configure panel height

[Felix Miata]

On 2010/03/08 16:45 (GMT) Duncan composed:

> Felix Miata posted on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:36:47 -0500 as excerpted:

>> Kicker in openSUSE KControl offered tiny, small, normal, large & custom
>> for size (which means height, as there's separate control for its
>> width). In custom, height could be set by number of pixels or a slider.
>> I find nothing comparable in KDE 4.4. Is it possible? If so, how?

>>From your description I'm unsure if you've not yet discovered how to 
> resize the panels at all, or if you don't consider the current method 
> satisfactorily precise.

I may have figured out how the devs expect it done, but DND is categorically
imprecise. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000063.html

What I want is to be able to have the same size on each login on each of my
many machines, each of which is multiboot to on average 8 distros running
KDE. The default height at high resolution is categorically about half a
usable height, and so needs changing for each new user/install. In KControl
this was easy enough to fix by selecting medium.

> The panels can be resized and the method is supposed to be more intuitive, 
> but to many kde3 users, it not only seems /less/ intuitive, but the whole 
> process seems imprecise and indirect, at least compared to kde3's setup.  
> There's some hope, however, as the whole thing seems to be changing over 
> time in response to user outcry, and early kde4 plasma (see below) was far 
> more panel inflexible than 4.3/4.4.
> 
> The whole desktop is now "plasma".  This includes the panels (kde3's 
> kicker), the desktop itself (kdesktop), and all the shipped-with-kde-sc 
> widgets, kmenu, etc, now called plasmoids.

Whoever decided to change the name of the main toolbar from Kicker to the
overly generic and unsearchable "panel" should be summarily shot.

> The key to configuring much of plasma is the "cashew", aka "toolbox" 
> icons.  These disappear on the panels when widgets are locked, altho the 
> one on the desktop remains.  Thus, first unlock widgets (from the desktop 
> toolbox, context-button clicking on the desktop if that option is enabled, 
> or context-clicking on the panel and most plasmoids).

> With widgets unlocked, again either context-click on the panel in 
> question, click its cashew, or context-click a plasmoid (may be disabled 
> on some of them).  Select panel options if appropriate, then panel 
> settings.

All the above seems hopelessly complex, unintuitive, and keyboard hostile. To
me the only intuitive configuration options are:

1-right click context menu directly on the object one wishes to change
2-"Personal Settings", as a first level choice by whatever name, from the
main menu starter at screen extreme lower left

> A panel toolbar should popup, with the various tools for moving, resizing, 
> setting behavior (always-on-top, auto-hide, etc), etc.

> Assuming a horizontal toolbar, there's a "height" button.  Click and drag 
> on this to the appropriate height -- up to a third of the screen height 
> (so I can do 400 px tall panels on my 1920x1200 screen), and down quite 
> tiny.

This is where the non-intuition shouts. The button is on the popup menu, some
distance from any edge of the object to adjust. When to click, or not, or
drag, is enough to to make one think Vista, or Microsoft Bob.

> For vertical panels, that button is width, instead.  To set height on 
> vertical panels (or width on horizontal panels), first use alignment under 
> more settings, setting left/center/right, then drag the little arrow-
> pointers as necessary.  There should be three of them.  Drag the one 
> indicating alignment to move the panel along the edge.  Of the other two, 
> one indicates maximum and one minimum panel size.  Set them both the same 
> if you prefer.  Again under more settings, there's also a maximize panel 
> option, setting it to full height for vertical panels, full width for 
> horizontal panels, thus eliminating all the otherwise necessary dragging 
> to get the same effect.
> 
> If you meant that you knew about all that, you just want a more precise 
> pixel size setting, well... perhaps one will eventually be added.

I looked at all plasma bugs in the first 200 most wanted features report
without seeing anything like this requested. I've now filed
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=229984 on this subject.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/
___________________________________________________
This message is from the kde mailing list.
Account management:  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde.
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.