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Bug 324253 - Remove "New document" from context menus by default
Remove "New document" from context menus by default
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 676838
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: Preferences
2.12.x
Other All
: Normal minor
: ---
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2005-12-16 10:19 UTC by Quim Gil
Modified: 2012-07-20 21:52 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 2.11/2.12



Description Quim Gil 2005-12-16 10:19:11 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.  :)
Comment 1 Christian Neumair 2005-12-16 11:53:33 UTC
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 :).
Comment 2 Quim Gil 2005-12-16 13:01:50 UTC
> 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)
Comment 3 Malte 2006-12-18 17:20:31 UTC
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.
Comment 4 Jan Niklas Hasse (Account disabled) 2006-12-29 23:30:39 UTC
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
Comment 5 Allan Day 2010-06-14 13:53:35 UTC
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.
Comment 6 William Jon McCann 2012-07-20 21:52:01 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 676838 ***