I’m using Plasma 6 on an ultrawide display (21:9). I’m using Plasma’s Tiling manager with 1:2:1 layout (basically a “main” program in the middle and some utilities on the sides). I’ve made the bottom panel as wide as the “middle” section of the layout, so it appears directly where I focus my eyes.
The problem I have is, that the Application Menu, that pops up, is aligned based on where the button that launches is present, using the button as the “center” position. While this is ok when the menu is narrow, it starts to go left when I’m “searching”, basically going to the left bottom corner of my screen. It’s also annoying, because it “moves” the columns while I’m typing (it starts with one column, after one letter the “system settings” column pops up, moving the “Applications” column to the left and with 2 or 3 letters, the “Bookmarks” and “File Search” columns appear).
Here’s how it looks when I use it. The “middle tile”, where the browser is, is where I would like to see the application menu.
Is there a way to make the “pop up menu” appear anchoring it’s left side to the “launcher” button? This would show it in the middle of the screen, and the columns wouldn’t “move” while typing. I know ultrawide displays are a niche, but this would make Plasma much more comfortable for me.
The problem with configuration is the associated maintenance and associated number of edge cases. I’m not an UX expert, but in this case I think there’s a clear way to do it right.
Anchoring the menu where its left edge appears (if there is enough space on the right side, obviously, and I assume this would be the other way for right to left languages) would make the user experience better, because the menu is not “moving around” while you are typing and the additional columns appear. This would also be consistent with the normal menu behavior, when you open submenus, what doesn’t cause the whole menu to realign.
The current situation makes a bad experience, because if you are looking for an application, you open the menu, your eyes focus on the menu, and then, while you type, you have to refocus, sometimes several times, because the application column moves.
