Cancel Menu

[admin]

Some popup menus in XY have as last item "Cancel", which can be clicked to close the menu with the mouse as an alternative to clicking anywhere else or pressing ESC. However, in some contexts, this "Cancel" can be ambiguous and users might wonder what is cancelled when they click it.

Question: Would the less ambiguous version "Cancel Menu" look very strange (or even painful) to English-raised brains?

[serendipity]

From what i know (from watching people around me) its pretty obvious that clicking away from menu will cancel or do nothing. Most people know this behavior from start menu. So i would definitely not mind if you removed it.

[j_c_hallgren]

Question: Would the less ambiguous version "Cancel Menu" look very strange (or even painful) to English-raised brains?

I think so...and I don't see the problem with the way it works now, esp if the "cancel" is the last item on menu and isolated by separator.

I like having those cancel opts as it gives me a way to quickly and safely exit from a menu that I may not want to use after opening it w/o use of keyboard.

[zer0]

GUI talk!

Whether a pop-up/dialogue window requires a "Cancel" button -- and whether "Cancel" is actually the correct caption -- is something that should be decided on a case-by-case basis. This is because different pop-ups belong to different categories -- notification, error, warning or confirmation -- some pop-ups have "Cancel" when they shouldn't have such button whereas some other pop-ups have "Cancel" and need a better caption. Thus, I believe that a blanket change of behaviour would be inappropriate.

P.S. It is better to clarify/refine menus to eliminate ambiguity rather than take away something that a user might otherwise expect to be present.

[PeterH]

I feel it's correct that canceling the menu with a button is something different to request cancel of something else by a menu button. And it would be fine to show that by the caption of the button.

However "Cancel Menu" sounds strange for my ears. And seems to not exactly describe what is meant.
(But sorry: no better idea...)
Or maybe something like "Exit Menu"? Avoids the "Cancel".

Writing this I start to think, that I "Cancel" a function, like a copy, but I "Exit" a menu without starting a function?