Bug 422074 - [Desktop] Difficult to differentiate between files with long names by extension
Summary: [Desktop] Difficult to differentiate between files with long names by extension
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 447623
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Desktop icons & Folder View widget (show other bugs)
Version: 5.18.5
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Eike Hein
URL:
Keywords: usability
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2020-05-25 22:57 UTC by medin
Modified: 2023-04-10 01:23 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
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Attachments
Difficult to differentiate between file by extension (61.27 KB, image/png)
2020-05-25 22:57 UTC, medin
Details

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Description medin 2020-05-25 22:57:12 UTC
Created attachment 128786 [details]
Difficult to differentiate between file by extension

When I create multiple files on desktop with long names and different extensions pdf, png, odt and jpg, it's difficult to diffirenciate between them by extention because the extension is ommitted at the end of each file and replaced with useless "..."

I tried changing "Label__Width" in "Desktop__Folder__Settings" to wide and medium and also increasing "Text_Lines" but this work for certain files with a specific number of characters in their names, so when dealing with other files with longer names I should change the setting again.

The perfect solution would be to add ".extension" after "..." for each file with long name.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2020-06-10 21:48:42 UTC
I hear Méven likes to do this! :D
Comment 2 Méven Car 2020-06-11 10:45:52 UTC
Well displaying the extension always here would be useless for most users and it would shorten the leading characters displayed, deserving most users.
We should only display the extension when we detect we have similar file names.

Also without previews, it is much easier to differentiate the files by type.

See https://phabricator.kde.org/D29794 for an elide while keeping extension implementation example (dolphin 99cf24c03def1c0722ba8dbd86a27b9dbc521f43).
Comment 3 medin 2020-06-11 12:37:28 UTC
(In reply to Méven Car from comment #2)
> Well displaying the extension always here would be useless for most users
> and it would shorten the leading characters displayed, deserving most users.
> We should only display the extension when we detect we have similar file
> names.
> 
> Also without previews, it is much easier to differentiate the files by type.
> 
> See https://phabricator.kde.org/D29794 for an elide while keeping extension
> implementation example (dolphin 99cf24c03def1c0722ba8dbd86a27b9dbc521f43).

At least on Plasma Desktop we should get the full name with extension when hovering or single clicking on each file like we used to have on WindowsXP/7/10. Because on Windows even if it shows the 3 dots for long names but when we hover or click on each file the user is able to differentiate between files with same names and different types.

For now on Plasma Desktop it's impossible with preview enabled to know the difference until we go to preference and each time modify and tweak there to see full simple file name with extension.
Comment 4 Méven Car 2020-06-11 16:08:06 UTC
I imagined displaying the full text on hover was already implemented.
So we should add it simply.
Comment 5 medin 2021-03-29 19:09:29 UTC
(In reply to Méven Car from comment #4)
> I imagined displaying the full text on hover was already implemented.
> So we should add it simply.

The real problem here is that to have tooltips display full names on desktop, we should enable tooltips system wide in Plasma settings which is not clean and practical for most users, because having tooltips everywhere causes some sort of distraction (redundant information) in user experience. So without enabling tooltips system wide we can't have tooltips on desktop, and it will always be impossible to differentiate between multiple files with same names but different extensions.
The best solution would be to show full name with extension when the file is selected by mouse (left click) on desktop like what we have on Windows desktop.
The desktop tooltips solution is also perfect but being tied to system wide tooltips makes it not preferable at all. It would be perfect to be able to enable it on desktop without enabling tooltips system wide.
Comment 6 Nate Graham 2023-04-10 01:23:06 UTC
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 447623 ***