Re: [Usability] Some suggestions for Nautilus/filebrowser?

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On Fri, 2005-07-15 at 10:37 -0400, Frank Huang wrote:

> 1. There should be an option to open directories in the same window. I
> know the 'always open in browser windows' option does this, but I
> don't think that's clear enough.

Part of the 'spatial' properties of a window is its position, so I
suspect some people would argue that it would break the spatial model.
On the other hand, I supposed you could argue that 'open in same window'
is just a shortcut for closing the parent, opening the new folder in its
last-remembered position, and dragging it to the position and size of
its parent... but I doubt many people would buy that :)

> 2. In the file manager, when you click+drag files to another
> window/another directory, it just moves the file without giving you a
> choice of 'move', 'copy', or 'link'. There should be a popup menu that
> does that.

There is, if you drag with the middle button, or use Alt+Drag.

> 3. (minor aesthetic thing) - In file manager's 'display as icons'
> mode, the icons should line up (like, in a grid fashion). Or provide
> an option that does that.

They do for me... do you maybe have View->Arrange Items->Manually turned
on?


> 4. There should be a textbox that allows you to enter in a custom directory.

There is, but it's hidden behind Ctrl+L.

> 5. When you double-click to go into a folder, the first directory in
> that directory is automatically selected. Now, that's cool, but when
> you click 'open' at the bottom, it opens that selected directory
> instead of using the current directory. This is annoying in apps like
> File Roller, where you cannot extract files to a directory that
> contains other directories because of this.

Can't say I've encountered this problem myself, but certainly sounds
like a usability issue if it's true.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems