In Plasma 4.x, when using the Folder view mode for the desktop, it was possible to move icons freely on the desktop, I mean, not to align them. Now with Plasma 5.x (at least as of version 5.5.3 installed on my system) this is not possible anymore, one can only choose between row alignment or column alignment, which is not very practical. Please restore Plasma 4 behavior. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Select "Folder view" mode for the desktop 2. Open desktop settings panel 3. Go to "Icons" tab
>which is not very practical. Can you explain why it's not practical. Maybe show us what you're trying to acheive?
The fact is, some people like me like to use their computer's desktop as they would use their office's desk : grouping things, putting lots of folders/files close one to another and arranging them in a harmonious way. For example, this is a GNOME desktop I use : http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1454445829.png As you can see I can put my icons where I want, they aren't aligned on a rigid grid. With Plasma 4 it was possible to do like that too, but now it is not possible anymore, I find this is a shame.
Thanks for the reply
*** Bug 361722 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
One more vote for this.
Yes, I vote from me.
+1 restore old behavior, please
*** Bug 359570 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Shouldn't this have been marked as a confirmed bug since the release of Plasma 5? Two year old bug.
Yes, it should but nobody cares. It's far more important making big and flat icons and UI...
CONFIRMED/UNCONFIRMED doesn't really have much meaning for wishlist tickets, it's mostly used for bugs.
(In reply to Eike Hein from comment #11) > CONFIRMED/UNCONFIRMED doesn't really have much meaning for wishlist tickets, > it's mostly used for bugs. If something had worked in previous version and stops working in current. Does it mean that it should be in wishlist?
It should not be as a wishlist as it won't be fixed until 2020!
It's not strangely that most of KDE users moved away. What a mess...
> If something had worked in previous version and stops working in current. Does it mean that it should be in wishlist? There's a difference between a defect (something is supposed to work, but doesn't) and an unsupported feature (some desire it to be there, but it's not). So it's a wishlist item instead of a bug.
This is highly demanded feature but most users rather moved away than bother to write here. Others don't know that there is an possibility to declare their wishes somewhere.
> This is highly demanded feature Source?
At openSUSE we are testing openSUSE 42.2 Alpha 2. I would be nice to get this fixed before the end of July in time for the November release. Is this doable?
I'm currently not aware of anyone working on this or having a plan to work on it, so it's unlikely unless that changes. The implementation is not designed to allow it, so it takes substantial engineering effort by experienced developers.
So sad...
It's a plasmoid. It's not like you are redesigning the plasma-workspace.
Can we find some one with knowledge of java script to edit the folder plasmoid's code? Any one?
> It's a plasmoid. It's not like you are redesigning the plasma-workspace. It's a file manager view, not unlike, say, Dolphin (which however also doesn't allow free icon positioning). > Can we find some one with knowledge of java script to edit the folder plasmoid's code? Most of it is written in C++, including the icon positioning code. (I wrote it, so I think I know what I'm talking about. :-)
Nice to know ;-) I love it's features in KDE4. Unbelievably user-friendly. At this moment in time, in order to place icons in the order that I like, I have to delete them all and then place them one at a time. It's crippled in Plasma 5. Selecting sort by unsorted is broken and you've set it to permanent "snap to grid". You had this superb folder plasmoid that allowed many features and crippled it for Plasma 5. Is this what the devs decided what was best for users coming from KDE4? We have thousands of users that are very disappointed. Can you please bring the features from KDE4 back for Plasma 5.7?
> At this moment in time, in order to place icons in the order that I like, I have to delete them all and then place them one at a time. I'm not sure I follow the "I have to delete stuff" thing - Folder View on the desktop supports dragging icons into any position on the grid at any time. This ticket is about wanting to move icons outside the grid. Which is currently not supported, but certainly a legitimate wish. > You had this superb folder plasmoid that allowed many features and crippled it for Plasma 5. No, we had a folder plasmoid with many, many bugs that had been mostly unmaintained for two years prior, and was written against a Qt 4 API that can't be used in Plasma 5, turning the entire code obsolete. The Plasma 5 version shares no code with the KDE 4 version. It's a full rewrite. Off-grid positioning wasn't removed, it was not implemented. > Is this what the devs decided what was best for users coming from KDE4? Yes, don't you know that all we do all day is sit around and think how we could hurt our users best? That's totally my first thought when I get up in the morning. I went into open source and spent 11 years hacking on KDE (mostly for free, for many thousands of hours more than you probably did) because I'm a real meanie, and making software that doesn't cost any money seemed the most effective way to make the world a bit worse, release by release. There's totally never any engineering reasons in play. Like, say, finite manpower, or finite hours in the day, or deciding on a core feature set that can be supported at a higher quality level than before. Every time there's change you personally don't like it's because that was the goal. Totes. Do you feel patronized or pissed off by the above two paragraphs? That's how others feel when you write your implicitly antagonistic fight-the-powa stuff, too. Think about that next time you think it's cute to make that your narrative, or think shaming/guilting people is a good way to motivate them into doing what you want. > We have thousands of users that are very disappointed. Who's we, and what's the raw data backing that statement? That would actually be really helpful for triage.
Ok than, can you simply narrow the spaces of the grid? There is a HUGE space between two adjacent icons.
> Ok than, can you simply narrow the spaces of the grid? Yeah. I'll look into it.
Thank you very much :) I hope it will be unnecessary to modify FolderView.qml in the future anymore, which will be a relief :)
(In reply to Eike Hein from comment #25) > > At this moment in time, in order to place icons in the order that I like, I have to delete them all and then place them one at a time. > > I'm not sure I follow the "I have to delete stuff" thing - Folder View on > the desktop supports dragging icons into any position on the grid at any > time. This ticket is about wanting to move icons outside the grid. Which is > currently not supported, but certainly a legitimate wish. > > > > You had this superb folder plasmoid that allowed many features and crippled it for Plasma 5. > > No, we had a folder plasmoid with many, many bugs that had been mostly > unmaintained for two years prior, and was written against a Qt 4 API that > can't be used in Plasma 5, turning the entire code obsolete. The Plasma 5 > version shares no code with the KDE 4 version. It's a full rewrite. Off-grid > positioning wasn't removed, it was not implemented. > > > > Is this what the devs decided what was best for users coming from KDE4? > > Yes, don't you know that all we do all day is sit around and think how we > could hurt our users best? That's totally my first thought when I get up in > the morning. I went into open source and spent 11 years hacking on KDE > (mostly for free, for many thousands of hours more than you probably did) > because I'm a real meanie, and making software that doesn't cost any money > seemed the most effective way to make the world a bit worse, release by > release. > > There's totally never any engineering reasons in play. Like, say, finite > manpower, or finite hours in the day, or deciding on a core feature set that > can be supported at a higher quality level than before. Every time there's > change you personally don't like it's because that was the goal. Totes. > > Do you feel patronized or pissed off by the above two paragraphs? That's how > others feel when you write your implicitly antagonistic fight-the-powa > stuff, too. Think about that next time you think it's cute to make that your > narrative, or think shaming/guilting people is a good way to motivate them > into doing what you want. > > > > We have thousands of users that are very disappointed. > > Who's we, and what's the raw data backing that statement? That would > actually be really helpful for triage. Sorry about the rant. It was never my intention to shame or guilt anyone into working on their code. After reading the comment on a new day, I realize that my comments were way out of line. I did not know that the code was that messed up from KDE4.
Eike, Any chance you can add back all of the features when Plasma 6 comes out? ;->
Follow Up Can you please bring back the features that we had in KDE4? Now that was a user-friendly plasmoid - without the bugs.
*** Bug 373860 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Note to the bug, which was merged as duplicate: This is NOT about row / column alignment of desktop items, but about free positioning of plamoids, i.e. the timer plasmoid, which is placed in some corner behind a semi-transparent terminal on my desktop. In KDE 4 it was easy to start the timer, as there are ~15 Pixel between screen bottom and terminal bottom. In Plasma 5, the timer placed on the screen bottom slides up like 10 pixels, leaving only about 5 pixels to click for starting the timer. So if the "mark duplicate" was correct, note that the problem is about more than just the folder view and alignment.
I also need to be able to place icons freely on my desktop so that they are not automatically arranged in rows or columns. An invisible grid in the background for proper alignment as an option would be ok, but I want to be free where I agglomerate icons and where not.
In Cinnamon they managed to implement options with grid and without grid. I believe that KDE team can achieve this too.
> I also need to be able to place icons freely on my desktop so that they are not automatically arranged in rows or columns. This is available, just grid-less is not.
So how can I move icons (I do not need grid-less, i.e. pixel-precision) around on the whole desktop? Can somebody please give a link to a detailed explanation? Thank you very much!
Just drag them.
Hello, I have used Unity and Gnome for many years, now I switched to KDE. Main reason for that: -> I heard/read that the philosophy of KDE is to offer an environment which is most flexible and most freely configurable in many aspects. For many KDE functions, I found this to be true indeed, and I like it. But this restriction described above bothers me, too. I also want to be able to arrange the symbols on the desktop freely, without forcing them into an invisible grid, without the system forcing me to use one symbol layout structure. This "grid-lessnes" should be configurable. It is for all other desktops (Unity, Gnome, Budgie, Cinnamon, ...). So if KDE wants to be the most flexible desktop manager of them all according to their philosophy, it should be at least as flexible as the others. Currently, it is not in this aspect.
Very well said. Regards!
Guys, more comments won't make this get implemented faster. But actual development time and effort will. See https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/development If you have the skills, there's clearly demand for this feature, so go ahead and try to implement it! If you don't, then further comments in this ticket are not likely to be productive.