Hi everyone,
I would love it if KDE had the same or similar features as Stardock’s Fences.
What makes Fences so simple and brilliant:
by holding down the left mouse button, you can drag a box and then choose to create a “fence” in that spot. This is an area on the home screen where you can drop shortcuts, files, etc., either via drag-and-drop or using automatic rules. (Automatic rules are incredibly powerful here; for example, they can move new files on the desktop into one of these Fences based on file extensions. And, for instance, a “catch-all” rule that captures all remaining files)
You can also easily “grab” these areas by their title and move them around on the desktop. And configure them in other ways. For example, you can hide the icons so only the title remains, or hide the Fences entirely, making them appear only when the mouse pointer hovers over that area.
There’s also an auto-sorting feature, scrolling when the area overflows, etc.
I think you’re getting a rough idea of where this is all headed.
I’m familiar with KDE’s folder view feature, but to be honest, it’s nowhere near as nice or functional.
@huggenknubbel:
First, welcome to the KDE Discuss Forum.
AFAICS, the folks based in Plymouth Charter Township, Michigan have implemented something for MS Windows machines which is similar to the KDE Plasma Folder View widget – which has been a part of KDE Plasma since the very beginning (of Plasma) in 2008. Previous KDE Desktop Environments – beginning at the very beginning of KDE in 1996 – had something similar but, it wasn’t as comfortable as the Desktop widget introduced in 2008. 
Help for the Folder View widget is here: <Folder View>.
@Franken14679 The problem is functionality, as quoted here.
Yes, the “Fences” product creates a new Folder, Area, call it what you will, by marking an area on the Desktop with the mouse.
The KDE Plasma widget has to be invoked by right-clicking on the Desktop and choosing to create a new widget.
Yes, the creation process is different but, the end result is the same – Folder views on the Desktop pointing to various collections of files.
- Maybe a small or, maybe not so small, difference is that, the “Fences” product seems to allow collections of items which may or, may not, be stored in a single File Folder (Directory) on the user’s system.
The KDE Plasma widget only allows a view of a specific directory.
The Folderview is only one small thing, Fences does.
So principal you are right, fences creates kind of folders on the Desktop and displays it.
- But the Folderview can’t hide if the cursor is away,
- There is no automatical sort into some folder (yeah, i’m pretty shure i can write some bash, who can apply something like this)
- There is no configurable background
This post is just a wish of some cool UX and UI stuff which i missed more than i wished.
I think you could split this post into several, based on features.
I used to use Fences years ago, and remember missing some features when moving to linux.
I like the idea for ‘show on hover’ feature for desktop widgets. I wonder if it could be implemented as a ‘per widget’ setting like rotation for example.