Bug 62947

Summary: Directory selection dialog is not really clear
Product: [Applications] kfile Reporter: Daan Goedkoop <dgoedkoop>
Component: generalAssignee: kdelibs bugs <kdelibs-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED NOT A BUG    
Severity: wishlist CC: nate
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Compiled Sources   
OS: NetBSD   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:

Description Daan Goedkoop 2003-08-19 10:34:57 UTC 
Version:           onbekend (using KDE 3.1.2)
Installed from:    compiled sources
Compiler:          gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release) (NetBSD nb3)
OS:          NetBSD (i386) release 1.6.1

When an application wants the user to choose a directory, it uses the file selection dialog, and when you select nothing and press OK it chooses the current directory.

However, this is a bit confusing, and can be solved (for example) in this way:
- Make the caption "Open" if you select a directory or file
- Make the caption "Use current" if you select nothing, or make an extra button, "Use <name>".

This must not be too difficult, but unfortunately I do not know c++ :-(
Comment 1 Daan Goedkoop 2004-03-15 19:31:28 UTC 
For the file selection dialog, the same applies: if you select a folder in KWrite and press "Open", it is not opened within the window; instead KWrite tries to open the folder which leads to an error. This is strange behaviour, as it is different from Windows and MacOS.
GTK, by the way, simply does nothing when you select a folder in the file selector.
In each case: does the dialog know, whether the application accepts folders (Konqueror, for example) or not (like KWrite)?
Comment 2 Christoph Feck 2009-08-27 02:34:38 UTC 
Moving from "kio/kfile" component to "kfile" product, helps sorting out duplicates.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2018-04-11 19:25:09 UTC 
What is "current", though? The concept of the current directory only applies when you're already in a directory. If you're seeing the directory selector dialog, it's quite likely that the thing that invoked it has no concept of "current directory. Examples: wallpaper folder chooser and media frame widget folder chooser. Even a file or document-based app has no concept of current directory. Therefore, the dialog has to show *something* by default, and the current default (your home folder) seems reasonable enough.