GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 324253
Remove "New document" from context menus by default
Last modified: 2012-07-20 21:52:01 UTC
When right-clicking on the desktop or a folder, the context menu shows "New document" and "Open terminal" links. The suggestion is to remove them and make them available only if selected in the preferences. Other information: We are recommending new users to get familiar with context menus but such visible links definitely to the average user could be avoided. - "New document" is almost useless unless you have created previously document templates. I bet a very small % of users create their own document templates and create documents through the context menu. - "Open terminal" is frustrating (and scary) for users not knowing what to do with a terminal, the vast majority of GNOME users nowadays. If anybody needs to open a terminal there is an easy way to do so through Applications. If really needed, the user could activate this preference from Preferences. On a more philosophical approach, making "Open terminal" so widely available in the context menu implies that many action an average user need to do fall out of the GNOME desktop. :)
Thanks for your bug report! > "New document" is almost useless unless you have created previously document > templates. I bet a very small % of users create their own document templates and > create documents through the context menu. We want the users to use the feature, because it is so handy. Maybe our implementation is just not sexy enough. > Open terminal" is frustrating (and scary) for users not knowing what to do > with a terminal, the vast majority of GNOME users nowadays. That's why it was put into an extension called "nautilus-open-terminal". Just uninstall that package :).
> We want the users to use the feature, because it is so handy. Maybe our > implementation is just not sexy enough. Right. Then, what about just taking out the "Empty file" functionality under "Create document"? This way the user will see by default "No templates installed" or the existing templates if any, and nothing else that might create easily a Nautilus error. If this is a too radical approach, what about defaulting to the .txt extension those empty files created without extension? At least they will open gedit without giving any error message. Not sure about the feasibility and usability of listing the valid formats a new document could be created. Instead of "empty file" the context menu would suggest something like txt rtf html ((etc)) with the icon of the file format in the left side As you see, my main concern are new users exploring for the first time their GNOME desktop and finding this Nautilus error message after one of their first actions performed. > That's why it was put into an extension called "nautilus-open-terminal". Just > uninstall that package :). Good to know. :) Since I'm testing a Guadalinex v3 beta I will find out if this is a Guadalinex idea or something inherited from Ubuntu Breezy. Thanks a lot! (I'm translating from Spanish, sorry if I don't catch literal interface words)
I (personally) would like to have even easier access to creating an empty file (accel key or something). It is usual that I create an empty file in nautilus, then edit it in gvim to become a script or a LaTeX source file, then run/process the file from a terminal.
i create very often a file with nautilus' context menu. The good thing is that you can set the extension just by typing (txt, cpp, cc, c, list, html, php, ...)! That's good, please don't remove the "empty file" :D
We no longer provide an open terminal option in the context menu by default. I've updated the bug title to reflect this. This seems like a good request. If there aren't any templates installed it is pretty useless for non-geeks. Worse: it could be really confusing. The whole idea of templates and using the file manager to create documents seems awfully outdated. There should be a way to reintroduce the item for those that want it, of course.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 676838 ***