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Idea #7855: Color coded folders?



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Written by hunt.topher the 30 Apr 08 at 00:59. Category: Look and Feel.
Related to: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Description
As Mac does it, Ubuntu could provide a small widget at the bottom of the Properties window (main tab, where there is plenty of room) where the user can quickly click one of several colors to set the folder to that color. Easy to access, and no words or explanation necessary.

Rationale
I thought this idea had already been suggested, but I guess I'm wrong. I've read some suggestions for Ubuntu to organize its user files as Mac does in its Finder, so the nitty-gritty of the operating system is hidden from view. I don't think Ubuntu needs to do that, but I do think it would be a great idea to color code folders.

Ubuntu's current folder-marking system isn't great.
GNOME's Emblems are a neat idea but don't provide much functionality to basic users. For one thing, it takes too long to access the Emblems tab for someone to micromanage many folders by choosing an emblem for each folder.
For another, in Ubuntu's current default theme, most emblems are of the same color and merely have different designs. If you're quickly browsing through many folders, this won't allow you to identify the right folder as fast as a folder of a different color would.
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Comments
Raval wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 15:08
Great idea! great way of finding frequent folders among many other folders.

Eldmannen wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 15:48
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/4828/

Pink for porno.

vexorian wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 16:46
emblems are great if you are using the correct icon theme , I think it would also be possible to make them selectable from a popup menu.

My advice is: fix emblems and allow folder colors, all of this should be based on the implementation of system icons in gnome.

Plugging old brainstorms:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/5501/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/6010/


hunt.topher wrote on the 6 May 08 at 20:36
Update: I just noticed that you can apply emblems from Nautilus' side panel if you change the "Places" panel to "Emblems". Still, I think the argument holds strong that emblems (especially monochromatic ones) are not quite as useful as the ability to just make the folder another color.

drinkypoo wrote on the 6 May 08 at 23:26
I have color emblems. Rather than dumb down by switching to colors why not just fix emblems and always include some color emblems with color names?

hunt.topher wrote on the 17 May 08 at 20:04
Drinkypoo:
a) Nice screenname.
b) That could certainly be one solution, but I don't know if that works with Gnome's current emblem manager. Isn't each emblem just an image that's overlaid in the corner of the folder? So it wouldn't actually change the folder's color... but it could still be useful if there were emblems that were just circles of different colors.


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