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Contributor fix98-win

Bottom panel makes window navigation and organizing impossible or difficult.  
Written by fix98-win the 12 Dec 09 at 02:36. Related project: Nautilus. New
The tab based design of the bottom panel makes finding windows and applications difficult and organizing them impossible. The more of these are open, the more tedious it gets.

The problem with the current panel layout being difficult to navigate has been addressed before, but not in any way truly useful to the user.

Microsoft attempted to address this issue with its release of windows 98. Their solution was to group task-bar buttons with the application they belong to. Not only was this not implemented properly, (It did not group the buttons until the space in the task-bar was filled up, when it should have grouped when the second window was opened) but it was actually a drawback. Switching between windows required opening a popup menu and selecting the window, which took time away from the user. With this feature turned off all the windows are accessible from the task-bar directly.

Since the bottom panel resembles the Windows task-bar, I am compelled to compare them. It is not possible to organize windows from the task-bar.

Apple's solution in 2001 came in the form of a dock (their expose feature is not relevant to the discussion as it has nothing to do with the dock, or organization). The dock had the same problem. If the user did not want to use expose they had to open a contextual menu of the application they wanted and select the window from the menu.

Since the functionality of the bottom panel and the Windows task-bar resemble that of the Mac OS X dock, I am compelled to compare them. It is not possible to organize windows from the dock.

Tabs also present the same organizational problems in browsers and preference windows.
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Solution #1: Implement both a tree list view and a column view depending on orientation.
Written by fix98-win the 12 Dec 09 at 02:36.
FULL SOLUTION:

In order to reduce window clutter, improve functionality, and save time, I am proposing a systemwide hierarchical tree view be used in the panel (not by default, but at the behest of the user, of course). This tree is best viewed in a vertical orientation, thus the panel should be in a vertical position on either the left or the right side for this view.

Consider this scenario:
The user is browsing the internet in Firefox and wants to open a link in a new tab. If the user does so, he/she will not see the new tab in the tree (since the tab is inside a window and the first tab is highlighted, so it is the one that appears in the tree). If the user continues to open new tabs, it will become difficult to find a tab later because of the way they are organized.

The only viable way to organize tabs then, is to group them in a hierarchical manner. It would be difficult to do this with tabs, and it would be difficult to do this with the bottom panel, the task-bar, or the dock. However, it would be easy to organize and keep track of windows, browser or otherwise in a tree view. For me and I'm sure many others, this method has already improved internet browsing with Firefox Add-ons like Tree style tab.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5890

One very useful function that has to do with organization is reducing clutter. In the case of closing windows, it would definitely be beneficial to select multiple windows from completely different applications and close them, or reload web pages, refresh file browsers, and other useful functions.

Since a tree view would look odd in horizontal orientation, when the panel is on the bottom or top it should change to a column view, similar to the Mac OS X column view. The top level windows appear in the first column, its children in the next, and a preview in the column after the last window in the hierarchy.

In either orientation, scalability is the key to efficient use of space. Also key to efficient use of space is the ability to hide the panel as both the task-bar and the dock can hide.

SUMMARY:

I encourage everyone to read and consider my quite lengthy solution since it takes less than five minutes, but incase you are just looking for a summary, here it is.

The concept of organizing files and folders into a hierarchical tree-type list has been working well since before the modern computer, if we can organize files and folders in a tree view, then why can't we also organize windows this way? Thank you for your time and consideration.

See the 2 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 26 Dec 09 at 18:29) >>