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Feature: Redundant Titles and Subtitles in Command Labels #17134

@Lukiluc29

Description

@Lukiluc29

What feature or improvement do you think would benefit Files?

I’ve noticed that in the application, many commands display a title and a subtitle to describe the action. However, in some cases, the title and subtitle are exactly the same, which seems redundant. In my opinion, it would be better to either:

  • Display only the title when the subtitle is identical
    or
  • Modify either the title or the subtitle so that they are not exactly the same

This would improve readability and make the interface feel cleaner and more polished.

Requirements

Update the interface logic to either:

  • Hide the subtitle when it matches the title exactly
    or
  • Reword the subtitle or title so they are distinct

Files Version

3.9.9.0

Windows Version

10.0.26100.0

Comments

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Activity

Lukiluc29

Lukiluc29 commented on May 17, 2025

@Lukiluc29
ContributorAuthor

With the upcoming implementation of the Omnibar, commands will be used more frequently, becoming more accessible and intuitive for everyone. The clarity and simplicity of Files commands will be a real asset in preventing application overload.

mdtauk

mdtauk commented on May 17, 2025

@mdtauk
Contributor

FWIW, I agree - we should omit the subtitle when it matches the title. Of course this would also involve the localisation. Some languages may need a subtitle where in English, it would be duplicated.

The Title without a subtitle, should probably be vertically centred - collapsing the subtitle TextBlock when it is empty.

Lukiluc29

Lukiluc29 commented on May 17, 2025

@Lukiluc29
ContributorAuthor

FWIW, I agree - we should omit the subtitle when it matches the title. Of course this would also involve the localisation. Some languages may need a subtitle where in English, it would be duplicated.

The Title without a subtitle, should probably be vertically centred - collapsing the subtitle TextBlock when it is empty.

Yes, because in French the title also corresponds to the subtitle, which is useless and cumbersome.

yaira2

yaira2 commented on May 18, 2025

@yaira2
Member

This is mainly relevant to the settings page which displays both the action name and description. Other areas of the UI only display one or the other.

mdtauk

mdtauk commented on May 18, 2025

@mdtauk
Contributor

This is mainly relevant to the settings page which displays both the action name and description. Other areas of the UI only display one or the other.

My comments are relevant for all parts of the UI where you have a Title and Subtitle that may end up having duplicate text strings.

Where Action/Command Titles are a bit obtuse and need a description to help the user, that would display a Subtitle.

Whether the item shows one or both strings, is a localisation issue. These should all have space for Title and Subtitle strings, but if they are shown or not, would be decided by localisation, so in English an item may only have a Title, but someone translating to Spanish or Japanese may decide that item needs descriptive text.

So it needs to be flexible, and so we need to design around that.

Lukiluc29

Lukiluc29 commented on May 18, 2025

@Lukiluc29
ContributorAuthor

I think the best thing to do is to rethink the titles and subtitles of the app's commands, because sometimes they're not clear and it gets confusing. For example, with the "Paste" command, there are two options: "Current folder" and "Selected folder". Not everyone pays close attention to the subtitles, so it's easy to mix them up.

In my opinion, when searching for a command in the search bar, only the titles should be displayed. Subtitles should only appear in the settings page, because showing both in the search bar would be too cluttered and not really helpful.

We should revise most of the titles to make them clearer, and add a short description in the settings to explain what each command actually does. There are also a lot of unnecessary duplicates. The commands page is already really long, and not everyone wants to dig through it, myself included. It would be better to remove all the duplicates, and if needed, users can still modify or add commands using the "Add a command" button.

moved this from 🆕 New to 🏗 In progress in Files task boardon May 18, 2025
yaira2

yaira2 commented on May 19, 2025

@yaira2
Member

For example, with the "Paste" command, there are two options: "Current folder" and "Selected folder". Not everyone pays close attention to the subtitles, so it's easy to mix them up.

I'll look into this

moved this from 🏗 In progress to ✅ Done in Files task boardon May 19, 2025

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        Feature: Redundant Titles and Subtitles in Command Labels · Issue #17134 · files-community/Files