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Dolphin Settings Rearrangement
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Description

There is some discontent with the arrangement of settings in the Dolphin Preference window.
Some obious problems are:

  • The General page contains a big proportion of settings. It also has the most generic name which makes it unclear which settings belong here and which don't.
  • The Startup page contains a lot of visual settings that one wouldn't expect to find there.
  • The Navigation page is nearly empty and the two options that can be found here aren't that strongly associated with Navigation.

Let's figure out a better arrangement.

The first comment in this task contains my proposal from D29227 of a major settings restructuring that removes the General, Navigation and Startup categories.

Related Objects

felixernst created this task.May 6 2020, 10:22 AM
felixernst triaged this task as Normal priority.
felixernst added subscribers: ngraham, rjvbb.May 6 2020, 10:26 AM

Dolphin Preferences Rearrangement

Behavior (new top level page)

  • Folders & Tabs
Show on startup: (X) Folders, tabs, and window state from last time (from Startup) 
                 ( ) [Select start folder location]                 (from Startup) 
Opening folders: [X] Open new folders in tabs                       (from Startup, I couldn't figure out what was meant by "new folders" 
                                                                    without searching online. Maybe "Prefer tabs to new windows".) 
                 [ ] Open archives as folder                        (from _Navigation_)
                 [ ] Open folders during drag operations            (from _Navigation_)
  • Confirmations (unchanged)

Interface (new top level page)

             [ ] Show tooltips                      (from General>Behavior>Miscellaneous)
             [X] Rename inline                      (from General>Behavior>Miscellaneous, this one was the hardest for me to categorise)
                                                    (All of the following seem to apply instantly so they don't need to be in "Startup" imo.) 
Full path:   [ ] Show full path inside location bar (from Startup, renamed from "General:")
             [ ] Show full path in title bar        (from Startup) 
New windows: [ ] Show filter bar                    (from Startup)
             [ ] Make location bar editable         (from Startup)
Split view:  [ ] Begin in split view mode           (from Startup) 
             [ ] Switch between split views panes with tab key (from General>Behavior>Miscellaneous)
             [X] Turning off split view closes active pane     (from General>Behavior>Miscellaneous)
Status Bar:  [X] Show zoom slider                   (moved here from General>Status Bar)
             [X] Show space information             (moved here from General>Status Bar)

View Area (renamed from View Modes)

  • General
               [X] Show selection marker                       (from General>Behavior>Miscellaneous)
Display style: (X) Use common display style for all folders    (from General>Behavior>View)
               ( ) Remember display style for each folder      (from General>Behavior>View)
Sorting mode:  (X) Natural                                     (from General>Behavior) 
               ( ) Alphabetical, case insenstitive             (from General>Behavior) 
               ( ) Alphabetical, case sensitive                (from General>Behavior)
  • Previews (unchanged but moved here from General>Previews)
  • Icons view (unchanged but renamed from *Icons*)
  • Compact view (unchanged but renamed from *Compact*)
  • Details view (unchanged but renamed from *Details*)

Services (unchanged)
Trash (unchanged)

Reaction #1:

In D29227#664203, @ngraham wrote:

I like your split, for the most part. However the proposed Interface page seems a bit muddy to me; half the things there seem like behaviors (e.g. "rename inline", "show tooltips", "switch between split view panes with tab key") but aren't in the Behavior page) Perhaps it could be a sub/page tab of Behavior called "Main window" or something.

Reaction #2:

In D29227#664567, @rjvbb wrote:
I like your split, for the most part.

It's workable, but is it clearer/cleaner? I'd probably have to use it for a while to tell. The problem with this kind of dialog is that we don't use it that often - anything that does require you to "go deep into the settings dialog" probably justifies having an action that can be accessed much more directly.

However the proposed Interface page seems a bit muddy to me; half the things there seem like behaviors (e.g. "rename inline", "show tooltips", "switch between split view panes with tab key") but aren't in the Behavior page)

And "Open new folders in tabs" (which could just be "open tabs instead of windows", btw) is an interface thing. This is because a programme interface dictates how it interacts with the user, so part of its behaviour. One might be able to use this distinction a bit better by putting in "Interface" only the things that are about behaviours of the user and that are not clearly about something that is a reaction to user input (= a programme behaviour).
That would allow to put the whole "Interface" tab under "Behaviour".

Or, put "Behaviour" under "Interface" because the "View Area" section also has (mostly) behaviour/interface options...

Maybe "Interaction" would be more appropriate or at least speak more to users who are not developers?

felixernst added a comment.May 6 2020, 2:33 PM
In D29227#664203, @ngraham wrote:

half the things there seem like behaviors (e.g. "rename inline", "show tooltips", "switch between split view panes with tab key") but aren't in the Behavior page)

I can see why you would think that those three would fit a bit better to Behavior. Concerning "switch between split view panes with tab key" I would prioritise keeping all three split view settings together and therefore not move it to Behavior.

Perhaps it could be a sub/page tab of Behavior called "Main window" or something.

I wouldn't be opposed to that but I don't think putting these two/three settings in their own tab in Behavior would overall be an improvement. Firstly it is difficult to find a common tab label for them that is descriptive. Secondly I do think they have enough connection to Interface to be there i.e. "rename inline" changes the Interface for renaming, "show tooltip" is a purely visual change.

In D29227#664567, @rjvbb wrote:

And "Open new folders in tabs" (which could just be "open tabs instead of windows", btw) is an interface thing.

This setting is on the "start page" of settings. It is clearly labeled both by being in the Folders & Tabs tab and with "Opening folders". I don't think there is reason to worry that users will search for it in Interface.
Furthermore I don't really think it is an interface thing. This setting decides if Dolphin -- when asked to display a directory -- is supposed to open it as a tab or as a new window. Even by the definitions you gave that is mostly a reaction to user input. Of course in the wider sense when the programme behaves differently every change will be communicated in the interface and therefore change the behaviour of the user. But maybe I just couldn't quite grasp your definitions.

That would allow to put the whole "Interface" tab under "Behaviour".

Or, put "Behaviour" under "Interface" because the "View Area" section also has (mostly) behaviour/interface options...

I don't really see how that would help the discoverability of settings.

Maybe "Interaction" would be more appropriate or at least speak more to users who are not developers?

I am not sure if one of the words "Interaction" or "Behavior" is any more understandable for users than the other.

ngraham added a comment.May 6 2020, 3:30 PM

The inherent challenge of strict categorization is that the categories need to be truly unique and well-defined. The more general the categories, the easier this is, but the more things you'll have in each category. So it's challenging.

One thing we have in the world of Plasma widgets is a separation in the settings windows of many widgets between "Behavior" and "Appearance" pages:

This works well because settings are rarely both appearance and behavior-related, so it's easy to categorize things. This in turn makes it easy for users to find things. If the developers have difficulty choosing a category for a setting, it's a good bet that users will likewise have difficulty finding it.

Not saying we should do exactly the same thing here, but just that category names need to be chosen carefully or else categorizing things and finding them remains difficult.

felixernst closed this task as Invalid.Dec 8 2022, 12:49 AM