Today looking on kde-look.org I saw this, that would be a nice idea for the new icon theme for KDE, have the possibility of being able to change their default andthe color of folders with one click. Having blue folders by default is ok, but sometimes we have a different colr scheme of the windows, or which would be better off with a Wallpaper folder of another color, it would be nice to change his andthe color of the sun default folders with a click? What do you think?
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/do ... 85083754ea

I can see the use of having multiple coloured folders, and I agree that the new icon set should have a number of different colours available for the standard folder icon. However I don't think it should be in the right click menu as I think that is crowded enough. Changing the icon through the properties menu is a pretty painless process, and most users will be accustomed to that kind of interaction anyway.

But yes, 100% on the different colours. That really is a must.

Yes, that was just the inspiration that gave me the idea, how to implement it, but I do not know! But I think that is a good thing if you can do it easily, and it also does not seem to me that no other OS or DE has this option.

I think the reason why it's in the context menu in the add-on on kde-look is that service menus are really easy to write, no need to touch any existing code.
Since we're talking about core development, of course we can integrate the feature much more deeply and I agree that properties would be the correct place to implement such a feature.

I agree that the menu is crowded enough, but if such a useful feature is placed in properties, how often would an average user find it? I don't tend to check properties after an upgrade to see if new features were added.

pedrorodriguez wrote: I don't tend to check properties after an upgrade to see if new features were added.

That's what release notes are for

Ok. I might read release notes, since I like to know what's new, but I wonder if this is a sane behavior to expect from average users: either look around in properties or read release notes. It might make sense to me if it were some arcane backend stuff, but this would be a pretty handy feature that Joe average would like to use.. if he knew it was there, that is

Okay, new approach: Tutorials. Something I've been bringing up again and again: If there is any feature we want users to learn about, it should be presented in a short animated tutorial sequence.
This way we can show features which are not easily discoverable to users without having to place them overly prominently. If we decide that changing folder color is something the majority of users do quite often, the context menu may indeed be the right place for it. "Because users won't find it otherwise" should not be the argument for placing it there, though.

I agree that tutorials would be really beneficial for discovering not so obvious features. One more issue with placing this functionality in Properties: let's say you want to select several folders and change their color at the same time. How would you do that from Properties?

It is possible to edit the properties of multiple folders at once. Select multiple folders, right-click, select Properties and you can edit them all at once.

Oops, didn't know that. Right now you can't change the icon for several folders though, but if that gets implemented, it can work just fine via Properties. I still would find it more useful in a menu, since it would be faster (less clicks). I don't thing I would use such a feature a lot if I have to click 4-5 times to apply the desired setting.

I guess that since I don't really see the usecase for me, I can't estimate how often it would be used very well. If it's indeed something people who do use it would commonly change then it would make sense to put it in the menu.

This video reminded me of this ancient thread. I personally find that to be an awesome feature.

https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/folder-col ... id-vervet/

colomar wrote:I guess that since I don't really see the usecase for me, I can't estimate how often it would be used very well. If it's indeed something people who do use it would commonly change then it would make sense to put it in the menu.

I would use it for the following. I often have to edit videos. For that I make a project folder, with subfolders for sources, finished video, titles, scripts, etc. When I open the folder where I save all these projects it is a little bit of a pain to locate the project I am working on. If I could have an easy way to color code my projects it would save me time and frustration. Same thing inside the project folder. In real life often we buy folders in different colors to help us find things at a glance. In my opinion it should be the same on my computer.

I see MATE also uses a context menu, and at least your usecase sounds like one in which one would change folder colors rather often, because it's done ad hoc. This would indeed speak for putting it in the context menu.