How to make the left view active on startup of `Dolphin`?

[chandra]

It used to be that the left view on my split (two)-view dolphin window was the active one at startup.

Recently, it has changed to the right view (after an upgrade?) without my intervention.

I want to change it to make the left view active on startup as before.

I have looked at the dolphin settings but have not figured out how to do it.

All help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[soundofthunder]

Can you not simply right-click on your User directory and choose “open in new tab” (or however it’s worded)?

• “Open in Split View”

Additionally, if you go to;

Settings → Interface → Folders & Tabs and set Show on startup to /home/<your-user-name> then one split view will always open there.

If you want it to be the “left”, then make sure the view with your home is at the left.

You might then look at this option (before closing Dolphin):

• Begin in split view mode (turn it on)

---

That should do it.

Regards.

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[Mirdarthos]

@soundofthunder

Can you not simply right-click on your User directory and choose “open in new tab” (or however it’s worded)?

• “Open in Split View”

That should do it.

Regards.

Perhaps this:

https://i.imgur.com/F5CZQFZ.png

[chandra]

Yes, indeed. I have that selected.

The left view/pane was active on startup previously; now it is the right.

I want to switch back to the old behaviour. I wonder if that is possible without the Tab key?

[soundofthunder]

Navigate to /home/chandra in the left view, and wherever else you want, in the right. That’s all I can think of.

The view with /home/chandra will always load first, or so the theory goes, as long as Show on startup is set to your home.

I suppose you could switch to showing “Folders, tabs, window state from last time” in Show on startup, and see if that makes a difference.

[linux-aarhus]

I makes sense to focus the file pane on startup - it is a file manager - not a places manager.

I have never seen dolphin focus the places pane when launching - always the files pane

If you really to quickly activate the places pane - use F9 twice.

@Aragorn

I think the OP is talking about a split view, with two file panes.

Sorry - I don’t know why I missed that

[Aragorn]

@linux-aarhus

I makes sense to focus the file pane on startup - it is a file manager - not a places manager.

I think the OP is talking about a split view, with two file panes.

[soundofthunder]

I’ll take the opportunity to mention krusader as a Qt based alternative to Dolphin that might be worth keeping handy. Note that this is not a reflection on Dolphin, it’s simply good to have a choice.

[chandra]

I can use the tab to switch. But it used to be that the left was active when dolphin fired up.

I used the left view as source and right as destination for copying. With the change I have to re-train my movement. Hence the question. If this behaviour is baked in, I will just re-learn.

[soundofthunder]

@chandra

I used the left view as source and right as destination for copying. With the change I have to re-train my movement. Hence the question. If this behaviour is baked in, I will just re-learn.

Can you not try what I have already suggested, twice?

[Aragorn]

@chandra

If this behaviour is baked in, I will just re-learn.

I do not know whether it is, but there have indeed been some significant changes to dolphin with the last update to kf6, and it sure does appear to have several bugs now.

[Ben]

@chandra

I want to change it to make the left view active on startup as before.

This is slightly frustrating, but it’s not really a thing you can do. It was brought up on the KDE forum, and basically one of the major issues is more that your theme might not make it obvious enough which side is actually active (hitting TAB simply switches it).

For this reason, pay attention to your colour scheme, some Kvantum themes work better than others too… but mostly, it’s not something where you can explicitly choose one colour for active and another for inactive.

Here is a colour scheme which I quite like, which makes Dolphin very clear to use - good for our little excercise - because it is often very subtle (enough to spot when you change panes, but not overtly obvious which pane is active). This scheme makes the active pane stand out very clearly.

Later you can maybe copy your current colour scheme and edit it if it needs it… Most colour schemes DO need improving.

1. When editing colour schemes, I like to convert them to a format that will preview colours in Kate (i.e. #333333 works better than RGB notation - and you can convert them using AI very easily). Copy this one, paste it and name it something like ~/.local/share/color-schemes/01XPhashed.colors - switch to the theme.

XP-Hashed colours

[ColorEffects:Disabled]
Color=#383838
ColorAmount=0
ColorEffect=0
ContrastAmount=0.65
ContrastEffect=1
IntensityAmount=0.1
IntensityEffect=2

[ColorEffects:Inactive]
ChangeSelectionColor=true
Color=#706f6e
ColorAmount=0.025
ColorEffect=2
ContrastAmount=0.1
ContrastEffect=2
Enable=false
IntensityAmount=0
IntensityEffect=0

[Colors:Button]
BackgroundAlternate=#bdc3c7
BackgroundNormal=#d4d1c5
DecorationFocus=#3daee9
DecorationHover=#8ec8e1
ForegroundActive=#3daee9
ForegroundInactive=#7f8c8d
ForegroundLink=#2980b9
ForegroundNegative=#da4453
ForegroundNeutral=#c65c00
ForegroundNormal=#232627
ForegroundPositive=#27ae60
ForegroundVisited=#7f8c8d

[Colors:Complementary]
BackgroundAlternate=#3b4045
BackgroundNormal=#31363b
DecorationFocus=#1e92ff
DecorationHover=#3daee6
ForegroundActive=#93cee9
ForegroundInactive=#afb0b3
ForegroundLink=#3daee6
ForegroundNegative=#e74c3c
ForegroundNeutral=#fdbc4b
ForegroundNormal=#eff0f1
ForegroundPositive=#2ecc71
ForegroundVisited=#3daee6

[Colors:Selection]
BackgroundAlternate=#1d99f3
BackgroundNormal=#8399b1
DecorationFocus=#3daee9
DecorationHover=#8ec8e1
ForegroundActive=#fcfcfc
ForegroundInactive=#eff0f1
ForegroundLink=#fdbc4b
ForegroundNegative=#b03745
ForegroundNeutral=#f67400
ForegroundNormal=#fcfcfc
ForegroundPositive=#176839
ForegroundVisited=#bdc3c7

[Colors:Tooltip]
BackgroundAlternate=#4d4d4d
BackgroundNormal=#232627
DecorationFocus=#3daee9
DecorationHover=#8ec8e1
ForegroundActive=#3daee9
ForegroundInactive=#bdc3c7
ForegroundLink=#2980b9
ForegroundNegative=#da4453
ForegroundNeutral=#f67400
ForegroundNormal=#fcfcfc
ForegroundPositive=#27ae60
ForegroundVisited=#7f8c8d

[Colors:View]
BackgroundAlternate=#eff0f1
BackgroundNormal=#e6e6e6
DecorationFocus=#3daee9
DecorationHover=#8ec8e1
ForegroundActive=#3daee9
ForegroundInactive=#7f8c8d
ForegroundLink=#2980b9
ForegroundNegative=#da4453
ForegroundNeutral=#f67400
ForegroundNormal=#3f4446
ForegroundPositive=#27ae60
ForegroundVisited=#7f8c8d

[Colors:Window]
BackgroundAlternate=#bdc3c7
BackgroundNormal=#c8c4b4
DecorationFocus=#3daee9
DecorationHover=#8ec8e1
ForegroundActive=#3daee9
ForegroundInactive=#7f8c8d
ForegroundLink=#2980b9
ForegroundNegative=#da4453
ForegroundNeutral=#f67400
ForegroundNormal=#232627
ForegroundPositive=#27ae60
ForegroundVisited=#7f8c8d

[General]
ColorScheme=BreezeClassic
Name=01 XP-Hashed
shadeSortColumn=true

[KDE]
contrast=4

[WM]
activeBackground=#c8c4b4
activeBlend=#fcfcfc
activeForeground=#5a7655
inactiveBackground=#c8c4b4
inactiveBlend=#4b4743
inactiveForeground=#5f6264

2. Open Dolphin, activate Settings with CtrlShift, - On the first pane (Interface) you will see Split View options. First, activate ‘Switch with Tab key’ and second, note ‘Turning off split view closes the view in focus’. You must experiment with this, because you’re going to have to learn to deal with it and develop some automatic reactions… but my vote is for F3 to always act on the ACTIVE tab.

TEST 1. Open home (single pane). Arrow to select a folder, then hit F3 to activate the other pane…

I have ~/Audio one side, then it’s contents on the other (but could be any folder). I am now (logically) focussed on the RIGHT pane, the contents pane… makes sense. Hitting F3 will kill that pane (due to MY setting) and TAB will focus the LEFT pane.

If you now do the AltF4 and MetaE shuffle (close/open Dolphin) you’ll be focussed where you left off. This would be the proper behaviour.

However, if you now hit TAB to focus the left panel, press arrow keys to select another folder, enter that - then do the AltF4 and MetaE shuffle - your focus is now lost, and you are returned to the RIGHT panel.

Your solution to always focus the LEFT panel is (IMO) equally wrong; but could be made optional I guess. The thing is - whilst hitting F3 with a folder selected will open it in a new pane, hitting F3 again will close the original pane…

I’m finding it easier to deal with F3 acting always on the focussed pane… and TAB serving to close the ‘other tab’ (i.e. TabF3).

Overall there have been a couple of ‘regressions’ with Plasma going to 6.5, and KDE Developers are actively reading these arguments and puzzling on how best to deal with them…

The most interesting one for me is that if you now open a folder, then click ‘Create Folder’ four times, you don’t get 4 folders in the PWD - because Dolphin is on a ‘follow focus’ mission… so you can click it 4 times and you’ll get Folder1/folder2 Folder3/folder4 (i.e. one folder, one nested, then another folder and another nested)…

So yes, Dolphin’s messed up - take control with TAB and F3.

[chandra]

@soundofthunder

Can you not try what I have already suggested, twice?

Are you suggesting using
(1) “Folders, tabs, window state from last time”; or
(2) Switching to krusader
I will try both and report back.

[soundofthunder]

@chandra

@soundofthunder

Can you not try what I have already suggested, twice?

Are you suggesting using
(1) “Folders, tabs, window state from last time”; or
(2) Switching to krusader
I will try both and report back.

I’ll assume you’re not being deliberately obtuse.

These are what I refer to;

@soundofthunder

Additionally, if you go to;

Settings → Interface → Folders & Tabs and set Show on startup to /home/<your-user-name> then one split view will always open there.

If you want it to be the “left”, then make sure the view with your home is at the left.

@soundofthunder

Navigate to /home/chandra in the left view, and wherever else you want, in the right. That’s all I can think of.

The view with /home/chandra will always load first, or so the theory goes, as long as Show on startup is set to your home.

Good luck.

Regards.

[Ben]

The problem here is the change in behaviour.

“Folders, tabs, and window state from last time” isn’t working - and it hasn’t been working for a long time.

Basically, if you have double panes and you’re focussed on the LEFT pane, then that’s how Dolphin should load. But noooo…

Whatever panes are loaded, why is the focus always on the RIGHT pane? Why was the focus always on the LEFT before this update?

Neither of these is striclty following ‘window state from last time’.

Also, turning this option off should let you set/decide what the default state will be (focus RIGHT or LEFT).

Why does the focus not persist between sessions (after closing and re-opening Dolphin)?

Why was this changed from the previous behaviour (always focus LEFT pane)?

The solution (for me) was to change the setting for F3… so now (open one pane) F3 will open a new pane and shift focus to it, but if I hit F3 again, it will close the ACTIVE pane (not the ‘other’ pane as I set it before).

So TAB and F3 can keep control of focus and actions with panes… meanwhile KDE Devs have to think about the consequences and unforseen issues they brought to Plasma 6.5 and hopefully iron them out.

@chandra

Folders, tabs, window state from last time

This would be an ideal option if you prefer this, otherwise a setting to choose ‘Always focus LEFT’ or ‘RIGHT’ pane should be configurable…

But either way, it’s predictable (always the RIGHT pane now) and can be made more obvious with a well tweaked theme:

Here, Kvantum (3d) has a nice outline…

Here ‘Marbles’ makes it white…

[chandra]

@soundofthunder

Navigate to /home/chandra in the left view, and wherever else you want, in the right. That’s all I can think of.

The view with /home/chandra will always load first, or so the theory goes, as long as Show on startup is set to your home.

Both are set to the same location.

As I explained: source and destination get switched when I start using it when the right is active on startup rather than the left. This might be my idiosyncrasy but I am used to it.

It is not the startup locations but which side—right or left—is active on startup. Tab will fix it anyway.

Cheers!

[Ben]

@chandra

Tab will fix it anyway.

For now - thsi is being actively discussed, we’re hoping for some more refined settings in future releases from the KDE team.

Dolphin: left/right issues! ; )

So anyway, I marked the TabF3 dance as the temporary solution for this.

Cheers

[chandra]

Thanks to @Ben and @soundofthunder. I summarize below what I have found:

1. I have changed themes but they do not affect this issue.

2. I have tried Show on startup: Folders, tabs,and window state from last time and its behaviour is not consistent. As @Ben said, it needs to be fixed.

3. If my home directory is given as the startup location, the right view is active and Tab switching is needed to revert to the left.

4. The Tab F3 dance also works.

Thanks to everyone.