Stefan Schweizer

Freedom, Peace, Amity

05/05/06 18:20 , Categories: Gentoo

I have been forced to use the gtk-file-selector in gnome apps like firefox and gimp for some time now. In my opinion it is a lot slower to work with because you need that special [CTRL]+L command to open a window where you can actually type something. Also it does not offer completion or a drop-down-menu, and clicking the way out is also silly because it requires many clicks.

gnome file selector

Now finally I have found a solution for this problem! Kgtk allows to use the kde-file-selector in Gtk-applications. It features:
- a dropdown directory-selection,
- where you can type the path yourself aided by completion
- a text box to select the file by typing it
- in my opinion it also has a better design

kde file selector

To install it just emerge -va kgtk and follow the setup steps in the postinstall einfo. I have been trying it out with firefox and gimp, works really good so far. One downside it has: It will only run with kded, so sadly only kde-users be able to try this out.

5 comments »

5 comments

Comment from: nitro322 [Visitor] · http://www.legroom.net/

Thank you! This has been bothering the heck out of me since Firefox 1.5 was released. I guess I can deal with it better in GIMP since the UI sucks so horribly anyway and I just expect it, but it was killing my Firefox experience.

I'll load this up tonight. Thanks for posting.

05/05/06 @ 21:09

Comment from: tuXXX [Visitor]

With the Gnome filechooser, you can press keys to find a file/folder in the current directory (and press enter to choose, and so on...).
If you start pressing ~ or /, it'll open the same dialog-box than ctrl-L does.
This way you can open files very fast.

05/05/06 @ 23:38

Comment from: genstef [Visitor]

> If you start pressing ~ or /, it'll open the same dialog-box than ctrl-L does.

Sorry, but ~ requires me to press a strange ALTGR-Key on the german keyboard+twice a button that is very out of reach. And / requires the shift key+7 - both not really easy.
But even if that is good, there is still the Problem of missing completion, how should I know I typed correctly?
I hope you see the rationale

05/06/06 @ 07:31

Comment from: tuXXX [Visitor]

> But even if that is good, there is still the Problem of missing
> completion, how should I know I typed correctly?

I do have completion in this text field.

05/07/06 @ 15:26

Comment from: marvel [Visitor]

Your site is great

07/06/06 @ 00:41

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