Bug 466103 - The "No Titlebar and Frame" toggle in the window context menu should be transient like all the other options in the same menu
Summary: The "No Titlebar and Frame" toggle in the window context menu should be trans...
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: kwin
Classification: Plasma
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: master
Platform: Neon Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KWin default assignee
URL:
Keywords: usability
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-02-19 21:03 UTC by guimarcalsilva
Modified: 2023-02-22 01:45 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description guimarcalsilva 2023-02-19 21:03:59 UTC
SUMMARY

There's an option in the context menu called "No Titlebar and Frame". While it shows a message you can press ALT+F3 to bring it back. That solution is not good enough because it relies on the user's memory to remember the shortcut (What if the user disables it and wants to enable it again a week later?). It also relies on a keyboard, which the user might not have if they use a touch device. There is a huge number of examples of users now knowing how to bring it back, just Google "KDE bring title bar back" to see the amount of people that face that problem.

Hiding the window decoration is not something most users do on a daily basis, and users can shoot themselves in the foot with that option so easily accessible. I suggest making it only configurable in the Window Rules KCM (which can already be easily accessed in the same context-menu). That also brings the benefit of listing what windows have that option enabled, because you're forced to make a window rule first. When you activate it from the context menu, no window rules are created and you can't know what windows have it enabled unless you open the application first. In the case the user wants to revert all changes, if they are forced to make window rules, they can simply delete them instead of hunting down which applications have the option enabled or not.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Right-click window decoration
2. Go to More
3. Select "No Titlebar and Frame"

OBSERVED RESULT
It's too easy to activate the option on the context menu, and you cannot get window title bar back unless you remember the shortcut the message tells you about.

EXPECTED RESULT
This option is not commonly used day to day by most people and should only be accessible in the Window Rules KCM

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: KDE neon Unstable Edition
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.104.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8
Kernel Version: 5.19.0-32-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 6 × Intel® Core™ i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz
Memory: 15,6 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 570 Series
Comment 1 David Edmundson 2023-02-20 10:10:08 UTC
People use this on a transient basis - giving a presentation making a screen cast and so on.

A window rule would not cover this case and we would get more bug reports.
Comment 2 guimarcalsilva 2023-02-20 16:50:32 UTC
(In reply to David Edmundson from comment #1)
> People use this on a transient basis - giving a presentation making a screen
> cast and so on.
> 
> A window rule would not cover this case and we would get more bug reports.

I'm afraid I have to disagree, David. Most applications used for those purposes have their own fullscreen mechanism, and do not require the use of that toggle, otherwise they wouldn't be usable on other DEs or Windows.

What is happening here is that there's no way of bringing the titlebar back unless you have a keyboard and know the shortcut. The toggle is completely inaccessible otherwise.

Can this bug report be re-opened, at least for discussing alternative solutions? I made the suggestion of only making the option available in Window Rules, but that's only one suggestion and other people might come up with other ways of making that option more easily reversible.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2023-02-22 00:41:46 UTC
To correct a misconception, touch users won't encounter this issue because it's not possible to show the titlebar context menu without a pointing device; pressing-and-holding on the titlebar with a touchscreen does not open a menu. So this issue is limited to adventurous right-clickers.

But I agree, the internet is littered with examples of where people shot themselves in the foot over this. At a certain point a large enough collection of anecdotes becomes indicative of a usability issue. I also agree that using this for presentations seems uncommon since the most common apps you'd want to present already include their own full-screen functionality.

Because this is intended for transient usage, perhaps an acceptable solution could be to show a minimizable notification that says what happened and includes a "Restore" button. People don't want to see it because it interferes with their transient use case can manually minimize it to the Notifications widget, which will ensure they remember where it went and how to get it back. People who don't want to see it because they have in mind a more permanent use case can always use a window rule.
Comment 4 guimarcalsilva 2023-02-22 00:58:27 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #3)
> Because this is intended for transient usage, perhaps an acceptable solution
> could be to show a minimizable notification that says what happened and
> includes a "Restore" button. People don't want to see it because it
> interferes with their transient use case can manually minimize it to the
> Notifications widget, which will ensure they remember where it went and how
> to get it back. People who don't want to see it because they have in mind a
> more permanent use case can always use a window rule.

Since the option is used temporarily in most cases, what if the toggle automatically got reset to normal the next time you opened the window?

That toggle is the only option in that submenu that isn't transient, all the others are temporary and do not get saved between application restarts, so that would make the behavior of all options there consistent with one another.

Users that need the change to be permanent will likely use window rules like they already do for all the other options there (eg. Keep Above Others or Fullscreen), but people that might enable it by accident can get back to the normal state by simply resetting the application.
Comment 5 Nate Graham 2023-02-22 01:07:33 UTC
Oh, that's a really good idea. Then all those items are transient, and we can add a header to the menu that says something liker "Temporary changes" with all the transient items underneath it.
Comment 6 guimarcalsilva 2023-02-22 01:39:21 UTC
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #5)
> Oh, that's a really good idea. Then all those items are transient, and we
> can add a header to the menu that says something liker "Temporary changes"
> with all the transient items underneath it.

I think the transient nature of the toggles there is quite obvious considering they're grouped with actions like Move and Resize, which are transient in nature. The only odd one there is No Titlebar and Frame.

There's a possibility some people could get a little confused when they upgrade Plasma and that changes, but that wouldn't be a problem for much time. New users also don't have the expectation those options should be permanent, as they usually aren't permanent in other systems.

If telling people those options are not permanent really becomes a necessity, a tooltip should be enough.