Difficult selection of multiple options from a <select/> element

BoozeOperator

Good afternoon.

The attempt to use Ctrl+Leftclick to select multiple options from a dropdown-field in a <form/>, is rather cumbersome. More often than not, the whole range between the recently chosen and the currently clicked option is selected.

You can deselect the unwanted options immediately, but this is never necessary in any other Browser that I know.

I consider this a bug, but would like to be confirmed or proven wrong, before.

TIA

DoctorG

@BoozeOperator Welcome in our Vivaldi Community

Some useful links for you:

Help on Vivaldi Mail (mail client for use with calendars, feeds, mails)
Help on Vivaldi Calendar (the part of Vivaldi Mail client)
User Reputation to use Vivaldi mail account

Do not hesitate to ask, we are a community to help users.

Enjoy browsing with Vivaldi.

DoctorG

@BoozeOperator Do you have difficulties to use a mouse or trackpad with such element? Then i could understand this.

I have some reduced manual abilities with mouse but i never experienced issue you described.

Is line-height in option list not high enough to select?

Can you please show me a example where it fails for you? Perhaps you can create a screen recording, upload to imgur.com and leave link here?

BoozeOperator

@DoctorG As I have mentioned above, my other browsers, like Firefox or QuteBrowser (neither Min, but I do not use that any more) do not have the same problem.

To clarify: I want to select a second and more non-adjacent options from those offered by a dropdown field (<select/>) by a subseqent click, while the control-key remains pushed.

The effect that I observe, does comply to my expectations for the key-combination Maj+Click, i.e. the selection of a range of options. The latter works immaculately, too.

BoozeOperator

I forgot a detail: When I write that “other browsers” behave differently, it is on the very same page with the very same dropdown field. The line-height cannot be an influence, therefore. Also, I have not modified the defaults, there.

For the screen recording, I cannot say that I am currently motivated for that. Maybe later.

Pathduck

@BoozeOperator And what is the url of this page you're having an issue with?

Does it work here?
https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_select_multiple

Or here?
https://stian.w3spaces.com/select-multiple.html

We need test cases to be able to reproduce.
It works fine for me.

BoozeOperator

@Pathduck
I observe the very same mis-behavior with the examples you have provided. On the shorter list, the range is actually difficult to define, but when I choose the extreme upper or lower option, than the opposite, I can reproduce my error:
Clicking Volvo, then Audi (with the control-key pressed), selects Volvo, Saab and Opel.
It does not select Audi, which is an effect that I have not yet seen. But PSE ignore this last detail for the time, it may be a side-effect.

Pathduck

@BoozeOperator Then something is wrong with your install, or your Shift key is stuck... it works fine here.

Try in a clean profile, just create one for testing.
https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tools/user-profiles/

Could also be an extension messing things up for you. So disable them all, restart the browser and try again.

Might help for understanding if you make a screen recording of the issue as well.

BoozeOperator

I just re-installed recordmydesktop and have uploaded a screen-recording.

It is here: https://www.uplawski.eu/div/vivaldi/out.ogv

However, I will follow your recommendations and report back. Sorry that I cannot be quick with that.

mib2berlin

@BoozeOperator
Hi, it really looks like your Shift key is pushed.
Can you add a link to this test page, please?

Cheers, mib

Pathduck

@BoozeOperator You couldn't find a more browser-compatible format than OGV?

Anyway, opened it locally.
Really strange, looks like you click Polestar but it select all up to Tesla instead.

I think someone on Linux needs to test this.
What's your distro and WM?
And what's the full output of Help > About in Vivaldi?

It kind of looks like an older version of Vivaldi from the look of things, but I can't be sure.

@mib2berlin The link is above

DoctorG

@BoozeOperator Please tell about

Vivaldi version
Installer package (Deb, Flatpak, Snap)
Debian version
Desktop Environment
Scaled Display
Input device (Tablet, Touch, keyboard?)
Zoom of Vivaldi UI
Zoom of webpage

mib2berlin

@Pathduck @BoozeOperator
Ah yes, both test pages work for me on Linux.

BoozeOperator

@DoctorG
I installed Vivaldi from Debian ressources:
Version 6.9.3447.44 (Stable channel) stable (64-Bit), from the package
6.9.3447.44-1.

I see that there is an update available (51-1) and I will install that now.

My Debian version is Trixie (testing) and my Desktop is actully none, as I only use the Fluxbox WM.

Resolution 1600x900 – elaborate please, what the Scaled Display should be otherwise.

I am using a notebook and its keyboard.

I do not know those zoom-values either and venture that it is just the defaults.

DoctorG

@BoozeOperator said in Difficult selection of multiple options from a <select/> element:

My Debian version is Trixie (testing) and my Desktop is actully none, as I only use the Fluxbox WM.

I do not know if i can test with flubxbox on my Debian 13 now.
I try install and test it tomorrow.

BoozeOperator

@Pathduck
The clean profile did unfortunately change nothing. As Vivaldi is a new browser to me, I do not yet have any extensions installed.

But the Debian update is more voluminous than I thought and I cannot yet test with the currently proposed Vivaldi version.

Pathduck

@BoozeOperator Really strange. Laptop keyboard are notoriously wonky sometimes, as they often rely on vendor-supplied drivers and not standard OS drivers.

I know it works in other browsers but possibly there's an incompatibility there with Vivaldi.

Do you have indications on other sites that your Shift and Ctrl keys might be mixed up? Like if you edit a forum post you could use Shift to click and select a range of text, does that work? Ctrl should also jump between paragraphs.

Ctrl+PageUp/PageDown should jump between tabs in the browser as well.

Try a keyboard event tester, it might show something.
https://www.toptal.com/developers/keycode
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/KeyboardEvent/code (scroll down to "try it out")
https://keycode-visualizer.netlify.app
https://www.keyboardtester.com/tester.html
https://www.easycodetools.com/tool/key-board-tester

DoctorG

@BoozeOperator I can reproduce it with Fluxbox on my Debian 12
Seems mouse position is not processed exaxtly, but i do not know if caused by Fluxbox or Vivaldi issue.

DoctorG

Is a Chromium core bug with fluxbox!

@BoozeOperator Tested now in Debian 13 "Trixie" with fluxbox.
Chrome 129 Stable and Chromium 129/130 show issue.
https://issues.chromium.org/issues/357905828
Is a Chromium core bug with fluxbox.
So it is no surprise that Vivaldi 6.9 and 6.10 has the bug, too.

Firefox 115 ESR does not suffer from this bug.

I have no time to report such bug to Chromium bug tracker.
But I will add it to Vivaldi tracker.

DoctorG

🪲Reported to Vivaldi bug tracker as VB-110114 "Fluxbox: Focus wrong in select list"
Needs to be fixed by Chromium Upstream!