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A tidy taskbar and quicklauncher openDesktop.org


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A tidy taskbar and quicklauncher

0.1

KDE4 Brainstorm

Score 71%

mirshafie

Link: http:// Downloads: 456	Submitted: Nov 11 2006
Description: I know it is a bit late for a KDE4 brainstorm now. I did this months ago but my hdd crashed, but here goes: PROBLEM: The taskbar consumes far too much space! Lots of people, like me, seem to find text descriptions of every application in the Taskbar both annoying and useless. Many developers have "solved" this by letting apps reside in the System tray. That's really stupid and messy. Also, grouping of similar windows is very annoying since you have to click on the group, look up which window you wanted and then click again (that's TWO times!). SOLUTION: 1. Make the Quicklauncher a little bit smarter. When you launch an application from it (or from anywhere else), the icon in the Quicklauncher GOES AWAY to save space. 2. Strip off all or most of the text descriptions from most applications in the Taskbar, and let them be represented mainly by their icons. 3. The space that is conserved this way can be used for grouping similar windows better. They can be beside each other (horizontally, that is), and be represented by screenshots or stripped names. 4. For some reason, Tray icons are far smarter than Taskbar buttons. Today, the Amarok Tray icon will show you a lot of info about the current track, the KTorrent Tray icon will show info about file transfers et.c. It is obvious that Taskbar activities should do that too! See "screenshot" 1. Notice that the taskbar is only 24 px high and there's still plenty of room! I PROPOSE an application in which the user herself can configure which apps should only show icons, which that should show some text - and what text they should show - see "screenshot" 2. The left column shows apps that will be completely stripped of text and show only their icon. In the column to the right, apps that you do want to show some text is listed, and you can configure what they should show. The text that should be stripped from them are configured in the "Strip" section - the rest of the text will be shown in the Toolbar. \\\"Max chars\\\" is to configure how many charaters are to be shown for every app at the most. I know that can be a bit tricky for developers, but I also believe that it would be the best way. An easier way could be to make all windows show up like icons in the taskbar, and then expand text in a tooltip-like thing when you hover it with the mouse - or you do only the Max chars thingy. The point is that the Taskbar is very annoying as it is now. License: GPL

(Figure 1 - taskbar & quicklauncher)

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hmm

by Superstoned on: Nov 11 2006

Score 50%

Superstoned

it's a nice idea, but it ain't gonna cut it.

first, it's not needed:
- screens get bigger and bigger. it won't make much of a difference.
- with full-screen mode you don't need it (kwin supports a shortcut for that, you can set any window full-screen).

second, it's only usefull for a hacker. it'll make things less clear, harder to click, and it's kind'a hard to configure.

third, kicker gets rewritten anyway. so it's likely it won't be relevant anyway.

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Re: hmm

by mirshafie on: Nov 12 2006

Score 50%

mirshafie

Well, at least in my opinion screen resolutions aren't evolving fast enough. My taskbar would be extremely cluttered if it weren't for the Tray, and I don't really think that's a good solution.

As for clickability, there are many systems that replace taskbar buttons with text, with only icons. Mac OS X supports this and there are even apps for KDE that do it. It's not as hard as it looks :) The problem is that those apps support ONLY icons, but for some taskbar activities, I want both icons and text. A mix would be best.

KDE supports a lot of weird stuff, like special settings for each window and things like that - that do turn out to be very useful once in a while. Of course, if you don't care, it won't really make a difference, but if you're a power user, it will make a big difference.

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Excellent idea

by npu on: Nov 12 2006

Score 50%

npu
futurist.se
Home

Excellent idea. I'd use it. Today's KDE taskbar has some major flaws in terms of usability (and still is one of the best ever).
Ideas like this hopefully push things forward.

Btw, this category (KDE4 Brainstorm) has some really innovative proposals. I hope the UI designers check here for ideas.

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I agree!

by Kwilliam on: Nov 12 2006

Score 50%

Kwilliam

You're absolutely right about one thing: there's no need for both a Taskbar and a System Tray. Currently I've got both Opera and Akregator in the system tray and the taskbar, and guess what? The system tray provides more functionality. The taskbar isn't good for anything except switching between programs. Right click on a taskbar entry, and you'll get the exact same options you get if you right click on a window: Minimize, Resize, etc. Why would you do those tasks to a window you can't see? And if you can see the window, it's easier just to click the Minimize button or resize a window by dragging its edges. The taskbar menu items, on the other hand, can be very handy. ("Configure" seems to be a common one.)

Here's my dream taskbar:
1) Replace the current taskbar with the current system tray. The muddlement this causes can be sorted out by bullet 6.

2) Add text functionality to the system tray, so it could display short useful text, like in your screenshots. Don't repeat the application's name, though. Instead of "Homework.odt - OpenOffice.org Writer" just display "Homework.odt".

3) Make the icons arrangeable, like Konqueror tabs are. I'd like to be able to order my taskbar/system-tray entries around by dragging them around.

4) Group application windows like you show them, with screenshots if applicable, otherwise with short text descriptions, like "Main" "File Dialog". However, use some kind of border or background color to help group items together. (In your screenshot, it wasn't immediately clear to me that the Gimp which icons were together.)

5) Give applications tooltips brimming with information. Currently system tray icons only get "wimpy" tooltips, and taskbar entries get redundant ones. I like your widget-style media player tooltip.

6) Divide the system tray into a "normal" area and a "low priority" area, and allow users to collapse the "low priority" area. It could work similarly to how the system tray in Windows XP collapses and expands, only you could drag and drop applications between the two area. Things like "Klippy" and "Mail Notification" could go in the low priority area. Mail Notification could automatically move itself out of the "low priority" area when new mail arrives.

7) Knotify could be adapted so that notification bubbles appear to originate from their taskbar icon, the way that they sometimes originate from the system tray in Windows XP.

This "comment" appears to have turned into a blog post - sorry!

-- The K in Kwilliam does not, in fact, stand for KDE. --
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Wallpaper?

by geek-in-training on: Nov 12 2006

Score 50%

geek-in-trai ning

What's the wallpaper you're using? Thanks.

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taskbar?! nooo

by bonafide on: Nov 12 2006

Score 50%

bonafide

taskbars are outdated anyways. Beryls expose feature does all the work much easier

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Wallpaper

by rr0bin on: Nov 12 2006

Score 50%

rr0bin

Where i can find this wallpaper.
It's fantastic...

thanks

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A tidy taskbar and quicklauncher