Bug 117082

Summary:	cannot select dotfiles / dotdirs in fileselector, e.g. in beagle
Product:	[openSUSE] SUSE LINUX 10.0	Reporter:	Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x <forgotten_ZhJd0F0L3x>
Component:	Usability	Assignee:	Siegfried Olschner <siegfried.olschner>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID	QA Contact:	Siegfried Olschner <siegfried.olschner>
Severity:	Major
Priority:	P5 - None	CC:	gnome-bugs
Version:	RC 4
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	Other
OS:	All
Whiteboard:
Found By:	Component Test	Services Priority:
Business Priority:		Blocker:	---
Marketing QA Status:	---	IT Deployment:	---
Bug Depends on:
Bug Blocks:	97395
Attachments:	screenshot of the beagle file selector example of the KDE file selector

Description Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-14 20:00:18 UTC

I tried to configure beagle to index my KMail directory in .kde/... and my
Thunderbird Mailfolders in .thunderbird but could not because of the strange
filechooser design that hides most of my files / directories from me. See
attached screenshot.

Comment 1 Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-14 20:03:49 UTC

Created attachment 49944 [details]
screenshot of the beagle file selector

there seems to be no way to enter parts of the path (e.g. /home/seife/.kde/)
manually. This is much better in the KDE fileselector (next screenshot)

Comment 2 Ben Kahn 2005-09-14 20:05:26 UTC

Try right-clicking on the file list.

Or simply start typing the directory name you want.

This is a common GNOME dialog, and all GNOME applications use this interface.

Comment 3 Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-14 20:06:26 UTC

Created attachment 49945 [details]
example of the KDE file selector

although i also cannot directly select .thunderbird from the filepicker, i can
type it in (with automatic completion) and then browse inside the directory.

This is much better.

Comment 4 Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-14 20:08:06 UTC

but this is a usability nightmare - nobody would ever guess this.

Comment 5 Ben Kahn 2005-09-14 20:16:41 UTC

This was an explicit design decision, and it is very similar to how the KDE
dialog works.  (Try typing Ctrl-l or '/' and then you'll have the entry box
you're looking for.)  

The idea is that dot files are hidden for a reason.  Users must go to some
lengths to access them.  I'll leave this bug open as you seem to wish -- I'm not
going to get into a bugzilla battle here.  But I'm sure someone else will close
it.  If you really care about this issue, you probably need to take it upstream.

Comment 6 Federico Mena Quintero 2005-10-17 17:53:24 UTC

You don't want dotfiles littering your file displays.  They are hidden for that reason.

If you really need to see them, click the right mouse button and select "Show hidden files".