Bug 89205 - How filenames are represented
Summary: How filenames are represented
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Alias: None
Product: HIG
Classification: Miscellaneous
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Compiled Sources Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Celeste Lyn Paul
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2004-09-10 00:14 UTC by Frans Englich
Modified: 2019-02-07 16:44 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Frans Englich 2004-09-10 00:14:14 UTC
Version:            (using KDE Devel)
Installed from:    Compiled sources

Applications often shows file names, for example editor/word processors show the current edited file in the window caption. But should the full, absolute path, be shown, or only the filename?

Kate have a configuration option for this, possible others too.

How to solve it in Ark, was recently brought to discussion:
http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-usability&m=109476704428353&w=2

In what cases are the absolute path of interest? Is it only advanced users, and if so, does it perhaps justify having options for this on an individual application level?

Absolute path vs. filename, could be argued to be a question of how the context is communicated(and hence is a broad desktop issue). It also concerns how much the file system hierarchy should be emphasized(and how well it works for users).
As a quick thought, the SDI concept works well with only showing the filename(the window deals with the document, another with navigation and hence context..).


          Frans
Comment 1 Frans Englich 2004-09-10 14:22:06 UTC
When a document has an actual title, such as "Foo: The Guide to Bar", should the title or the filename be displayed? 

The purpose is to identify the document, and the title does that just as well, if not even better, perhaps. If there's no title, the filename could be used as fallback. Should the guidelines actively promote the use of title? ("If the document have a title, use it instead of the filename")

This was discussed on the GNOME usability list:
http://lists.gnome.org/archives/usability/2004-September/msg00034.html
Comment 2 Stefan Endrullis 2008-02-25 15:54:22 UTC
Okular 0.6.1 shows only the title of PDF files (info within the file header), not the filename. For me that's very confusing. Most of the PDF files you'll find in the web are not correctly labeled. If you open them into okular and if you often switch between these windows you get crazy, because you cannot identify them by the window caption. You only see captions like "thesis.dvi" (even if the filename is called "glossary.pdf"), "Title", ...

The problem is, that you cannot change the title of a PDF file without hacking the file. I wouldn't say anything against it if you would be easily able to change it (as you can change filenames).
Comment 3 Dotan Cohen 2008-09-13 18:13:00 UTC
I agree that if a document has a title then the document title should be displayed. If there is no title then the filename (not the full path) should be displayed.

However, my opinion is based upon a perfect world in which every document has a meaningful title. As this is _not_ the case, there should be an override option where the user can select whether his preference is for the document title or the filename to be shown.