Version: 1.0 (using 4.2.85 (KDE 4.2.85 (KDE 4.3 Beta1)), Kubuntu packages) Compiler: cc OS: Linux (i686) release 2.6.28-12-generic Since KDE 4.3 Beta1 the option in systemsettings to display the name of the desktop when switching desktops results in a view blocking solid non-functional block in the middle of the screen showing desktops and arrows and a very tine name ontop of it which hardly is readable. That's not what I expect and want when I choose this option. It just should show the name of the desktop in good readable big letters like it was before, nothing more. To get rid of that block which just blocks the sight and contains no usable information for me I have to disable the option to show the name, which also isn't preferable. Please make this block an additional option and readd a good readable view of the desktop name, preferably configurable in size.
I think KWin is responsible for Multiple Desktops support...
Maybe a change in style would help. I get very confused by several things: 1. the arrow: it drags away the attention from the current desktop and fools eye and mind with the wrong desktop. 2. the dark color of the current desktop I switched to: for me this is a sign for a non-active desktop. Especially confusing when you have only two desktops. 3. The shown desktops don't have numbers on them. 4. The shown desktop name is much too small. 5. The "OSD" is too big combined with non-transparency. Even on a 1920x1200 display it's kind of "in the way" and because the desktops in it don't show anything they really don't need to be such huge. Imagine a 1280x800 display and six desktops: You have a display full of OSD which gives no information. How about this: make it smaller, make it transparent, highlight the active desktop, show big numbers on the desktops, get rid of the arrow or integrate it into the header including color and please enlarge the name of the desktop.
Created attachment 35925 [details] picture of a mockup
Created attachment 35926 [details] or you could integrate the arrow into the selected desktop to make it less irritating
thanks for the mockups. Just a view thoughts: currently the OSD uses the pager elements of the used plasma theme. Using a different element is of course possible, but it requires work by the designers and would probably not be available in all older themes which could result in a very bad looking result. Using the default as fallback isn't really an option. So on that point I'm not convinced yet. Numbers are of couse easy to integrate. Same for bigger text. What I am not yet sure about is the arrow in your moccups. It looks good, but what if I have more than one row of desktops? Btw there is a maximum possible size. It doesn't scale endless ;-)
ok, first of i should admit that i don't sue this feature. that said: the UI is ... "improvable" 1. the arrow is a horrible eye catcher (at least as for the default, it's the only colored item + it has a unique shape) thus pulling your attention to this section. the impression is /this/ is now the current desktop (the fact one of the fieds is darkened is easily missed) 2. there's information overhead (esp. in case of a non-sequential change or if your desktops are aligned in a grid rather than a row) the relevant information (and the one you bought by the checkbox) is "where am i now". the information "where do i come from" may be of interest, the vector between is imho as unimportant as "which desktops did i cross" therefore i'd suggest to entirely skip the arrows, display name and number (number is proably much more important than the name - regarding ctrl+fx changing) inside the fields and stress what you're doing (desktop switching) by fading out the former number and in the current number (the problem i see here is the plasma definition for "active" and "inactive" colors - don't know whether they exist and the mockup style is very much done for the air theme) about the opacity: no one prevents us from painting the bg elements with a general opacity factor over the actual svg/png alpha channel, right ;-P
I just remember: when I added the osd I asked kde artists for better fitting arrows unfortunatelly up to now no reply :-( Perhaps I should nag Nuno a little bit more. I think the arrows have to be part of the plasma theme and fit visually to the pager elements.
I'd like to add support for this. I change desktops like mad, and the new animated thing: 1. Is too eye-catching 2. Takes up too much of the screen 3. Persists for too long 4. Doesn't provide good information at a glance The old popupinfo was much less distracting, as it took up less space, and also more immediately useful, because its entire purpose was to show the desktop name. I would like to see a suitably plasmafied version of it. If that doesn't float, here's another suggestion: 1. Give the OSD the ability to display the name of the target desktop. 2. Allow the user to set the size of the "pager" component (or possibly remove it, in which case, with the text on, the OSD would basically degrade to the old desktop popup). 3. Allow the animation to be disabled, letting the highlighted status of the new desktop speak for itself.
+1 for this request My workspace is arranged in a virtual 3x3 grid, and I find the OSD effect is very distracting when I switch desktops. For example, if I quickly switch desktops and press Alt+F2 to launch a new app with krunner the OSD temporarily obscures the krunner box. The second problem is a performance issue: the OSD fade animation running at the same time as the slide windows animation makes the window slide chug on my system (the window sliding is noticeably jerky). For these reasons I much preferred the old behaviour and an option to switch back to the popupinfo mode would be great.
SVN commit 1028358 by graesslin: Adding option to only show the desktop name in the desktop change OSD. This brings back the behaviour of the old popup info. FEATURE: 193926 M +26 -6 desktopchangeosd.cpp M +1 -0 desktopchangeosd.h M +4 -4 kcmkwin/kwindesktop/main.cpp M +12 -2 kcmkwin/kwindesktop/main.ui WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=1028358
Wow, that was very fast :) Thank you, Martin. I look forward to trying it out in the next release!