The following post is basically extracted from the description of this review request: https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/120484/

Currently Ark has two desktop actions with different names but the same effect: Compress -> Here and Compress -> As TAR.GZ Archive.
In both cases the effect is a tar.gz archive being created. This is quite confusing. Screenshot here: https://share.kde.org/public.php?servic ... e7a6a393fb

Possible solutions:

1. Change the action Here to Here (as TAR.GZ). In this way the novice user will still see the word here, while the advanced user will know which archive format is going to be used. But in this case the action Compress -> As TAR.GZ Archive would become a duplicate both in the name (well, kind of) and in the effect. In other words, the users will be confused about which of the two actions to choose.
2. Change the action Here to Here (as TAR.GZ) and remove the action Compress -> As TAR.GZ Archive. Now there are no duplicates and no confusion.
3. Remove the action Here. No more duplicates and no more confusion, but now the novice user will not see the word here (assuming that this was the reason why the Here action has been created).

Other ideas?
What about the possible introduction of new entries for different formats? (e.g. a new Compress -> As TAR.XZ Archive entry).

Hi. 'Compress' word is more informative. So +1 for keep it and remove 'Here' of me.

it will be nice to see that kf5 port was finished asap. Thanks.

Same here. Compress -> as tar.gz looks fine to me.

As for other ideas, I have posted some here.

It's so funny that when I started looking at this the answer seemed so obvious. Then, after thinking about it for a bit, I'm a little less certain...

I do wonder if the underlying problem is really that confusing to the user. With the plain old "Here" entry, if the user didn't want to worry about what the "string of crazy letters" mean they could ignore it and just pick "Here". On the other hand, by making the user choose a format, the user's selection is directly connected to the outcome, arguably a good thing. So I'm torn between recommend changing it and leaving it as is.

If we elect to change it, then I think the user is being asked to make a choice across two clear semantic classes:

• The location to which to compress the selected files.
• The format the compressed files should take.

Based on that, I think potential solutions are:

• Compress > [Here (as format 1) , Here (as format 2), Compress to...] OR
• 2-level cascade menu: Compress > [Here , Compress to...], and Here > [as format 1 , as format 2].

The latter perhaps causes a touch more lateral precision pointer movement but is very clear at each step (perhaps almost verbose?). That said, I think I'd be fine with the first one (which is the one the OP proposed).

Sorry for the rambling. This one was trickier for me than I expected. That or I'm just old...