This patch reduces the default size of the sidebar icons from 48px "Large" to 32px "Normal" and hides the text underneath the icons by default.
This is a minor code change but makes a noticeable visual difference, looking cleaner and taking up considerably less space.
Before changes
After changes
None
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I like the idea of having a thinner sidebar, but I don't like the idea of having unlabelled views by default. I think hiding labels would hurt usability for first time users.
I was on the fence about hiding the text for exactly that reason. But since the text is so wide it keeps the sidebar huge too. From a usability standpoint I think the tooltips might be enough, but I'm not a designer.
Alternatively it could be changed to the vertical text used in places like the Kate sidebar. That however would be a much larger change and out of the scope of this patch.
And personally I am not a fan of vertical text and find it difficult to read.
Unless you can give me empirical data that people prefer what you suggest i don't see the point in a change.
All this is configurable, people can choose whatever they want.
Also please use invent.kde.org in the future for Okular merge requests.
You'd be surprised how often people forget that tooltips exist, even after being reminded many times. It's not that they aren't smart enough to remember, they just aren't that into computers.
Alternatively it could be changed to the vertical text used in places like the Kate sidebar. That however would be a much larger change and out of the scope of this patch.
And personally I am not a fan of vertical text and find it difficult to read.
I'm not a fan of vertical text either for the same reason.
Same. Icons-only buttons only work when their icons are universally-recognizable and have a meaning that's100% clear. I don't think we can say that about this sidebar. Vertical text isn't a great idea either. Also keep in mind that tooltips aren't available on touch, because there's no concept of hover.
Apologies for the slightly delayed response, I have been (and still am) traveling. I will try to reply to comments in order.
The best data I can offer would be the Okular menu itself, and the rest of the KDE applications.
48px icons are defined as "Large" in the menu, which generally means "Larger than the default" so it is unintuitive to set it as the default.
In many other KDE applications the default icon size is even smaller than the 32px "Normal" setting in Okular, commonly 22px as in Dolphin, Ark, etc.
So not only is the setting unintuitive, but also distinctly out of place when compared.
Sane defaults are very important.
My apologies I didn't know about this, thank you for pointing it out! I really like GitLab and am glad to see KDE use it.
You both bring up very good points, and I agree that the tooltips are not an adequate replacement for the inline text.
However the text is the widest element in the sidebar and the only way to make the sidebar thinner is to either hide the text or move/change it.
We seem to have come to the consensus that vertical text is not the option, but there might be another possibility that has not occurred to me so any suggestions would be appreciated.
Ultimately the usability of any visual sidebar change is up to the VDG and if it is their decision that the text must stay the way it is, then please feel free to close this patch.
Yeah I think this needs more design work rather than a defaults change. If we just reduce the icons' size, it won't make any difference because the text is the widest element, and if we remove the text, it will impair usability because the icons aren't meaningful enough on their own to communicate what the tabs do. Maybe we should consider adding a mode selector to the top of the sidebar itself, and a new button on the default toolbar that toggles the sidebar's visibility.
Since this is Phab rather than GitLab, you have to Abandon the patch yourself. I'm terribly sorry to have to reject your first patch though. Please do stick around, and hopefully your second one will make it in. :) If you want to take a crack at my above proposal/showerthoughts, please feel free!