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Idea #15752: When abbreviating filenames, cut out the middle, keep the beginning and end

Written by Endolith the 19 Nov 08 at 02:40. Related project: Nautilus. Status: New
Rationale
If you view long file names in Nautilus List View, it truncates by cutting off the end. But the vast majority of the time, if there are similar filenames, the part that differentiates them will either occur at the beginning or the end. If you cut off the end in this case, they will look identical and you will be forced to scroll or enlarge the text field to identify the one you want:


This is a file.txt
This is a long filename which is c...
This is a long filename which is c...
This is a long filename which is c...
This is a long filename which is c...
This is a short filename.jpg

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Solution #1: Cut out the middle and leave the ends
Written by Endolith the 19 Nov 08 at 02:40.
A better way to shorten filenames is to cut out the middle and leave the ends:


This is a file.txt
This is a long f...is number 001.jpg
This is a long f...is number 002.jpg
This is a long f...is number 003.jpg
This is a long f...that it ends in.htm
This is a short filename.jpg


This should be the standard way to do it in Nautilus as well as other apps. It applies to any list of strings that go past the edge of the viewing area, really.

Of course, the *best* way to do it would be to keep track of subsequent file names and display just the parts that are different, no matter where they appear, but this would be significantly more complex and usually isn't necessary.
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Solution #2: horizontal scrolling, when moving mouse over filename
Written by openmoho the 23 Jan 09 at 17:54.
provide an oprion in nautilus' preferences to let the filename scroll horizontally back and forth, when moving mouse over...
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Solution #3: Popup hint showing fullname
Written by lujana the 10 Feb 09 at 06:36.
Implement a a popup hint that shows full filename after a short delay.
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Solution #4: Solution #1 + Full name expansion as mouse-hover state
Written by seeminglee the 23 Mar 09 at 11:30.
Same as solution #1 but with add a mouse-hover state which shows the full name as a label. Would be awesome (maybe configurable as option?) to hover and show fullname for files in the entire column (for the list and compact views)

Fullname labels expansion ideally displays as layer in place but on top of the UI (as opposed to liquid expansion of the of column which can be jarring)

Propose your solution

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sf_007 wrote on the 19 Nov 08 at 03:03
Seems like a good idea
+1

Eldmannen wrote on the 19 Nov 08 at 11:30
This is a long filename about a guy named dick.jpg
This is a long f... dick.jpg

Oops...

Vadim P. wrote on the 19 Nov 08 at 14:15
This is how Parcellite does abbreviations too, and I like it.

lol @ Eldmannen

quirks wrote on the 19 Nov 08 at 15:39
Wow, really good idea! Althoug I had this problem myself a number of times, I accepted it and never thought about how this could be done better.

DrHalan wrote on the 21 Nov 08 at 17:10
nice idea.

But too long filenames should be prevented anyways

Endolith wrote on the 21 Nov 08 at 18:51
But too long filenames should be prevented anyways

What do you mean by prevented? EXT3 allows up to 255 byte filenames, and that's a good thing. We certainly don't want to go back to 8.3 filenames from DOS! :)

wearzeep wrote on the 21 Nov 08 at 22:06
AWESUM! Yey, i want this!! :)

ploum wrote on the 25 Nov 08 at 15:50
This is simply genius.

ubuntuAdmin wrote on the 27 Nov 08 at 13:21
Make it customizable

Techno.FM wrote on the 4 Dec 08 at 06:32
I love this!
+1

acet wrote on the 7 Dec 08 at 12:22
good thinking!

Craig73 wrote on the 9 Dec 08 at 00:29
Hmmmm... probably wouldn't take long to write a patch (not that I have any idea where to start since I've never programmed gnome/gtk/linux apps)

Fjatle wrote on the 11 Dec 08 at 22:38
This is one of the things that bring you to; Now why haven't this been done before??

+5 :)

Endolith wrote on the 12 Dec 08 at 00:20
Now why haven't this been done before??

It has been done before; just not universally.

It should be the default behavior for any app that displays filenames in a column too small to show the entire name.

philip wrote on the 13 Dec 08 at 01:50
Your motivating examples show files that are different at the end. That occurs often but sometimes the differences are in the middle:

Philip Ganchev presentation 2008-12-12.odp
Philip Ganchev paper abstract 2008-12-12.odp

The system should try to identify the common parts of the file names and chop those off.

Seph_VII wrote on the 13 Dec 08 at 19:41
Good idea phillip, and I too think it would be the best solution, but it is much more complicated to do. Maybe in 9.10, but I think this should be implemented in the mean time.

oneawesomeguy wrote on the 18 Dec 08 at 20:39
+1 to philip's solution

Endolith wrote on the 18 Dec 08 at 23:44
@philip:

That's already in the description, but, as I said, it's much more complex and usually not necessary.

cowbud wrote on the 21 Mar 09 at 09:03
Horrible idea. Many times the information at the end of the file is not the important information. Extensions would be displayed instead of information in the middle that does actually pertain to the file.


Keep it as it is and if you don't like your long filenames rename the file.

twocool wrote on the 21 Mar 09 at 13:14
@cowbud even if solution 1 is implemented the current behavior could be kept as an option.

Endolith wrote on the 30 Mar 09 at 15:30
Many times the information at the end of the file is not the important information.

When? Can you provide any examples of real files in which the beginning and end are identical, but the middle is not? I can't think of any time I have ever encountered this.

In the majority of cases, the beginning or end is what distinguishes similarly-named pathnames.

As I said in Solution #1, the ideal solution would be to display the parts that are actually different, but this is much more complicated and, in my experience, never actually necessary.


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