Pau, ping.

vssun: Could you please provide browser and version information, plus an URL to reproduce?

This is a general problem. However my screenshot is from Windows 7/Firefox 22. It can be reproduced at any page's search box of Malayalam Wikipedia after enabling an Input Method.

When designing the input method menu, one of the constraints was to make it work for all kinds of input elements. The reason for that is that input elements are used in many different ways for the different MediaWiki projects and extensions.

This means that we wanted a generic solution that requires no adjustments from the developers of each input element. In addition, during usability testing we observed that users expect to find input options close to the actual input element.

Since the input menu is added on top of the UI, it is true that can hide some content. To solve that we did the following:

• Display the menu below the input field to avoid hiding the content the user is typing on small fields.
• Make it disappear when the user is not typing in a few seconds.
• Allow users to disable the input method tools.
• Allow developers to include a "no-ime" class for input elements where input methods make no sense.

In the example you present, by waiting two seconds the list of suggestions is completely visible.

Regarding the input method label, it is relevant for users that switch between different languages. We may consider how to make it more compact without affecting its use, but I see that more as a little enhancement than an issue of the current approach.

Closing this as WORKSFORME per comment 4. Thanks for explaining, Pau.

In the example you present, by waiting two seconds the list of suggestions is
completely visible.

Just think about waiting two seconds after each keypress.

I have one more suggession:

Just change the color of keyboard icon or just change the icon itself to show that the IME is active, atleast in the case of such dropdowns, instead showing the full Input Method name.

And as per my experience, users are usually not bothered about which IME they are using after selecting one from the list.

They only bother about whether it is active or not.

(In reply to comment #5)

Closing this as WORKSFORME per comment 4. Thanks for explaining, Pau.

Fixed status as above.

• Bug 51089 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

• Bug 51796 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***