Bug 479099

Summary: "Edit Application" and "Edit Applications" are far too similarly named
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: spamless.9v5xj
Component: Application Launcher (Kickoff) widgetAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: minor CC: mikel5764, nate, noahadvs
Priority: NOR Keywords: usability
Version First Reported In: 5.27.10   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Arch Linux   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In: 6.3.0
Sentry Crash Report:

Description spamless.9v5xj 2023-12-27 21:22:14 UTC 
Kickoff (and Kicker, can't seem to file under multiple components) have the following two features:
  1. "Edit Applications", accessed by right clicking the widget on the panel itself, which brings up the KDE Menu editor; and
  2. "Edit Application", accessed by right clicking a specific application (eg. Firefox), which brings up the properties dialog for the .desktop file.

In my experience these two very different options are far too similarly named; I always end up pressing the wrong thing.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2024-02-16 04:17:37 UTC 
How can you press the wrong thing when each one is accessed from a totally different place though? The context makes it clear:
- Right-click on the icon for the whole widget => edit all applications
- Right-click on a specific app => edit just that application

I think it's pretty clear.
Comment 2 spamless.9v5xj 2024-02-16 06:27:23 UTC 
I wouldn't say *totally* different; they do both take place at the application launcher...

You may read "Edit Applications" as meaning "Edit *all* applications", but (frankly) I read it as meaning "Edit applications *of your choosing*." Consider this: if you're on a website for an airline, and you see a link that says "Purchase tickets", you're not going to think 'Ah, this must be a button to buy every seat they have available!', would you?

This might just be negative transfer from Windows whose context menu for Start is really a bunch of shortcuts, but perhaps better phrasing would be "The 'Edit Applications' button does not, in fact, launch an app for configuring .desktop files".

I hope this clears things up.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2025-01-27 21:26:55 UTC 
This has been largely addressed by making KMenuEdit open in response to both menu items for Plasma 6.3. Beyond that, it's considered intentional at this point in time.