Bug 243493

Summary:	improve usability of adding multiple layouts
Product:	[Applications] systemsettings	Reporter:	ash <narutoplasma14>
Component:	kcm_keyboard	Assignee:	Andriy Rysin <arysin>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Unlisted Binaries
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:	5.24
Sentry Crash Report:

Description ash 2010-07-03 14:39:01 UTC

Version:           unspecified (using Devel) 
OS:                Linux

kxkb (keyboard layouts module) requires more 'mouse labor' to configure and use than in previous versions and is less intuitive


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
set up kxkb with 2 keyboard layouts and custom key shortcut to switch layout. see how much harder it is than in kde 3.5 thru 4.4

while setting up :
 - in 4.4 you have 2 lists - find the needed layout on the left one and drag it to the right one
 - in 4.5 you have extra window with dropdown selection boxes. you have to select stuff in the center one (at least) and close the window for every layout
 - my suggestion : give back the 4.4 setup. add a search box above the left window to make search for specific layout easier

 - in 4.4 you click on keyboard main shortcut and are immediately taken to the list of shortcuts
 - in 4.5 you are taken to the list but it is disabled. when you click to enable it the open branch collapses and you have to find it again

while using :
 - in 4.4 left click on the taskbar icon changes layout
 - in 4.5 left click opens a menu. it requires more clicks than 4.4 to use (most users dont have more than 2 - 3 layouts)

 - in 4.4 right click shows the menu with layouts and setup options
 - in 4.5 there are no setup options. you have to go to system settings to set up

Comment 1 Andriy Rysin 2010-08-01 17:10:24 UTC

Thanks for the good usability feedback, here's my thoughts:

1) true, it means more clicks, but with two lists the main window tab was overloaded showing big UI control which may not be used (if you just wanna change variant, label, shortcut etc)... plus with language filter it's harder to have the old list as language implies the variant too. There might be some improvement to the dialog later but I don't think the "available" list (and thus drug-n-drop) is coming back

2) good point - I'll think on potentially enabling the tree when clicking on shortcut button

3) I think this is problem with dbusmenu-qt (I've seen it with older version of the library), the keyboard indicator code is the same as before in this regard

4) I was trying to clean up the "switch" menu, as user switches way more often than configures the layouts providing only "layout" menus was cleaner in my opinion, but I guess switching is done mostly with keyboard or direct click anyway so I may add "configure" menu item back

Comment 2 Andriy Rysin 2010-08-07 15:38:00 UTC

3) the problem was just fixed in dbusmenu-qt so should be working fine in 4.5

Comment 3 Andriy Rysin 2010-08-08 17:05:45 UTC

3) the fix has been pushed to both 4.5 branch and trunk

Comment 4 Andriy Rysin 2010-09-20 14:24:10 UTC

4) has been fixed in the trunk - context menu now has "Configure..." action

Comment 5 Andriy Rysin 2010-09-21 17:15:00 UTC

Since we got 3 out of 4 fixed I've updated the title to reflect the "add layout" usability improvement request and changed the priority to wishlist.

Comment 6 Nate Graham 2022-04-22 19:31:41 UTC

This is much better now in recent versions of Plasma 5.