Toolbar Icon Label Default Setting | Kubuntu Intrepid QA Testing
Opening Launchpad Bug #268772 to help keep track of how many people test new toolbar icon default in Kubuntu Intrepid during Alpha and Beta releases.
For Intrepid, we are changing the default toolbar icon text position to Text Alongside Icons. This was a suggestion made by the KDE Oxygen and Usability projects as a way to improve the aesthetic and usability of the toolbars. The previous default was Text Under Icons. This configuration requires more vertical space (precious for widescreen laptop users), and the varying label lengths create inconsistent spacing between the icons.
At 1024×768, almost all application toolbars will fit in the default window size (~25%-75% of the available screen) and all application toolbars will fit if the window is maximized. Also, Konqueror’s toolbar remains configured as icons-only in order to preserve as much space as possible for the location bar. (On a personal note, Dolphin and Okular are incredibly attractive with this new text position configuration)
We need users to test the default settings and window sizes to make sure everything fits and looks good on different resolutions. To test the settings out for yourself:
A) Install or upgrade to Kubuntu Intrepid Alpha 5 and upgrade kubuntu-default-settings (it is not in the Alpha 5 release).
or
B) Go to System Settings > Appearance > Style (Page) > Effects (Tab) and configure the Text position: option to Text Alongside Icons.
Useful feedback:
* Reporting of desktop resolution and physical monitor size
* Testing method (Alpha or System Settings)
* Screenshots of entire desktop with application in question in default or maximized sizes.
* Bugs concerning switching between toolbar label modes should be submitted upstream to bugs.kde.org.
will this change go upstream if successful in testing for intrepid?
@aseigo: Yepper. I wanted to test it out during the Alpha and Beta stages in Intrepid before Nuno and I made the recommendation to all of KDE. We should know in time for 4.2.
I miss Up arrow in toolbar, I know it can be added to dolphin - but why it isn’t enabled by default?
Great work as allways!
It’s great to see experimentation and reconsideration of some of KDE’s defaults, but would this be pushed straight through to KDE solely if Kubuntu is happy about it? A little more time and and open discussion would be necessary IMO — especially for those of us who are not Ubuntu users and have no Launchpad account to comment there.
I personally think it looks great (having tried it after my initial “urgh, gross, change sucks” reaction died down)!
@Paul: This was originally proposed by upstream (KDE) as a global KDE change, it isn’t a Kubuntu decision. We are using Kubuntu Intrepid as a test which will give the new default exposure to hundreds of users. I think that is a reasonable amount of testing, and it will still be months before other distributions upgrade to 4.2 and the rest of the world experiences it. The default will be a recommendation by KDE, and distributions will still have the choice to change it if they don’t like it.
Great to see this happening, one of the first things I do when I start up a new application is change the toolbar icon size to small and the text to along icons. At least if this is ported upstream I will only need to change one setting instead of two. =)
seele: Thanks for the clarification, I wasn’t aware that it had been discussed upstream already.