Bug 362417

Summary: Spacer in panels are very difficult to handle (move around and resize)
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: stu109382
Component: PanelAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: wishlist CC: AndyKluger, kde
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 5.3.0   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Kubuntu   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: spacer with overlapping handles

Description stu109382 2016-04-28 13:09:46 UTC 
Hi,

when editing a panel (e.g. the bottom bar with the system tray. I think it is called panel) spacers are displayed only if the mouse is over them. This makes it hard to see where they are. IMO spacers should be clearly visible in edit mode, without hovering.

Furthermore they are super difficult to position and resize. This is because the left and right  handles are too big. They often overlap so if I want to increase its size to the left I can easily click the rith handle by accident.
And because the movement is implemented by dragging the middle of the spacer, it is (nearly) impossible to move it around. Small spacers already overlap their left/right handles and thus there is no middle to drag.

This makes it irritating to add small spacers e.g. between multimedia apps and office apps in a panel.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Add several small spacers to a panel
2. Try to align them evenly
3. Try to move them between specific applications
4. Feel the annoyance :)
Comment 1 stu109382 2016-04-28 13:10:27 UTC 
Created attachment 98660 [details]
spacer with overlapping handles
Comment 2 Kai Uwe Broulik 2016-06-27 12:14:23 UTC 
Git commit 8195ed3d34aea4677aa4333f1932aaffd97fc619 by Kai Uwe Broulik.
Committed on 27/06/2016 at 12:13.
Pushed by broulik into branch 'Plasma/5.7'.

[Panel Config Overlay] Make spacer size handles narrower

They were way too big making it hard to move around small spacers.
Also introduce a property that defines this size so it's not hardcoded all over the place.

Differential Revision: https://phabricator.kde.org/D1893

M  +14   -12   containments/panel/contents/ui/ConfigOverlay.qml

http://commits.kde.org/plasma-desktop/8195ed3d34aea4677aa4333f1932aaffd97fc619
Comment 3 David Edmundson 2016-09-21 23:05:07 UTC 
Seems fixed then. Note two more spacer changes were merged in Plasma/5.8

Please open a new report if there are any other issues with the spacer. Thanks.