1Password Mini: Attach floating window to menubar?
Howdy, apologies if this has already been asked. I've been using 1Password for over ten years, and I have becomes extremely used to the 1Password Mini window appearing directly under the cursor when clicking the menubar of my web browser or MacOS "upper-right-hand corner icon dockbar area." With 1Password 7, there is a new centered floating window which is really throwing off my game. Is there any way to get that floating window to pin to the menubar of either the browser or MacOS, as appropriate? Thanks!
1Password Version: 7
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: MacOS latest
Sync Type: 1Password
Comments
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Thanks! I'll give that a try. If you can add my request to your doubtlessly infinitely long backlog, I'd appreciate it. The idea would be it would open like the old 1Password Mini used to, popped down from the icon like a menu opening. Thanks!
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That would be configured by an option in Preferences; I don't expect everyone to have to suffer my whims.
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Agreed. Please add this pref.
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Alrighty, your feedback has been noted. We'll keep an eye on requests and see what we can do. I can't make any promises, though.
Thanks for being awesome. :)
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Same here. :+1: I find the new behaviour really confusing and would love to see an option to enable the old way of appearing right under the menu bar or Safari toolbar!
Also I'd like to add that the 1Password Mini window is quite large now which is distracting in my opinion. It would be great if there way an option to resize it to something about the witdh of the old window.0 -
Thanks, @adamjb and Welcome to the forum, @funzyl! We'll certainly pass along your wishes, though on this particular issue, I don't know that we'll be making any changes unless it can be done without upsetting the added functionality of having 1Password mini available for other apps as well (hence: everywhere, not just the browser). But I'll certainly pass along your request to the developers.
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Add my vote please
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Add my vote too, please. I also don't like the way the 1Password window pops up to the right of my browser window. It means I have to do a lot bigger mouse movements just to populate a login (I prefer not to use auto-populate). The old functionality, where the 1Password window was directly below the browser button or the menu bar icon) was much better.
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@christophpowell it may not be the complete answer for you, but you can drag 1Password mini to where you want it and it will remember that location next time you open it. It's easier to drag when 1Password mini is locked than when it's open—because when it's open you have to fiddle around trying to find the part that will actually enable drag.
Stephen
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Thanks, @Stephen_C ! That does help. You were right about moving it when locked. I had tried doing so when unlocked, but could never figure it out.
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Another vote here, long time 1p subscriber recently upgraded to 1p7, I get that some may prefer the floating box better and option to move it where they want, but it would be great to add a preference for those that like it how it used to be, it felt more integrated before, how it just dropped down from the click of the extension tab like opening a menu.
Besides that, I love 1p7 and all the extra security features added.
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@christophpowell - Glad @Stephen_C was able to assist you. :) And @telUK - thanks for the kind words about the new 1Password 7 for Mac, and we appreciate the feedback on the new mini. :)
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I want to add my voice to this chorus. This doesn't bother us just because it is what we are used to from 1Password. This is the behavior that we have been trained to expect for however long you have been using a Mac. Clicking a menu bar icon to have a completely disconnected window open is against the macOS HIG.
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/extensions/menu-bar-extras
I have been using a Mac since 1988 and it makes me twitch every single time I click the menu bar icon and the place my mouse needs to go next is somewhere other than directly below the menu bar icon I just clicked.
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@frankly - thanks for adding your voice to this thread. We definitely appreciate the views of long-time users -- especially those of fellow developers. And you're not wrong; Apple generally tends to prefer developers using menus instead of popovers to display menubar extras. I don't want to get too nitpicky with my reply, but I think "...is against the macOS HIG" is a bit strong. Apple's own guidelines at that link say:
In general, display a menu, not a popover, when the user clicks your menu bar extra. Unless the app functionality you want to expose is too complex for a menu, you should avoid presenting it in a popover.
(emphasis added) -- In general, like Apple, we too prefer to obey the style guidelines of all four platforms for which we develop, which is just one of the reasons why 1Password will never be written as a one-size-fits-all Java app or anything like it. However, in this specific case, with the emerging ability of apps to interact with and fill data into other apps (not just browsers) -- already foreshadowed by 1Password mini's ability to display data for the current app (if it's not a browser -- try this with iTunes, for example) -- we felt it was better to have 1Password mini free-floating instead of anchored to the menubar. Like Spotlight. Or Siri. :) One of the solutions for this -- if you like -- is to manually move 1Password's mini up to the menubar; then it will behave as you prefer it.
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@Lars I get that it isn't a requirement. However, I'm still waiting for someone from agilebits to tell us what functionality is gained from having it separate from the menu bar. You keep talking about the good features of 1Password mini, which I am not disputing. Are those features not possible if the same exact window opens from the menu bar?
Also, the point is not specifically that you are breaking the HIG. The HIG is generally there for a reason, to create a basic uniformity of operation that makes the computer easier to use in general because actions have predictable results. You mention Spotlight and Siri as examples of things that break this same guideline. First, Siri does not count because you interact with it using your voice, not the mouse or keyboard, so it doesn't matter where its interface appears. You don't have to move your mouse to it. Second, you're right about Spotlight. The only reason it doesn't bug me is that my initial interaction with it is always by typing something in, not using the pointer, so I am not jarred every time I click it. Also, honestly the keyboard shortcut for Spotlight is so easy that it is pretty much the only way I trigger it. Perhaps if I used the keyboard as my primary interaction method with 1Password mini I would feel the same. However, those of us who have been using your product for many many years have suddenly been introduced to a jarring experience each and every time we interact with the product. It doesn't feel good. I love 1Password. I'm an evangelist for the product. I don't like for a product that I love and consider an indispensable part of my macOS and iOS experience to feel odd every time I access it.
Thanks for listening,
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Yep, @Lars and I are on the same page about this issue. Normally I don’t complain to developers about the revisions they make. I try to work around them (because I appreciate the work that you/they), but having the floating mini window creates an extra cursor drag from the menu bar that is simply unnecessary in my cases. Sometimes I just need to review login info or copy or copy some some note, which means I don’t need the window to float. I need it to pop-up under the cursor so that I can do what I need to get done without the extra drag.
Also, the floating window requires an extra click or tap in order to access the stationary button for keeping a window open. If I remember correctly, that used to be accessed in the front interface. If there were option to just have the window drop down, then the user could access items and features with less dragging or clicking.
So basically I miss being able to do the following with the mini window in 1Password like I can in Default Folder X.
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I just realized the other thing about the new interface for 1Password mini that really bugs me. Because it is a free-floating window, in my mind I think of it as a window. So when I click away for a second to paste a username in for example, and the window disappears, it makes me "grrrrrr" every time. When it was attached to the menu bar, I expected that behavior. So we are getting the double-whammy from this new UI.
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I would also like to add that while it possible to drag the window to the top of the menu bar, this only works if your monitor size/resolution stays the same. If you work with a MacBook and an external display, it is afaik impossible to have the window appear at the menubar all the time. It works for the internal display, but on the external one, it appears slightly above and to the right of the center.
Or am I missing something?
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@frankly: Interesting discussion! Indeed, as mentioned earlier, Spotlight behaves the same way. We're intentionally emulating that to some extent because 1Password mini often serves the same purpose: finding stuff we've saved. Spotlight also started off as a menu bar...menu. I don't remember when exactly it evolved into its current floating-box form, but it's been some years now. I have no special insight into Apple's reasoning behind this, but I'd guess it's somewhat similar to ours: like Spotlight, a lot of people use the keyboard shortcut to bring up 1Password mini. Given that, it makes less and less sense to have it off in a lonely corner of the screen*. Some people don't even have the 1Password icon there in the first place. I don't think it makes sense to have it stuck there when we can't even count on an icon being there in the first place. So the reverse question, I think, is even more relevant: "what functionality is gained" by having it attached to the menu bar?
*Some long-standing requests we've had were to have 1Password mini be more usable on "large" displays, from 15" on up to 27" (and higher). That's part of why 1Password mini is resizable and fully untethered now, and shows more information. But at the same time its position and size can be adjusted, so we're not all stuck with the default.
Siri does not count because you interact with it using your voice, not the mouse or keyboard, so it doesn't matter where its interface appears.
It also doesn't matter where Spotlight and 1Password mini appear, as they can be interacted with using voice as well. And since many people rely on mouse, keyboard, and voice (and sometimes more than one), I think it's important that we take that into account as well.
honestly the keyboard shortcut for Spotlight is so easy that it is pretty much the only way I trigger it.
It's a great example, as that's exactly my take on 1Password as well. It just illustrates that not everyone has the same workflow, and it may not even be internally consistent. After all, if that works so well for you with Spotlight, why not apply the same to 1Password? No need to discriminate. ;)
You make a really interesting point about 1Password mini disappearing when you switch to another window though. This isn't something we've changed at all since we introduced 1Password mini all those years ago, but I'll admit I hadn't really given it much thought... I guess I'm just used to using anchor/open in separate window for that. It's even easier now because there's a keyboard shortcut, and even if 1Password mini does get dismissed it will remember its state for a bit, so you can pick right up where you left off simply by opening it again.
Anyway, we can't please everyone, but we'll continue to iterate on the design as time goes on. This is just another step in 1Password's evolution, but like we (all?) got used using Spotlight as not-a-menu a while back, I suspect we can adjust to some minor UI changes in 1Password over time too, even as we make adjustments to try to strike the best balance we can between slavishly clinging to the old ways and pushing forward into the future. Thank you for your input on this subject! :)
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@frankly: As far as pop-up menus, I don't have a strong preference either way. But we've had a lot of feedback from folks over the years that waiting for the menu delay really slowed them down when trying to access their data. So we took that constructive criticism to heart, but more importantly it kills two bird with one stone to change the structure so that 1Password mini just exposes more information at once in the first place — which goes back to my comments above regarding making it more flexible/useful on a wider variety of screen sizes. I'm sorry that's probably not what you hoped to hear, but hopefully that helps give you a better sense of some of the reasons we've evolved 1Password in this direction. We will continue to streamline the new UI over time though, so your feedback in this area is greatly appreciated. :)
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@brenty It is becoming obvious from the responses from more than one 1Password team member that the concerns of your longtime users are not as important as the reasons for making this change. So I give up. I've removed the icon from the menu bar and changed the keyboard shortcut to one that is easier to trigger, and I'm going to try using it that way. Sorry I've been using your product since 2010 and I got a bit used to using it from the menu bar. That is the functionality that was gained by keeping it there, my muscle memory for using a product that I trigger constantly throughout the day.
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"I guess I'm just used to using anchor/open in separate window for that. It's even easier now because there's a keyboard shortcut"
And how do I discover the keyboard shortcuts for the anchor function? 1Password mini does not have menus and the tooltip does not list a keyboard shortcut. You and your colleagues keep pointing out how easy it is to use 1Password mini with just the keyboard but no one has listed any tips for doing that or provided a link to a guide. That leaves us alone to try to figure this out for ourselves, wishing we had our old functionality back. Please read back over all of the responses from 1Password team members. They have come across as more defensive than helpful.
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@frankly: Hey, all you have to do is ask! ;)
Regarding that specific shortcut, in the menu bar:
Item > Open in Separate Window ⌘O
We do have a more general guide for keyboard shortcuts in our support site:
1Password keyboard shortcuts
I don't think that keyboard tips are really on topic for this discussion, but that sounds like an awesome discussion all its own. I'd be glad to contribute, and answer any questions you have; and I bet a lot of other 1Password users are even more advanced keyboard jockeys with cool tips than I am!
You're right: muscle memory is really useful. But the thing about muscle memory, and memory in general, is that we can learn and adapt; it’s one of our strengths as a species. We're not confined to what we already know. And we're here to help with that too if we can. :)
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