
action in these browsers is on the back/forward buttons, to get the drop-down
history (see bug 102330). Firefox supports both ctrl+click *and* click-and-hold.

The debate:
Removing click-and-hold will bring Firefox in line with the Apple HIG, but at
the cost of removing a feature that many established Mac users may be very
familiar with.

Some (full disclosure: myself included!) feel that this change, while initially
jarring, would be worth it in order to ensure that we are complying with the
platform look-and-feel, and point out that all other Mac apps require
ctrl+click, such as iTunes (for editing an ID3 tag), and indeed, it may be more
jarring for users to discover that click-and-hold does not work as a shortcut to
the context-menu in other applications. Further, the current click-and-hold
implimentation is somewhat buggy.

Others feel that the established user base would be very upset about this
feature being removed, noting that ctrl+click is still there, and this is just a
further optimization for one-mouse-button users. Buggy implementations should be
fixed, not removed.

That’s about where we are.

***

Related posts: Do you make music videos on your Macintosh?

The Radar Festival is a music video festival that is open to filmmakers of all ages. To enter the competition, they must make a music video for a track drawn from a shortlist including the likes of Groove Armada and Franz Ferdinand. Entries must be created using Macs and Apple software, the deadline for entries is August 31.

I’ve been seeing a growing number of YouTube spoof music videos, and I know how frustrating it can be to break in as an aspiring director, this might be the chance for internet film geeks to cross over.

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