Random plasma UI questions

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1

Hi,

I jumped back into KDE a few days ago and ive got some UI questions. Some might say strange, but im just a regular user who notices these things and was curious. Plasma v6.3.4.

1 - Why are tray icons using about 100% more space than they need to when clicked? It seems the same size/frame is used for bluetooth, sound, display Brightness, popup.

For those of us with only a few entires in each section - we end up with a ton of wasted space at the bottom and it takes a second more to scroll up there. Its really unncessary and makes the experience less streamlined. Ideally, that frame should be drawn according to the amount of entries.

2 - I have some pinned icons in my taskbar. When i click them - the pinned item dissapears and a new window for the application is launched in the taskbar - why? If its pinned, just keep the same icon on the taskbar where it is.

3 - Tray Icons arent very aliased at 1440p - with the default theme Breeze, they look hand drawn and not so nice. 1080p and 1440p resolutions are fairly common - if its doabale - allow users to downsample the icon’s from 4k quality down to the native res. That should make them appear more crisp and more sleek.

4 - Toolpit text is left centered - why? This is a small one but i have OCD, would rather they appear in the middle (or centered as the decoration settin).

5 - No mouse edge option to enter ‘Edit Mode’? That would be much quicker.

Probably a few others but for noe, thats it.

Thanks

2

Point 2 is solved - i hadnt configured it corectly.

3

Hi! I’m no professional designer, but my user perspective for what it’s worth:

If that were done, then when the number of entries changes, the widget controls and items would all relocate as it’s resizing - which seems especially tricky for ones like Networks and Bluetooth where items could be coming and going from the list. Aside from those, I guess my aesthetic preference is that system tray widgets all have a consistent size so that you can predict where the controls will be, and that moving from one to the other looks extra smooth :slight_smile:

That’s odd, I’ve used Plasma across devices with several different screen sizes and haven’t noticed the tray icons looking particularly rough - can you share your system info from the Info Center app, and what display scaling you’re using?

The built-in Screen Edge actions are generally ones that would be needed in day-to-day usage of a device - I’d assume that Edit Mode for the panels and desktop isn’t part of an everyday workflow.

If you want to get into fully customizing what actions can occur when the pointer hits a screen edge, though, you can do that through KWin scripting: KWin scripting tutorial | Developer

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