Panel configurator when you have a small screen

[Alexander Potashev]

Hi,

I would like to talk about the panel's configuration panel (aka "Panel
Tool Box"). You can open it by clicking on the cashew on the right of
the KDE default panel.

The problem is that there are a few buttons, and you should have
really short translations of button names in order to see all of them
when you have a small screen (like 1024*something). In the KDE 4.3.3
release with Russian translation the last button ("More Settings") was
half-visible, but that is not a big problem, because you can still
click it.

Having tested 4.4.80 (beta1), 4.4.82 and 4.4.85 (beta2), I saw a
bigger problem: the buttons in the panel toolbox jump left and right
if there is no enough place for all of them. KDE 4.4.4 seems to have a
similar problem, but it's worse in the 4.5 branch.


P.S.: Albert Astals Cid said
(http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-i18n-doc&m=127663452624832&w=2) that
Plasma team has to improve the layouting. I agree, it would be better
than hacking on translations.

[Aaron J. Seigo]

Post by Alexander Potashev
Hi,
I would like to talk about the panel's configuration panel (aka "Panel
Tool Box"). You can open it by clicking on the cashew on the right of
the KDE default panel.
The problem is that there are a few buttons, and you should have
really short translations of button names in order to see all of them
when you have a small screen (like 1024*something). In the KDE 4.3.3
release with Russian translation the last button ("More Settings") was
half-visible, but that is not a big problem, because you can still
click it.
Having tested 4.4.80 (beta1), 4.4.82 and 4.4.85 (beta2), I saw a
bigger problem: the buttons in the panel toolbox jump left and right
if there is no enough place for all of them. KDE 4.4.4 seems to have a

that's QBoxLayout ... not even QGrahphicsView related, just a "plain" QWidget
with a "plain" QLayout. do you have screenshots of the problem?

(though 6 buttons in a row _really_ shouldn't take that much space. are the
translations truly accurate and concise? this is essentially a toolbar widget,
so the labels ought to be short.)

i suppose one thing we could do is move "Lock Widgets" into the "More
Settings" layout... ok, i've done that for 4.5, but it's still not a complete
solution just a band-aide.

[Alexander Potashev]

Post by Aaron J. Seigo
that's QBoxLayout ... not even QGrahphicsView related, just a "plain" QWidget
with a "plain" QLayout. do you have screenshots of the problem?

Screenshot: http://omploader.org/vNG1kcA (1124x900 display, here you
can see how long the strings are in Russian translation)
Video: http://a4.video3.blip.tv/0230003014267/Aspotashev-plasmaPanel861.ogv
(1024x900 display)

Post by Aaron J. Seigo
(though 6 buttons in a row _really_ shouldn't take that much space. are the
translations truly accurate and concise? this is essentially a toolbar widget,
so the labels ought to be short.)
i suppose one thing we could do is move "Lock Widgets" into the "More
Settings" layout... ok, i've done that for 4.5, but it's still not a complete
solution just a band-aide.

Is it possible to display the buttons in 2 lines?

[Aaron J. Seigo]

Post by Alexander Potashev

Post by Aaron J. Seigo
that's QBoxLayout ... not even QGrahphicsView related, just a "plain"
QWidget with a "plain" QLayout. do you have screenshots of the problem?

Screenshot: http://omploader.org/vNG1kcA (1124x900 display, here you

well, at least now the worst offender ("Lock Widgets") is no longer there ..
that should solve the issue, looking at the screenshot.

Post by Alexander Potashev

Post by Aaron J. Seigo
(though 6 buttons in a row _really_ shouldn't take that much space. are
the translations truly accurate and concise? this is essentially a
toolbar widget, so the labels ought to be short.)
i suppose one thing we could do is move "Lock Widgets" into the "More
Settings" layout... ok, i've done that for 4.5, but it's still not a
complete solution just a band-aide.

Is it possible to display the buttons in 2 lines?

possible? yes. desirable? no.

[Alexander Potashev]

Post by Aaron J. Seigo
i suppose one thing we could do is move "Lock Widgets" into the "More
Settings" layout... ok, i've done that for 4.5, but it's still not a
complete solution just a band-aide.

Thanks! Looks like now all languages will fit 1024*smth displays.

[Markus]

You are in the wrong list for this mail, go to plasma mailing list and
inform them they have to improve they layouting.

OK, moved to plasma-devel.

Aaron Seigo has moved the "Lock Widgets" button into "More Settings".
I think, now all languages will fit 1024*(...) screens, but, for
example, French translations are still too long for 800*600.

Do you have a need to run KDE4 in a 1989 standard resolution?

Plasma isn't only used on desktop PCs. I don't know how high the priority it
is, but the SC is ported to handheld devices and maybe someone wants to use a
home-configured GUI based on plasma-desktop and not the mobile GUI....

[Ryan Rix]

Post by Markus

You are in the wrong list for this mail, go to plasma mailing list
and inform them they have to improve they layouting.

OK, moved to plasma-devel.

Aaron Seigo has moved the "Lock Widgets" button into "More Settings".
I think, now all languages will fit 1024*(...) screens, but, for
example, French translations are still too long for 800*600.

Do you have a need to run KDE4 in a 1989 standard resolution?

Plasma isn't only used on desktop PCs. I don't know how high the priority
it is, but the SC is ported to handheld devices and maybe someone wants to
use a home-configured GUI based on plasma-desktop and not the mobile
GUI....

I also face this issue while running my tablet in portrait (800x1280) mode.
800px is probably not such an uncommon width, especially with netbooks, etc.

[Sebastian Kügler]

Post by Ryan Rix

Post by Markus

You are in the wrong list for this mail, go to plasma mailing list
and inform them they have to improve they layouting.

OK, moved to plasma-devel.

Aaron Seigo has moved the "Lock Widgets" button into "More Settings".
I think, now all languages will fit 1024*(...) screens, but, for
example, French translations are still too long for 800*600.

Do you have a need to run KDE4 in a 1989 standard resolution?

Plasma isn't only used on desktop PCs. I don't know how high the priority
it is, but the SC is ported to handheld devices and maybe someone wants
to use a home-configured GUI based on plasma-desktop and not the mobile
GUI....

I also face this issue while running my tablet in portrait (800x1280) mode.
800px is probably not such an uncommon width, especially with netbooks, etc.

But that's not something plasma*-desktop* needs to cover. In fact, it's one of
the main reasons why we have different shells for different device classes.