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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Konqueror revamped
From:       Daniel Ehn <dehn.lists () gmail ! com>
Date:       2006-11-11 17:00:11
Message-ID: 200611111800.11527.dehn.lists () gmail ! com
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Hi!

First, I'm sorry for the large attachment. But I actually managed to squeeze 
together almost all my ideas of a revamped Konqueror in it. Actually, I 
renamed it to KBrowser instead... The layout is also partly based on topics 
from:

http://www.userbrain.de/kde/report_filebrowser-screening-test_08.05.pdf

The .ui file is done using Qt3.3. Ok, where to begin...

The basic idea is to better differentiate folder browsing, internet browsing 
and file previewing. Also to totally hide underlying file systems.

So the KBrowser is made up of just tabbing features and a location bar with a 
search combo. The location bar is some sort of clickable thing for easy 
navigation. The search combo always searches from the current location and up 
in the hierarchy.

Ex: If you're in your home directory it searches all of you home files. If 
you're browsing the internet it searches with the standard search engine, 
i.e. Google. In the root folder it searches everything including 
applications, devices and so on.

The rest of KBrowser (below the location bar) is made up of different KParts 
(including a separate KPart for the usual folder browsing).

Folder KPart (tab 1,2,3,4)
------------
To the left, the folders are represented by two different view modes: tree and 
list. Pay special attention to the toggle buttons down at the bottom to see 
how the view can be configured. Then a content view in the middle and 
possibly a meta bar to the right.

Internet KPart (tab 5)
------------
The location bar is given a editable part and the search combo changes to the 
default Google engine. I haven't done any menu items at all, but they all 
change according to the current KPart. So for the internet browsing you will 
have e.g. a internet bookmarks menu item

File KParts (tab 6,7,8,9,10)
------------
These are the usual file previewing KParts but with different layouts.

Other KParts (tab 11,12,13)
------------
Don't know how necessary they are, but the idea is that they should provide a 
simple way to just browse through mails, contacts and the calendar easily.

Other details
------------
- Different icons for the search combo to differentiate it from the magnifying 
glass
- Hopefully it's easier to create folders/compressed folders from the list 
view mode in the browse bar to the left.
- Magnifying glass in the status/progress bar is used for zooming and gives a 
pop-up with a slider or some other controls. The icon to the left (if 
present) is used for changing view modes (like list, thumbnails and so on; 
but not to other previewing KParts)
- Some previewing KParts presents a list of all items of the same type in the 
current folder which gives you a way to navigate between them.
- The toolbar is located under the content.

Problems
------------
- Deep folder structure (specially in the location bar).
- How to easily get back to current folder if in some preview mode and not 
comfortable with the location bar. (Additional "back to folder" icon in the 
location bar?).
- ...

A lot more things can be explained, but hopefully they are so intuitive that 
it's obvious how they work...? Note that I haven't done any icon work, so it 
may not be the most appropriate choice of icon set.

That's it for now. Hope there are some good ideas in it.

/Daniel

["kbrowser.ui" (application/x-designer)]

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