[Design] lighten Dolphin’s Control menu

[sinma]

Le samedi 31 août 2013 19:31:26 sinma a écrit :
> Hello,
> 
> 
> I really like the interface of Dolphin but it drives me mad that the
> «Control» menu is a big mess of useless entries.
> 
> Look at the what the «Control» menu is now (I don’t represent what is
> useless for my talk):
> 
> Undo
> Select All
> Invert Selection
> ---
> View Mode               >
> Sort by                 >
> Additionnal Information >
> Show in Groups
> Show Hidden Files
> ---
> Reload
> Adjust View Properties
> ---
> Panels                  >
> Location Bar            >
> ---
> Go                      >
> Tools                   >
>                              Show Filter Bar
>                              Compare Files
>                              Open Terminal
>                              Select Remote Charset
> Configure Shortcuts…
> Configure Toolbars…
> Configure Dolphin…
> Help                    >
> Show Menubar
> 
> 
> What can we say about that? Here’s my vision (so don’t worry about the
> «must» etc, just easier to say than «maybe it’s better to…»):
> 
> * «Undo» must be an icon on the toolbar, the user will have more chance to
> find it when he do a mistake
> * «View Mode» must be placed on the toolbar (more intuitive, like any other
> file manager, the redundance is useless)
> * «Additionnal Information» isn’t used frequently and must be in «Configure
> Dolphin» for consistency.
> * «Reload» is not useful for most people, because Dolphin take care of
> reloading the view (or at least to display almost immediately the change in
> the working directory).
> * «Adjust View Properties» must be in «Configure Dolphin» like «Additionnal
> Information».
> * «Location Bar» is useless because it’s easier to clic on the path than
> going into this submenu.
> * The «Go» submenu is useless, it’s just a garbage from the old Dolphin UI
> because it’s duplicating features that are already accessible in one clic in
> the toolbar.
> * The «Tools» submenu is useless.
> ** «Show Filter Bar» must be placed in the toolbar, at the left of the
> «Find» icon (and maybe renamed because it’s its name is a bit confusing for
> the noob I think). By the way, when clicking the second time on «Show
> Filter Bar» or «Find», it must close the previously opened bar.
> ** «Compare Files» must be in the right-clic menu when you have selected two
> or more files.
> ** «Open Terminal» is not used frequently and is accessible in the
> right-clic → Actions submenu.
> ** «Select Remote Charset»… has anyone used it in his/her life? I know users
> don’t like when we remove features but it’s possible to add it to the
> toolbar. * The «Configure *» menus can be regrouped in a «Settings»
> sub-menu like the other KDE software UI, so it’s more consistent.
> * The «Show Menubar» is not used frequently, so it may be better to move it
> to the configuration dialog or get rid of it.
> 
> Finally, the «New» menu you can add in the toolbar must also be there by
> default (more intuitive than right-clic on a blank space), next to «Undo».
> 
> So it gives me the following:
> 
> Select All
> Invert Selection
> ---
> Sort by           >
> Show in Groups
> Show Hidden Files
> Panels            >
> ---
> Settings          >
>                        Configure Shortcuts…
>                        Configure Toolbars…
>                        Configure Dolphin…
> Help              >
> 
> 
> Cleaner, isn’t it? Don’t forget that most of the functions aren’t deleted,
> because either there’s a better way to acces it (easier to find and/or
> quicker to use), or it’s deported in the toolbar.
> 
> 
> Thanks for reading, and please tell me what do you think.
> 
> P.-S.: don’t hesitate to point mistakes, I’m not native english so it’s
> always good to know how I fail to correct myself.

I’ve forgotten some things, in the right-clic menu:
* The «Create New» submenu should be removed if we put it in the toolbar. 
After reflexion, I don’t know if it’s a good design choice for the «Details» 
view because if we expand folders the user can create file and folder in the 
wrong folder. Any though?
* is it really the place for «New Window» and «New Tab» entries?
* if there’s a single entry in the submenu it’s stupid to have a submenu. For 
example, the «Open With» submenu have sometimes one entry, I’ve set Dolphin to 
show me only one entry in «Compress» and «Decompress» submenus, etc.
* Maybe you’ve already talked about that (I apologies if it’s the case)… Why 
not show the default app to open the file and under the «Open With» entry? Is 
it a design choice?

Thanks for reading,

sinma