| Summary: | Feature request: Grey out unselected side in split view | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | [Applications] dolphin | Reporter: | farid <snd.noise> |
| Component: | split view | Assignee: | Dolphin Bug Assignee <dolphin-bugs-null> |
| Status: | RESOLVED FIXED | ||
| Severity: | wishlist | CC: | dolphin-bugs-null, nate, postix, witchhunterpro, Wolfgang_Mader |
| Priority: | NOR | Keywords: | usability |
| Version First Reported In: | 20.08.2 | ||
| Target Milestone: | --- | ||
| Platform: | Arch Linux | ||
| OS: | Linux | ||
| See Also: | https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=150718 | ||
| Latest Commit: | https://invent.kde.org/system/dolphin/-/commit/2adbecd269e3694c2796374260c1983a8d21764d | Version Fixed/Implemented In: | |
| Sentry Crash Report: | |||
| Attachments: | Proposal | ||
I wouldn't go quite so extreme with the visuals, but I think this makes sense overall. I too have difficulty distinguishing the active view sometimes. In order to reach a possible solution for this item, I try to understand and sort the use cases in which spotting the focused panel is relevant, and in which it isn't. Focus-sensitive use cases - Close the currently active view by - clicking the icon, which in fact tells you which panel will be closed - using a shortcut, which I don't know if this is possible - Keyboard interaction in general like hitting F10 to create a new folder Focus-insensitive use cases - Generally speaking, all these use cases are hurt by obscuring the inactive panel too much - Drag and drop from one side to the other - You want to see where you are dropping to - Compare things between the two locations presented in the two different panels What else comes to your mind? What do you do in split-panel mode? # Possible solution In my mind, we shouldn't restrain from making interaction object, e.g. icons, previews, less visible or readable. We should communicate via color, background, and handles. This would lead to an easier recognition of the active panel while retaining a good user experience for use cases which are _not_ dependent on the focus in the first place. My proposal therefor is - Hide scroll bars on the inactive view - This gives the impression of an read-mode of that panel, i.e. you don't interact with that panel at the moment. - Scrolling should still be possible by either mouse-wheel or flicking (touch use case) but w/o the visual feedback of the scroll location - If the content of the view does not call for scroll bars in the first place, we loose that visual of course. - Present interaction objects, e.g. icons, previews, in black-and-white. - This doesn't reduce information content too much, but given an immediate impression of inactivity - Keep the background color of the panel as it currently is. I would love to get feedback on that proposal. Is this s.th. we could consider a way forward? (In reply to Wolfgang Mader from comment #2) Greying out the would disturb users who tend to use transparency, although relaying on scroll bars and icons could be questionable for folders with few items to none. Maybe the easiest solution is just highlighting(underlining, etc.) the path above the split view. A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/system/dolphin/-/merge_requests/1076 A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/merge_requests/2045 A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/system/dolphin/-/merge_requests/1093 A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/merge_requests/2054 A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/system/dolphin/-/merge_requests/1097 A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/merge_requests/2058 Git commit 58c953245aafcf810ef6fd84a8b7ff5c1a670670 by Méven Car, on behalf of Rafał Lichwała. Committed on 23/11/2025 at 13:43. Pushed by meven into branch 'master'. kurlnavigator: show focus indicator This commit prepares KUrlNavigator to be able to show focus indicator at the bottom of the control. Its visibility can be set by setHighlightFocusIndicator() public method (false by default). Focus indicator has been implemented as thick line rounded at the ends and clipped at the bottom drawing in accent color (active or inactive - based on m_active state). Related: bug 150718 M +30 -2 src/filewidgets/kurlnavigator.cpp M +11 -0 src/filewidgets/kurlnavigator.h https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/commit/58c953245aafcf810ef6fd84a8b7ff5c1a670670 Git commit 2adbecd269e3694c2796374260c1983a8d21764d by Méven Car, on behalf of Rafał Lichwała. Committed on 27/11/2025 at 10:29. Pushed by meven into branch 'master'. dolphinnavigatorswidgetaction: show focus indicator in split mode This commit uses KUrlNavigator focus indicator to show sufficiently which panel (left or right) is currently active in split mode. This MR is based on KIO changes in https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/merge_requests/2054 See discussion in MR: !1076 (comment 1334290), see https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kio/-/merge_requests/2058 @teams/vdg {width=849 height=313} {width=849 height=313} {width=849 height=313} {width=849 height=313} @teams/vdg Related: bug 150718 M +7 -3 src/dolphinnavigatorswidgetaction.cpp M +1 -1 src/dolphintabpage.cpp https://invent.kde.org/system/dolphin/-/commit/2adbecd269e3694c2796374260c1983a8d21764d |
Created attachment 132867 [details] Proposal SUMMARY When using the split view it can get confusing to know where the focus is at even though there is the blue border highlight. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Open Dolphin 2. Activate Split View I would suggest to grey out the unfocused region to better show where the focus is at. See attachment.