Gwenview 2.3 Sidebar

written on Sunday, May 17, 2009

One of the most requested features for Gwenview 2 is bringing back the folder view. As I stated earlier, I worked on this feature for Gwenview 2.3.

It's done now, I hesitated quite a bit on the way to integrate this view in the application, but I think it's now ready to be presented.

I decided to split the sidebar in three tabs: "Folders", "Information", "Operations". Doing it this way gives more space for information and operations. This means less scrolling to reach operations on a small screen, more space to show image information and the ability to enter Nepomuk description in a multi-line widget, rather than the single-line version from Gwenview 2.2.

Sidebar settings (which tab is current, whether the sidebar visible) depend on the mode: By default the sidebar is always visible. In browse mode the default tab is "Folder", while in view mode it is "Information". This is nice because the casual user gets access to decent navigation in browse mode and more information when viewing his images, while the power user is free to use whatever combination of sidebars configuration he prefers. Since the tabs are at the bottom of the sidebar, I believe they are less likely to be noticed by the casual user, so it shouldn't be too surprising to have them "magically" switch when changing modes.

Here are screenshots of the sidebar, showing the different tabs:

Apart from the fact that Clara loves Mario Kart :), you may have noticed the folder view shows quite a few root items: it uses your "Places" list as root items, so you can easily start browsing from your prefered folders.

You may also have noticed the little arrow on the top of the sidebar splitter. I was never happy about the "Show/Hide SideBar" toolbar button because I felt it was wasting space. The common alternative to this button is to add a close button on the sidebar, but then it is difficult to find out how to bring the sidebar back. This arrow, which I call the "Splitter Collapser", is an attempt to solve this problem. When clicked it collapses the sidebar and then looks like this:

Since it is still here, it is easy to bring back the sidebar by clicking it again.

I choose a landscape picture and reduced the window on purpose to show the collapser can overlap the image. I hope you won't find this too annoying. Rest assured it is not shown when you go fullscreen.