Bug 515608

Summary:	Show tooltips for truncated labels and other relevant information (like file paths)
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	meso5 <meso5>
Component:	Application Menu (Kicker) widget	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	ASSIGNED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	cwo.kde, kdedev, meso5, mikel5764, noahadvs
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	6.3.6
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Debian stable
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description meso5 2026-02-06 12:49:40 UTC

I often use Kickoff's find option to locate indexed files but, unlike Windows, when you get a long list of identical filenames (say, many “info.txt”), it is not possible to know which is which because you can’t see their location. This seems to be the case only with the "Application Menu" launcher layout alternative.

This is a major limitation that could be easily addressed with a tooltip, or by displaying path/to/file next to, or below the filename. Being able to copy the path+filename and to see Properties for the file through the right-click menu would be nice too.

KRunner is not a good alternative as it doesn’t show the number of files and folders Kickoff shows in its scrollable window. Instead, it shows all sorts of other information defined by the plugins. And it takes pressing two keys (I only press the Super key here for Kickoff).

An additional idea might be being able to force KRunner to show only files/folders in a long list, possibly by starting the query with an ‘f’. But Kickoff with a right-click menu would still be better. 

This suggestion is discussed in more detail here: https://discuss.kde.org/t/launcher-found-files-should-show-the-path/43995/8

Comment 1 Bug Janitor Service 2026-02-06 13:33:41 UTC

Thank you for the bug report!

Debian advises users to not submit bugs upstream (https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting), and Plasma 6.3.6 is no longer eligible for support or maintenance from KDE. It's possible that the issue exists only in Debian at this point.

Could you report the bug to Debian using the report bug utility (https://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/reportbug)? If necessary, the maintainer of the package will forward the bug upstream.
Thanks for understanding!

Thanks again!

Comment 2 meso5 2026-02-06 13:38:15 UTC

This was not a bug report. It was a feature request. Non-Debian users seem to report the feature is still missing. You can easily check if it is missing, or I can re-submit from my KDE Neon setup.

Comment 3 TraceyC 2026-02-06 17:26:20 UTC

I confirm that the file search plugin returns only names, not paths, on Plasma 6.5.5, and that it would be very useful to have
For instance, I have a repo checked out that has many files with the same name, like "abi_used_libs". Without being able to see the file path, the user can't know which one is the one they want.

I'll pass this along for consideration.

Comment 4 cwo 2026-02-06 18:38:55 UTC

I don't get this bug report - kickoff displays the file name in the second row, and if you enable compact list style, in the right-hand side (though for very long file names, this might be somewhat short).

You're also talking about Application Menu, which is kicker, not kickoff (Application Launcher). These are completely separate widgets. Could you clarify  which component you mean?

Comment 5 meso5 2026-02-06 19:10:44 UTC

After some research I believe I was referring to Kicker or Application menu, the third alternative layout of the launcher, as shown here: 

<https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Kicker>

In that, there are no paths or properties shown for files/folders found.

Comment 6 cwo 2026-02-06 19:24:40 UTC

Can confirm, also there are no tooltips for truncated labels.

I don't believe we have enough space to usefully show the file paths, but tooltips are definitely possible (and not all that hard to implement, though there is a tricky bit involving consistency with kickoff and the display style setting).

Comment 7 meso5 2026-02-06 19:34:10 UTC

The only thing you get now is 'Open containing folder' in a right-click menu.  It would be useful to add 'Copy path' and 'Properties' to that menu. 

The problem with tooltips is that you may have to hover over 20 files named 'info.txt' one-by-one until you find the right one. But at the moment Find in Kicker is really unusable.

Comment 8 Bug Janitor Service 2026-02-07 10:40:09 UTC

A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/3519