Bugzilla – Bug 117082
cannot select dotfiles / dotdirs in fileselector, e.g. in beagle
Last modified: 2005-10-17 17:53:24 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.
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)
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.
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.
but this is a usability nightmare - nobody would ever guess this.
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.
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".