Bug 245804

Version:           unspecified (using KDE 4.4.5) 
OS:                Linux

Currently, if users want to jump to a file or folder within Dolphin (e.g. "KDE"), they are just required to type the first letter (e.g. "K"). However, when more files or folders start with the same letter (e.g. "KDE", "KDM", "KDW", etc.), more letters need to be added, and the way Dolphin is currently configured requires users to type those first letters very quickly, otherwise they will jump to the next file starting with one of the other typed letters (e.g. "D" or "E").

This is often a problem, especially when coupled with the impossibility to use the spacebar in file names with more than one word: imagine two folders, "KDE is Cool" and "KDE Zion", and many folders in between. If after a fast-enough sequence of "KDE" I hit the spacebar, Dolphin totally ignores me, and I simply have to manually locate the last folder. This problem is especially troublesome with huge directories, like music or picture colletions, or downloads.

Just as a point of reference, and not to draw any comparisons, the Nautilus way is more user-friendly at this, where you also get a visual feedback of what you've been typing, a pop-up sort of box in which you can also edit your query. It would be really nice to have something along those lines implemented on Dolphin, too.

Furthermore, in Nautilus you can hit the down/up arrow keys to tell the application to keep searching using the query you just ended typing, and cycle through only those files starting with those letters. This is extremely useful when it's not the first folder you were looking for (e.g. "KDE is Cool"), nor any of next ones, but it's, say, a presentation file named "KDE is Cool.odp" separated from folders by dozens other entities. Currently, the only way to jump over those folders is to hit one of the letters following the "K" of the "KDE is Cool" folder, say "L", and be taken to the first folder starting with "L". And from there, start typing "KDE" again, to be taken to the next file starting with those letters, "KDE is Cool.odp" in our case. This is a rather convoluted process that would result very useful if simplified.

By the way, many thanks for your great work on Dolphin: it is the greatest file manager I've tried so far!

Reproducible: Always




OS: Linux (i686) release 2.6.32-24-generic
Compiler: cc