GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 408155
Ellipsize long labels in list view
Last modified: 2007-05-01 21:57:04 UTC
The current behavior on list view opening "fresh" directories is adjust the Name column's width to match the longest file name. Could we add ellipsize support to list view and set a "fixed" width for Name column instead? Of course IMHO the support to label ellipsys would have to be added however, with or without changes to default behavior. It could be a good visual improvment in list view.
Created attachment 82956 [details] [review] patch Ellipsise the file name column, and make it expand to it takes up the available space. I noticed that nautilus doesn't store the column width if you resize them; is that on purpose?
* src/file-manager/fm-list-view.c: (create_and_set_up_tree_view): Ellipsise the filename column in list view mode, and make it expand so it doesn't just show "...". Bug #408155.
Created attachment 83549 [details] nautilus screenshot Hello, Ellipsizing the file name is a good idea in general. Unfortunately, expanding the filename column has some nasty side effects. Please observe the attached screenshot: 1. The distance between the name and size column is too big for short filenames and high screen resolution. The width of the name-column can *not* be reduced here. Grabbing the seperator between the name and size columns only lets you make the name column even wider. This is not good because I have to be very careful not to mix up rows when looking on size/type/whatever. 2. Trying to resize the other columns yields very strange behaviour. Try to drag the seperator between size/type columns or between type/datemodified. You have to drag it to the opposite direction than expected or nothing will happen. There's another point that could be seen as seperate bug: Entries in the size column should be ellipsized when the full text does not fit in the current width. I had a folder with 10 entries and because the size column was too narrow, I was just seeing "0 items". This is misleading.
Yeah, i removed the expand and made it start at 16 chars wide.
Looking at bug#410361, bug#419343 or #419721, I'm not the only one to prefer the expand to this horrible fixed width, even at 32 characters. Setting this column expandable is the most logical solution, as other fields don't have such varying sizes. As for Christof's issues with this mode: 1. If the distance is too small between the name and size columns, there is a much simpler solution than reducing the column size: reduce the window size. You'll even gain room on your desktop. This is one of the things that making the column expandable improves. 2. The TreeView behavior when some columns are expandable looks like something that should be fixed in GTK+, instead of preventing enhancements in nautilus.
Applying the patch from bug#316087 makes resizing columns work correctly with the expand mode enabled, which fixes both issues. There is still something wrong with the initial column size, but I guess that can be fixed as well.