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Idea #4496: Column view in Nautilus (Finder-like)

bug This entry was marked as not being an idea the 17 October 11. If this is a bug report, please use the Ubuntu bug tracker.
Written by claudiodsf the 13 Mar 08 at 15:24. Related project: Nautilus. Status: Not an idea
Rationale
In Mac OSX Finder, this view displays the hierarchy of the file system in a series of left-to-right panes: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Tiger/Using_the_Finder#Column_View

I find it terribly useful when you have a deep structured directory hierarchy, especially when you want to move a file several levels up.

304
votes
closed
Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #4496
Written by claudiodsf the 13 Mar 08 at 15:24.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #4496 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!
-16
votes
closed
Solution #3: Only as plugin
Written by lootic the 27 Feb 10 at 14:39.
Nautilus works fine and have a lot of features as it is, tabbed browsing and the way the address bar is now is more than enough for many users, adding stuff slows down in general and nautilus already happens to be kinda slow. Having features you don't use is a con. Thus only as plugin if implemented.

Propose your solution

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Comments
ubby wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 16:28
Nice idea!

Ralf.Nieuwenhuijsen wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 16:39
Perhaps being able to drag and drop onto the crumble bar to files up?

Eldmannen wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 19:58
Ubuntu is not Mac OS X.

Also, I don't think it looks good, it doesn't look friendly.

claudiodsf wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 19:59
@Ralf: sure, but file moving is only one othe advantages.

The other main advantage is the ability to browse very fast trough a very strctured file system.

claudiodsf wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 20:05
@Eldmannen:

"Ubuntu is not Mac OS X"

To me this is a wrong starting point. If another OS has good features, why don't bring them to Ubuntu (or Linux in general)?

The new Gnome 2.22 has Cheese which is a really nice app, regardless of its inspiration from Apple's PhotoBoot.

belovedmonster wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 13:37
I think I read the next release of GNOME (out in 6 months) is bringing a column view. Dunno if its hows OSX implements it though.

claudiodsf wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 13:47
@belovedmonster

I think they're referring to this:

http://blogs.gnome.org/cneumair/2008/02/17/new-column-wise-nautilus-view-user-d ata-backup-replay

which, though useful, is not the OSX implementation.

claudiodsf wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 15:40
Found a more recent screenshot:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Tiger/Using_the_Finder#Column_View

pierre.slamich@gmail.com wrote on the 19 Mar 08 at 00:47
Definitely worth implementing, even as a hidden option.

wearzeep wrote on the 10 Apr 08 at 23:11
I agree with claudiodsf, OSX has some great features, and why would the users of Ubuntu be cheated out of the same nice stuff, just because Ubuntu "isn't supposed to be OSX".
I mean, i wouldn't even use this, but it should really be there as an option, seeing that apparently a lot of people like it.

swalko wrote on the 20 Apr 08 at 06:50
"Ubuntu is not Mac OS X" you say this after read post and looked at picture. I work with Mac OS X and this is one of best finder features. Ill be happy if nautilus will have this view too.

buggyman wrote on the 17 Jul 08 at 03:27
Ubuntu is not Mac OS X - true.

But chinese food is not native to me...i like it though.

This is the best file manager view ever!

jney wrote on the 24 Jul 08 at 19:54
+1
this view is definitly the best.
(i'm both mac and ubuntu user)

ethana2 wrote on the 6 Sep 08 at 01:08
I'm on Intrepid right now, I thought they did just this, but I look around and can't find it. I'm so freaking disappointed. I was really looking forward to this.

This is the best possible view in a file browser.

Apple knows what the heck they're doing, and there is nothing wrong with implementing their amazing ideas.

+1

boombox1387 wrote on the 6 Sep 08 at 18:51
I'm not a huge Finder fan or even a Mac fan, but I absolutely love the column view. In an organized way, it shows a lot of information in a small place.

While reading an enhancement request for tabs in Nautilus on the bugzilla page, one of the developers mentioned that tabs would be a big change because Nautilus would have to be able to display contents from multiple folders in one window. Maybe when tabbed file-managing becomes a reality, that will open up the possibility for column view...? Hopefully.

nitrofurano wrote on the 6 Sep 08 at 20:43
Please guys, get informed first - Linux has this available from a long time! ;-)

just try 'sudo apt-get install gworkspace.app'
http://www.gnustep.it/enrico/gworkspace/

This feature came first from NeXT-Step (and so OpenStep) - MacOS-Classic never had it (unless you install a third party similar extension from somewhere else that time), and it only appeared on MacOS-X when using Rhapsody at 1999 (MacOS-X 10.0)

what may be missing is bringing some code to Nautilus, nothing more, and please respecting people used to enjoy the good old Nautilus settings, like me...

seanb wrote on the 18 Sep 08 at 19:00
This is definitely a very useful feature. It makes traversing a deep hierarchy much quicker and less clumsy. As far as I can tell, it's pretty easy for even inexperienced computer users to use (my mother figured it out pretty quickly, for example).

It's available in Dolphin 1.1, which is included with KDE 4.1, and (for me at least) is quite unstable. I haven't tried any earlier versions. Dolphin's implementation isn't quite as nice as Finder's, but it wouldn't take much polish to improve that. For example, in Finder, the width of each column can be adjusted by dragging a resize nub at the bottom of the column separator. In Dolphin, column width is a global setting that's buried in the preferences. This can be a hassle when filenames are lengthy in a particular directory.

Here are screenshots of each:

http://bumblef.com/dolphin_column.png
http://bumblef.com/finder_column.png


BTW, I haven't reported any Dolphin bugs yet, but I hope to once I figure out how to reproduce the crashes.

seanb wrote on the 18 Sep 08 at 19:10
Forgot to mention: This column view is also available in the latest version of Konqueror, which has stability issues similar to those in Dolphin, as far as I can tell.

brownbear wrote on the 1 Nov 08 at 02:48
I really hope this makes it into 9.04.

:-)

jzacsh wrote on the 9 Nov 08 at 16:26
I absolutely love column view. when i moved from windows to mac os x, i was amazed with this - its an awsome design. I think ubuntu should have it too. (its also the easiest way to navigate through mass amounts of directories with out the mouse, and just the arrows keys)

tchalvakspam wrote on the 12 Nov 08 at 15:51
Everyone needs to check out Dolphin, because all of it's features are so, so hot, I really wish that gnome's default file manager copied it.

It has everything, split view, column view, tabs, icon view, list view.
I really hope that nautilus copies the robust feature set of Dolphin and finally gives gnome a file manager that we can actually -work- with.

I'm very happy about the addition of tabs to nautilus, because I've hated having to deal with multiple windows spread across multiple virtual desktops, but as it turns out, tabs without enforcement of a single window mode aren't as slick as I was hoping.
I'm gonna look into nautilus' development plans because I want to know whether they're ever intending to match dolphin's comprehensive greatness right now.

Hell, I just wish that it was simple to switch the default file managers in ubuntu, then I could easily choose between nautilus and Dolphin without backsliding.

flatliner wrote on the 28 Dec 08 at 17:26
Yes I badly want this feature.

jlaugh wrote on the 21 May 09 at 04:56
It's my favorite way to view the finder on my Mac's. It's the best way to drill through the file structure.

jlaugh wrote on the 21 May 09 at 10:36
I just tried dolphin and I think that you should replicate the functionality of the finder view including the preview in an inline pain instead of how dolphin did it. Also the left sidebar should be inline.

jlaugh wrote on the 21 May 09 at 10:48
Have you thought about separating the gui "theme" from the functionality of gnome. Then you'd be able to have programs from both the kde and gnome library's running on the same box under a unified theme set he iu is a more consistent user experience.

That would inspire a nice theming community now doubt.

nigru wrote on the 29 Jun 09 at 10:57
At my work I have on same computer macOSX and UBUNTU. I'm running UBUNTU with parallels because I need run Adobe CS4 on MAC, but I prefer do everything else on UBUNTU.
The column view maybe the best finder feature, and it's so great that everytime I need to do something on finder and I return to nautilus, this last one seems a little poor!

The other thing, is the sidebar organization. I work with a lot of remote connections and sidebar of finder is better than nautilus because organize by type.

robinst wrote on the 14 Jul 09 at 15:21
There's an open GNOME bug report about this here: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_activity.cgi?id=96239

robinst wrote on the 14 Jul 09 at 15:21
Sorry, correct URL: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=96239

claudiodsf wrote on the 8 Sep 09 at 07:15
I just discovered that the exact name for this feature is "Miller Columns"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Columns

tdskate wrote on the 17 Feb 10 at 11:48
Hi, I'm looking for this feature as well... Has anything been done yet? Thanks.

oubiwann wrote on the 9 Mar 10 at 17:54
When I use Mac OS X, this is the *only* view that I ever use (except when needing to sort by timestamp). This view is a perfect match for my brain and I find navigation with it is several times faster for me.

+1

Nikos.Alexandris wrote on the 12 Mar 10 at 13:19
Add also the option to have the panes right-to-left if possible. (Don't ask) Why... ?

- just because it's possible
- it's another point of view
- focus on the few files or the file and their parent directory
- for fun
- add your crazy idea(s)...

:-)

niteshade wrote on the 17 Mar 10 at 04:41
+1

if you haven't used a Mac with this feature, you should... it makes the filesystem extremely fast to navigate. Faster than any other view, hands down. Makes Windows and Linux feel a little primitive, I'm afraid... and now I'm stuck using Dolphin just to have this functionality. Looking forward to seeing it (maybe as a plugin?) in Nautilus.

sqren wrote on the 18 Mar 10 at 05:06
Hopes to see it implemented soon! :)
+1

jerwilkins wrote on the 19 May 10 at 19:27
Wonderful idea. One of the OS X usability features that really shines.

gorgon wrote on the 29 Jun 10 at 22:37
This kind of view makes me want(!) to organize my files better, not just put a whole bunch in one folder.

samadams wrote on the 6 Aug 10 at 03:03
I use this extensively in OS X. At first, I wasn't keen on it. And I missed some of the other views I was used to in Windows. But as I got to use it more, I find myself using it almost exclusively. It is especially nice since I can set it to be used for certain folders that have a massive hierarchical scheme in their subtree. This way, I can browse via thumbnails in higher levels, and via columns when I hit something that's organized with a large subtree. I especially like the info pane and preview I get in the last column after selecting a file. (keeps the basic window clean unlike Windows explorer)

This is just good GUI practice. It should be standard.

ethana2 wrote on the 25 Nov 10 at 05:34
The lack of this feature is holding back my ability to keep my files organized. My information is a complete and utter mess because if I put things in folders like I'd like to, it's too disorienting navigating up and down and back and in.

This is getting ridiculous. If I could pay $50 for this feature in a gnome-native browser right now, I would do it. I need this. Even if it was a proprietary app, I don't care anymore. Look at what gorgon said, it reflects the same thing.

This has over 200 votes, and nothing's come of it. I left a comment on this same idea over 2 YEARS ago; just look up the page. Seriously, if $50 isn't enough for somebody, I'll commit myself to $100. Contact me about this bounty, implement this, get it into Ubuntu. $100 via PayPal.

gorgon wrote on the 27 Nov 10 at 15:29
@ethana2
this is a good idea. I'll chip in with $20 to the dev who implements this.

Anyone else? If we get some people on the boat we could make an entry in www.pledgebank.com...

Gatonegro wrote on the 23 Dec 10 at 21:42
I would definitely put in some 20 dollars more. We could build up that bounty if some more people join.

pgomega wrote on the 11 Apr 11 at 05:03
I'll add $20 too!

sebastock wrote on the 9 Jun 11 at 20:40
$25 over here!

Vahan Harutyunyan (Brainstorm moderator) wrote on the 17 Oct 11 at 12:20
Please file Wishlist Bug report against Nautilus for this issue or direct your suggestion to the Nautilus developers at http://live.gnome.org or on IRC at irc.gnome.org #nautilus.
Closing in Brainstorm.


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