Mouse click consists of two actions – pressing a button and releasing the button. Associated mouse click action can be initiated by either of these two events. Let’s see how mouse clicks are processed in Tabs Studio.
Left click to select tab. Currently Tabs Studio selects tab on mouse button down and this is standard Windows shell behavior. OK.
Left click on close tab button. Currently Tabs Studio closes tab on mouse button down. For a button standard Windows shell behavior is to initiate button action on mouse up. I’m changing Tabs Studio behavior to close tab on mouse button up.
Right click to open tab context menu. Currently Tabs Studio opens menu on mouse button down. Most Windows applications (VS, IE, Explorer) open context menu on mouse button up. I’m changing Tabs Studio behavior to open context menu on mouse button up.
Middle click to close tab. Currently Tabs Studio closes tab on mouse button down. Standard Windows shell applications don’t use middle button. Other applications behave both ways. Firefox closes tab on mouse button up. IE 8 closes tab on mouse button down. VS 2008 closes tab on mouse button up. VS 2010 Beta 1 closes tab on mouse button down. I think closing on mouse button up is better as it allows canceling closing: if after pressing the middle mouse button on a tab you realized that you don’t want to close it you can move mouse off the tab holding the middle mouse button. I’m changing Tabs Studio behavior to close tab on mouse button up.
Tabs Studio Blog (organizing Visual Studio document tabs) 