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List: kde-usability
Subject: Cleaning up KDE: Context-menus
From: Janne Ojaniemi <janne.ojaniemi () nbl ! fi>
Date: 2004-03-29 14:59:15
Message-ID: 200403291759.15350.janne.ojaniemi () nbl ! fi
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This subject might have been discussed and then discussed again here and
elsewhere, but I'm still going to chip in with my 0.02 cents ;).
We all know that the primary complaint of non-KDE-users (and among KDE-users
as well maybe?) is the fact that the KDE-UI is somewhat busy. While 3.2 is a
step in the right direction, more needs to be done. What are my suggestions?
Here is goes:
I think there are three primary areas that make KDE seem "busy": Control
Center, context-menus and application toolbars. Let's go through those one by
one (I will handle each area in a separate mail). Starting with Desktops
context-menu (the > signifies a sub-menu) and Konqueror. This post should
cover the desktop and Konqueror.
(FYI: this is KDE3.2.1 on Gentoo)
When I right click on the desktop, what do I see? I see menu like this:
Create New >
Bookmarks >
Run Command...
-------------------
Undo
Paste
-------------------
Icons >
Windows >
Refresh Desktop
Configure Desktop
-------------------
Help >
-------------------
Lock Screen
Lockout User
That's 5 groups with 12 selections, 5 with submenus. Looking at the
selections, the first ones that caught my eye was the "Bookmarks"-selection.
Why do we need it in the context-menu for the desktop? How is web-browsing
related to the desktop? If I want to surf the web, I'll fire up Konqueror or
I select a bookmark from the Universal Sidebar.
Another one is the "Help"-selection. Why do we need it in the context-menu? We
could just a well access it through the regural help-tool. Or it could be
inserted to the Desktop Configuration-tool. And since it's already in the
K-menu, having it in the desktop-menu as well seems redundant.
Another one is the "Run Command..."-selection. Again, that's not really
relevant to the desktop as such. And since it's already present in the
K-menu, it could be dropped from the desktop-menu.
we have now removed 3 more or less unneeded selections, so the new menu would
look like this:
Create New >
------------------------
Undo
Paste
------------------------
Icons >
Windows >
Refresh Desktop
Configure Desktop
------------------------
Lock Screen
Lockout User
That 9 selections, with 3 submenus and 4 groups. I think it would look alot
better than the current context-menu. Also, "Lock screen" and "lockout user"
could also be removed, since they are already available in the K-menu and
they are not relevant to the desktop as such. Also, user can add them to the
Kicker. Doing that would reduce the menu down to 7 entries and 3 groups.
Now, when I right-click on a folder (either on the desktop or Konqueror. Only
difference between the two is that desktop-menu has "Open", whereas Konqueror
has "Open in new tab/Open in new window", and the desktop-menu doesn't have
the "preview with FSviewpart") I get this:
Open in new Tab
Open in new Window
-----------------------
Cut
Copy
Paste
Rename
Move to Trash
Delete
-----------------------
Open With
Preview with FSviewpart
Actions >
-----------------------
Copy To >
Move To >
-----------------------
Properties
14 selections (3 with submenus) and 5 groups. How to clean that up? I think
"Copy To" and "Move To" could be removed. Same functionality can be achieved
with "Copy" and "Cut". Also, why do we need the "Preview with FSviewpart"? It
could be dropped as well. And what does "Open with" do here? If I'm browsing
folders, I'm browsing them with Konqueror obviously, why would I want to
change to some other app all of a sudden? So it could be dropped as well.
Also, "Open in new tab" and "Open in new windows" could be merged in to a
"Open in... >" selection with "new tab" and "new window" being in a submenu.
Also, "Actions >" could be moved under the "Open in... >" selection in the
first group, eliminating one group. Doing these changes we have a menu like
this:
Open in... >
Actions >
-----------------------
Cut
Copy
Paste
Rename
Move to Trash
Delete
-----------------------
Properties
9 selections (two with submenu) and 3 groups. Alot nicer looking, no? Also,
maybe we could remove either "delete" or "move to trash"? Having both there
is a bit redundant.
Now, if we look at the "Actions >" submenu, it looks like this:
Encrypt file
Create gzipped tar archive
Create bzipped tar archive
Create zip archive
Archive & Encrypt folder
Open Terminal here
Maybe it should be cleaned up a bit? Couldn't the archiving-selections be
merged as one? Maybe have just selection titled "Archive" with submenu
showing different archiving-possibilities. Or the user could enter his
default choice in preferences, and "Archive" selection would always use his
default choices?
Also (I'm going to get flamed for this....), do we REALLY need the "Open
terminal here"? KDE is a GUI, therefore it should really be a GUI, and it
should not use the terminal for hand-holding. If the user wants to open a
Konsole, he could do it, but why put it in here? Konsole is already available
through the K-menu. I think "Actions"-menu should be reserved for activities
the user could do using third-party KDE-apps. Konsole is not one of those
apps. Also, if the user wants to open a terminal in that folder, he could
just drag the folder to Konsole, that achieves the same functionality.
If we do those changes, the "Actions"-menu is reduced from 6 entries to just
3.
OK, I think you have had enough with my ramblings, so I'll continue at a later
date. Opinions? Thought? Flames? Yes, I know that some of the options I
suggested to be removed are something that some people use. But if we include
options and menu-entries because "someone somewhere might occasionally use
it", we would have to add every single option in to every single possible
location. Obviously, that's wrong. I think we need to make sure that the user
has access to the most comonly used options quickly. And having tidy
context-menus makes that easier.
My next subject: Toolbars and the Kicker. Stay tuned ;)
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