File Browser GUI: Planned Changes for 2.81
After the recent file browser UI design overhaul, we have a couple of TODOs stemming from own plans and user feedback.
These we should probably do for 2.81:
- Add + and - buttons inside the name field (828905190e1, 2aa3e9c67c)
- Store the last used File Browser settings (display type, thumbnail size etc). Store inside Preferences, just like Quick Favorites. (rBddb157999eed)
- Make the Options sidebar open by default when saving images, link/append, and possibly others (28ee0f97c33b)
- Add preference for each temp window to either open as a window or the old full window temp state. (also move Render window option to Preferences for consistency then - rB95373e2749, rBf5bbaf55ac, rBcac756a92a)
- Add click-in-empty-area-to-deselect to File Browser (42c062c98a)
- Better handling of temp windows, so they don’t ’steal’ each others windows (T69819, rBedffb0e9b19d)
- Better handling of secondary windows so they always display on top (T69819, rBedffb0e9b19d)
- Don't use full width for upper bar, "indent" it by the left hand region to move the navigation buttons closer to the file list (rB57519f237a91)
- Add back Delete & make it use the system Trash (D4585)
Open Topics
[ ] Smarter file path controls that work like clickable breadcrumbs, which also allow you to double-click or click on empty space in it to edit as textDelayed, we'll first try how just bringing the navigation icons closer to the file list works.
We'd like to experiment with this as an alternative to bringing back the .. item.
- Find & implement a better way to expose file operator options (rBadfe68e202)
We didn't want to expose a huge empty side-bar for common cases like save & open, when there are really few settings. So idea was to have the sidebar hidden by default for these, with a prominent way to open it. That's why a big button on the left side-bar was chosen, with the obvious trade-off being that it opens a region on the right. We should re-evaluate on that and decide on a better solution, the trade-off is too apparent.
- Search and file path buttons are barely usable in small areas, needs a solution (rB98c0d16da53a)
We could make the contents a bit more responsive, so buttons are moved into a menu if space is tight. Or we merge the file path and the search button so that when clicking on a search icon button, the file path button turns into the search button.