Version:           unspecified (using KDE 4.5.5) 
OS:                Linux

When trying to replace a single file with an equally named file in dolphin, a dialog for file comparison/replacement appears.

Detecting the new and the old file there, is not particular difficult, but nevertheless it is not quite as simple as it could be. This information is first of all important to do anything at all in this dialog. But parts of the dialog seem to be rawly transfered from the shell command world.
Another point is that the user in fact deletes a file (to trash), and a mistake here as a user means to possibly throw away a useful ("new") file and replace it with a comparatively unuseful (wrongly assumed as "old") file, which would be annoying.

Therefore it should be more obvious what is going on. This might be reached by...(favored ones at first)
-placing text between or/and next to the file characterizations, like "is supposed to replace" or "will be replaced by"
-put highlighted labels above the file characterizations, for example "new file" and "old file" or "existing file" and "incoming file"
-the path of the files could be displayed appropriate, especially the parts which differ between the two files
-add an arrow or some other graphical indication, that makes clear what is gonna happen

This is not about to apply all these suggestions. Instead of, it is necessary to make the message of the dialog explicit and obvious without overrunning the user.

Reproducible: Always