Bug 73218 - START CENTER: no file extensions displayed - cannot distinguish between file types
Summary: START CENTER: no file extensions displayed - cannot distinguish between file ...
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: ux-advise (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.2.0.0.beta2
Hardware: Other All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-01-02 10:42 UTC by Milos Sramek
Modified: 2015-07-23 12:40 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Milos Sramek 2014-01-02 10:42:25 UTC
The new start center shows icons and names of the recent files. A nice feature. 

Current status:
Start Center in LO42 does not show file extensions, which is for me very annoying:
1. I often convert files: in such a case two icons with the same names are displayed - I do not know, which is which
2. I do not know meaning of all icons, so I do not know type of the file.

Thus, I have to open the file to find out. 

Suggested solution:
This can be easily solved by keeping the extension. Eventually, if some users really like hidden extensions, make it a configurable option - I would recommend that it defaults to 'show'.

For me this is a step towards the Microsoft approach, where they hide the extension (and file formats, too) which I find to be one of their worst features.
--
Milos
Comment 1 retired 2014-01-02 11:10:37 UTC
Maybe it would be nice to display a small icon of the document type on each preview (icons from the left column could be used) to indicate which file type the preview document is.

Valid enhancement request. Setting to NEW.
Comment 2 steve 2015-07-23 10:19:29 UTC
I disagree with this enhancement request because I am not sure what we are trying to solve here.

I like a clean start center and really would try to avoid adding more and more clutter, icons and paths and text and stuff to it that is serving a really tiny edge use-case.

The case described by Milos where files are transferred from format 1 to format 2 is a rather rare thing. And once done, chances are, the user only works with one of the two formats. In that case, the not needed format can quickly and very easily be removed from the start center by hoovering the mouse and a tooltip showing full path + file format of course.

Because of that I propose to put this won'tfix.

A solution could be to have the file extension added with transparent font over each file preview and make that an option in view (default to off).
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2015-07-23 10:33:24 UTC
The use case is valid. If you export a PDF and open it you get the same file twice. I see no good reason why extensions are hidden. It's a security fail in Microsoft and it's bad here.

Icons clutter the screen, that would be the second best solution.

The only workaround is the tooltip which shows the complete filename including path and extension.
Comment 4 V Stuart Foote 2015-07-23 12:40:55 UTC
> The only workaround is the tooltip which shows the complete filename
> including path and extension.

Which is what we agreed to, and implemented. Leave it be.

=-refs-=
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Whiteboards/Start_Center#Controversial_Topics

http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Start-Center-Niggles-tp4085277p4086387.html