Gtk+ file open

peets · 2007-12-06 03:28:57

I'm on a mission to get rid of a few quirks with my system. Here's one.

My Gtk+ file open/save dialog sucks. Can it be changed?

It looks like this:

mouse256 · 2007-12-06 11:33:25

Maybe you can explain what "sucks" means to you? It seems pretty normal to me...

augegr · 2007-12-06 12:14:23

If you use KDE and have this on GTK apps, you can use kgtk which replaces this dialog with the kde equivalent.
For gnome, I don't know any alternatives.

peets · 2007-12-06 13:27:12

What about GTK themes? Can they affect what appears on this thing? The kde one is better: you can choose which file types to show, by default there's some place where you can type the name of the file...

Or maybe there's some hidden features in this one that I don't know about? E.g. I discovered yesterday that I can press ^L to get a "location bar" in which I can type the name of the file I want to open.

I don't use gnome or kde or xfce.

a1ex · 2007-12-06 13:49:25

I'd like to know why dir listing is so incedibly slow in those dialoges. I have to wait ages on large folders. Which setting could change that?

peets · 2007-12-07 00:41:19

I did a bit of searching and reading about the gtk+ file chooser. The keyboard support is actually pretty good! Try it. Press ^L to get a location bar that features suggestions and tab completion! I like it. Also, listing dirs is asynchronous, so you can type at the same time and not have to wait "for all the icons to load". It's not as bad as I thought after all; it's definetely usable.

But I'd still like it to be better documented/customizable. There's a little box that lets me choose which file types I want to show, but that list is very limited, and I haven't found a way to modify it. Why is it not more obvious?

But it's usable. Yay.

mintcoffee · 2007-12-07 06:03:33

The GTK File Chooser is one of my pet peeves for GNOME. It was one of the reasons I switched to KDE I would love to know if there is anyway of hacking the GTK File Chooser to work the way I want it, instead of the way the GNOME devs want it.

iphitus · 2007-12-07 10:13:39

mintcoffee: As peets said, it's surprisingly capable but poorly documented. Instead of whining, mention your pet peeves.

mintcoffee · 2007-12-07 17:07:18

iphitus wrote:

mintcoffee: As peets said, it's surprisingly capable but poorly documented. Instead of whining, mention your pet peeves.

I'm not whining. I solved my problem by switching to KDE and using kgtk-wrapper whenever possible

Anyways, some of my problems include: 1. Setting the default size of the GTK File Chooser. 2. Making the 'Browse for other folders' extension show up by default. 3. List View instead of Details View.

Last edited by mintcoffee (2007-12-07 17:12:03)

Phrodo_00 · 2007-12-08 15:05:13

1. Dunno if it's posible to do it
2. wtf is that?
3. I think list view is imposible, as it uses a listreeview widget.

also, the filetypes it can filter are chosen by the application, and if you already got into the folder you want, you can type the name of the file, and as in every listreeview it will go to the file with that name (and show a nifty text box)

I really like that dialog, sure it can be improved a lot, but I like the idea.

mintcoffee · 2007-12-09 04:17:07

Phrodo_00 wrote:

1. Dunno if it's posible to do it
2. wtf is that?
3. I think list view is imposible, as it uses a listreeview widget.
also, the filetypes it can filter are chosen by the application, and if you already got into the folder you want, you can type the name of the file, and as in every listreeview it will go to the file with that name (and show a nifty text box)
I really like that dialog, sure it can be improved a lot, but I like the idea.

The 'browse for other folders' drop down looks like this:

It's frigging annoying to have to click that every time in GIMP when i want to save my file in a different folder. However, Dia seems to open the 'advanced' view by default, so it appears to be app-specific. Still, it would be nice to have a global setting to configure.

iphitus · 2007-12-09 07:22:19

So quick to criticise Talking doesnt solve or get much done, but googling does.

That one annoys me too -- but after a _very_ quick search there's a fix

~/.config/gtk-2.0/gtkfilechooser.ini
Change ExpandFolders to true

tested it on gvim/inkscape and it worked for me, you'll probably need to restart the respective gtk application before it applies.

So that solves problem 2.

Problem 1 you could probably solve with devilspie, problem 3 I don't think is currently possible without patching gtk itself.

Last edited by iphitus (2007-12-09 07:25:32)

mintcoffee · 2007-12-10 00:06:13

This is great.. yes, I was quick to criticize, however, I swear I googled this stuff before and didn't find a way to fix it! Thank you so much!

leo2501 · 2007-12-11 18:58:18

what about this? can it replace the actual file open dialog?

catfish - File Search Frontend

Catfish
http://software.twotoasts.de/?page=catfish

screens:
http://software.twotoasts.de/media/catfish/screen1.png
http://software.twotoasts.de/media/catfish/screen3.png

AUR:
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?d … s=0&SeB=nd

Last edited by leo2501 (2007-12-11 18:59:34)

peets · 2007-12-12 04:14:44

leo2501: Nice! But I almost always "open" my files from the command line, and grep is a good enough search engine for me (ls | grep to look for file names, grep -r to look for file contents...). Sometimes I use 'find'.

I still have to cope with Gtk's file open/save dialog if I want to save a file I was working on / viewing in a gtk app (e.g. inksape, firefox) or if I want to open a new file when already inside the app. Unless there was a way I could summon those commands from the shell... you never know, UNIX is fascinating.

Cheers!

Arch Linux

#1 2007-12-06 03:28:57

Gtk+ file open

#2 2007-12-06 11:33:25

Re: Gtk+ file open

#3 2007-12-06 12:14:23

Re: Gtk+ file open

#4 2007-12-06 13:27:12

Re: Gtk+ file open

#5 2007-12-06 13:49:25

Re: Gtk+ file open

#6 2007-12-07 00:41:19

Re: Gtk+ file open

#7 2007-12-07 06:03:33

Re: Gtk+ file open

#8 2007-12-07 10:13:39

Re: Gtk+ file open

#9 2007-12-07 17:07:18

Re: Gtk+ file open

#10 2007-12-08 15:05:13

Re: Gtk+ file open

#11 2007-12-09 04:17:07

Re: Gtk+ file open

#12 2007-12-09 07:22:19

Re: Gtk+ file open

#13 2007-12-10 00:06:13

Re: Gtk+ file open

#14 2007-12-11 18:58:18

Re: Gtk+ file open

#15 2007-12-12 04:14:44

Re: Gtk+ file open

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