https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=450538
Bug ID: 450538
Summary: Hiding taskbar labels for chosen windows (tabs) only -
doesn't work since 2018
Product: plasmashell
Version: 5.24.0
Platform: Kubuntu Packages
OS: Linux
Status: REPORTED
Severity: major
Priority: NOR
Component: Task Manager and Icons-Only Task Manager
Assignee: plasma-b...@kde.org
Reporter: bat...@o2.pl
Target Milestone: 1.0
Created attachment 146926
--> https://bugs.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=146926&action=edit
How it works and how it should work
SUMMARY
Task Manager displays all windows ALWAYS with their labels (unless the taskbar
is full).
Icons-Only Task Manager displays all windows ALWAYS without their labels.
There is no option in either one to display or hide labels for the windows the
user wants to.
* The problem is impaired productivity: *
- Having many browser windows open (web developers and even normal web users
tend to have many open browser windows with many tabs), to achieve maximum
productivity, labels must be displayed (so Icons-Only Task Manager is not an
option), and grouping disabled (it is useless if you care about productivity),
- Same problem as above when opening multiple LibreOffice documents - for
maximum productivity grouping should be disabled and labels enabled, so user
can quickly switch to the other document just by its name,
- Taskbar space quickly cramps up and the labels are not shown anymore, so
users have to wait for the tooltips and see the labels there. It is an enormous
waste of time during everyday work with KDE Plasma,
- There are other programs open that use only one window, like instant
messengers (Skype etc.), IDEs (kDevelop, NetBeans, Qt Creator and so on), Email
clients etc. Those don't need a label at all, as users can easily and instantly
identify them by an icon; while having multiple browser windows open, users
can't determine which window contains the websites set they are looking for,
without the labels. This is especially useful since browsers started letting
users name the windows (change the labels in taskbar). This is not only a
multi-window browser scenario, but also true for working with multiple folders
in Dolphin, where real file managing requires having all the folders visible at
once - tabs in Dolphin simply aren't near as productive, because you can only
see one folder at once.
- There are many other scenarios, where taskbar space becomes wasted by
launching many applications having only one window.
* This was already suggested and developed back in 2018 and 2019! How is that
possible, those commits have not got released: *
https://phabricator.kde.org/D12462
https://phabricator.kde.org/D12463
There is an unnecessary discussion in above links, but the problem is super
simple:
1. Pinning windows/tasks to the taskbar should have nothing to do with the
option to hide or show labels. Taskbar is not a browser and even browsers are
missing a feature to display the title on a pinned tab.
2. Having two widgets - Task Manager and Icons-Only Task Manager makes no
sense. There should be just one widget with a global feature flag in
configuration window like "Show labels", exactly like in Windows 10.
3. If you want to keep those widgets separetely - no problem, but NONE of them
has the functionality that Windows 10 taskbar has from years.
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Set panel widget to Task Manager (with labels)
2. Open Task Manager configuration and disable grouping (useless feature if you
care about productivity, anyway),
3. Open many windows of one application (like Dolphin, Firefox, or multiple
LibreOffice documents),
4. Open programs having just 1 window (instant messengers, IDE, Email client),
5. Right-click any window, go to "More actions" and look for "Hide label" or
"Display icon only" option.
OBSERVED RESULT
1. Labels of important windows (browser windows, opened LibreOffice documents,
Dolphin windows) are narrowed very quickly, then become not readable and
finally become hidden, because of lacking space on the taskbar, that is taken
up by one-window applications, where just an icon would be enough.
2. There is no "Hide label" or "Display icon only" option in "More actions".
3. There is no such option in configuration window.
EXPECTED RESULT
1. Like suggested in 2018 and 2019, there should be an option in "More actions"
for each window/task to hide or show label. This should be saved into config
and reloaded next time the task is launched.
2. For maximum productivity, those commits from 2018/2019 should have been
added to Plasma long time ago. This is the only thing in the Plasma taskbar
that users miss from switching from Windows.
SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 10
macOS: n/a
Linux/KDE Plasma: Kubuntu 21.10 / KDE Plasma 5.24
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.24
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.86.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
KDE Plasma 5 is the only Linux GUI that really can compete with Windows in
terms of usability and look (I'm sorry, but other GUIs are just ugly and lack
basic task managing features, or try to resemble macOS with global menubar at
the top, which even more impaires productivity, exactly like on macOS - a
system created for working with one application, not multitasking). KDE apps
are great and Plasma 5 is superior to previous editions - it's fast, agile and
reliable. Still, it is a surprise that there are only a few options to
configure, and that user contributions with ready-to-deploy code are ommited
and then forgotten.
There is no need to write new code - you have it on hand, just to test it and
deploy.
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