I referred to this already in my other discussion but it's probably best
to make this a new thread to prevent confusion.
I was printing a PDF from Tor Browser in Tails and the experience was
confusing because it was very difficult to know what the default action
for the Return key was. For reference, here's a screenshot of the point
I got confused at:
https://cloud.disroot.org/apps/gallery/s/YjtkRMjxj64zceM
(Steps to recreate: navigate to any webpage in Tor Browser, choose Print
or execute Ctrl-P, then hit Tab twice - the first Tab highlights Print
to PDF, the second Tab 'highlights' the File box).
I think if you were to do a poll by showing new Tails users this
screenshot and asking them what they thought would happen if they tapped
Return at this point, you'd get a near-universal response of "Print the
selected item". But they'd be wrong. In this case what would happen is a
Save As dialog would open. The problem is the highlighting. "Print" is
in blue, while the File box has the slim border applied to it and that's it.
The same problem occurs on the Save As dialog you reach from this Print
dialog. Here's a screenshot for reference:
https://cloud.disroot.org/apps/gallery/s/QZwa9NagSPcjm7M
Again do a poll and ask new Tails users what would happen if they
started _typing_ at this point, you'd get a near-universal response of
"Rename the output file". But they'd be wrong again. In my case at least
what happens is a Search begins. This is hugely unintuitive. The
filename is highlighted in blue like it's been selected. I don't know
any other OS that would act like this when text is highlighted.
After noticing these two issues I realized this kind of thing happens
all over Tails. Dialog boxes can be very confusing and
counter-intuitive. It's frequently impossible to guess what will happen
when you start typing or tap Enter, it's just something you have to
learn from experience. I don't think that's good behavior, and it's all
because of the way Tails uses highlighting. I think this needs to be
looked at with some urgency if Tails wants to improve the experience for
new users - and existing ones too :)
