UI of Dropdown Menus : long list of EnumProperty Items (ColorSpace, Language, RemapUser ID) is partially hidden #72093

Hi all !
Here is a UI glitch in Dropdown Menus happening with long list of items.

Originally, this report was about the Language select list in the Preferences window but it actually occurs with every long Dropdown Menu lists.
This problem appears every time the Dropdown Menu is bigger than the window it is displayed inside.

System Information
Operating system: Linux-5.3.0-2-amd64-x86_64-with-debian-bullseye-sid 64 Bits
Graphics card: Mesa DRI Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 (Coffeelake 3x8 GT2) Intel Open Source Technology Center 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 19.2.4
Display resolution : Full HD 1920x1080px

Blender Version
Broken: version: 2.82 (sub 3), branch: master, commit date: 2019-11-30 17:33, hash: f1ac64921b

Short description of error
Opening the Preferences window (or any small sized Blender window) with Factory Settings defaults and changing the translation language (or choosing any other option in a long Dropdown Menu) displays a "bigger than expected" dialog that is partially hidden by the side of the window in a 1920x1080 pixels screen. The user has then to resize the Preferences window to fit, not a big problem per se but would be better if defaults were better.
That is because the list of supported languages is becoming quite big, specially the "starting" ones.
Blender already has a few big list dialogs (e.g. the Editor Type or the Add Modifier) but those are generally dispayed correctly within the Blender window (almost full-screen).
That is not the case of the Preferences window.

Three possibilities to solve this:

reordering the list so it stays into the Preferences window (e.g. "In Progress" below "Complete")
allowing the list to go beyond the borders of the Preferences window (do not know if technically feasible)
resize a bit the whole Preferences window to fit
redesign how Dropdown Menus behave, allowing for easy scrolling and search

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error
see illustrations below
Thanks a lot ! =D

Hi all ! Here is a UI glitch in Dropdown Menus happening with long list of items. Originally, this report was about the Language select list in the Preferences window but it actually occurs with every long Dropdown Menu lists. This problem appears every time the Dropdown Menu is bigger than the window it is displayed inside. **System Information** Operating system: Linux-5.3.0-2-amd64-x86_64-with-debian-bullseye-sid 64 Bits Graphics card: Mesa DRI Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 (Coffeelake 3x8 GT2) Intel Open Source Technology Center 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 19.2.4 Display resolution : Full HD 1920x1080px **Blender Version** Broken: version: 2.82 (sub 3), branch: master, commit date: 2019-11-30 17:33, hash: `f1ac64921b` **Short description of error** Opening the Preferences window (or any small sized Blender window) with Factory Settings defaults and changing the translation language (or choosing any other option in a long Dropdown Menu) displays a "bigger than expected" dialog that is partially hidden by the side of the window in a 1920x1080 pixels screen. The user has then to resize the Preferences window to fit, not a big problem per se but would be better if defaults were better. That is because the list of supported languages is becoming quite big, specially the "starting" ones. Blender already has a few big list dialogs (e.g. the Editor Type or the Add Modifier) but those are generally dispayed correctly within the Blender window (almost full-screen). That is not the case of the Preferences window. Three possibilities to solve this: - reordering the list so it stays into the Preferences window (e.g. "In Progress" below "Complete") - allowing the list to go beyond the borders of the Preferences window (do not know if technically feasible) - resize a bit the whole Preferences window to fit - redesign how Dropdown Menus behave, allowing for easy scrolling and search **Exact steps for others to reproduce the error** see illustrations below Thanks a lot ! =D ![preferences_UI_bug.png](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F8183531/preferences_UI_bug.png) ![BLNDR_DropdownIssue.jpg](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F8723431/BLNDR_DropdownIssue.jpg)

Added subscriber: @marcuspollio

#94367 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#83401 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#79668 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#73510 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#64224 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#62710 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#52503 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#72117 was marked as duplicate of this issue

Just saw now a partially related report : #62710

Added subscriber: @Harley

There is a similar complaint here: https://developer.blender.org/T72117

I'm not sure this is solved well by just adjusting the size of the Properties window. At 1X scale it needs to be at least about 960 wide to fit the width it. But the height still remains an issue because a list with columns is confusing when it has to vertically scroll. You need 700 high to see it all since it has to open downwards to show the entire thing.

I personally think we should be turning these into single column when they get close to the width of their window. At that point they are longer, scroll nicely, and make more sense:

Added subscriber: @knekke

Have a patch that collapses this list to a single column if there is enough available space. It has to base this on an estimation of what the menu width would be, which adds complication. That calculation could be made more accurate, but that adds yet more complexity, etc. So not sure if this is the proper road, but worth testing:

https://developer.blender.org/D6362

Added subscribers: @TodorNikolov, @mano-wii, @mont29

Added subscribers: @Nart, @StephenSwaney

Added subscribers: @VincentGires, @Gunterr, @bbworld

Added subscriber: @shotalot

As Campbell Barton mentionned on the patch D6362, the lists of enums could be more like the ones of IDs, with are searchable and scrollable when exceeding a certain length. It would resolve most described problems of this task.

Have a great day !

Added subscriber: @YegorSmirnov

Added subscriber: @B4adle7

Maybe update the ui dropdown widget to be only vertical list,
having default max_count of something like "10",
that can be changed by the tool maker, with a vertical scroll bar for the list.

This now has become a problem making use of the ACES colorspace. The only way to set the needed colorspace is via python command.
Did try using the expected method of starting to type in the selection desired. It does give the first one.
But then there is no way of cycling through list items.
Common methods for drop down widgets is either typing the item you need, or clicking the first letter of the item list, and it cycles through.

The QT UI system might be a good reference.

Here is the specific drop down widget issue this bug/feature/design issue is for.
With ACES Colorspace setup, it is impossible to select the needed input colorspaces from the UI/widget.
The most used input color spaces are "Utility - Raw" "Utility - sRGB - Texture" and "Utility - Linear - sRGB"
Drop down widget does not allow this unless possibly you have 4k monitor or 2 or more monitors to spread the application across to allow the widget to contain the list.

Poking. Auto search on typing on every dropdown would be very handy and intuitive as well as a scrollbar.

Added subscribers: @MAREYUS, @lichtwerk

Added subscriber: @PaulChambers

Added subscriber: @ssh4

Poking.
Drop down totally unusable on big lists for example ACES acio 1.2 default profiles{F10407923}

Added subscriber: @Asger

Poking.
This is a huge issue when working in ACES.

Added subscribers: @XenWildman, @jenkm, @NavidZambi0

Added subscriber: @basvanbergen

Added subscriber: @DanielBystedt

I agree that this is an issue when working with ACES. A pipeline colleague found this thread. I'm just going to poke this thread and add an image (from our wiki) of all the enum options on the screen to illustrate the issue

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UI of Dropdown Menus : long list of EnumProperty Items (ColorSpace, Language, RemapUser ID) is partially hidden #72093