Comment 60 for bug 48671

I thought about how this feature could be implemented without annoying users. There is no apparent logic behind the "second click" for changing the file name. Therefore, this doesn't make any sense and it's difficult to learn and get used to, IMHO. I never got used to it after years of working with MS windows.

Instead the file name should be a dedicated and visible field separate from the icon but connected to the icon. The outlines of the name field must be visible using a color or frame. So, if you single-click on the file-name field, you edit the file name. If you click on the icon, well the same behaviour as before, you open the folder or file. I think that makes sense. This is essentially what cody suggested.

In list view there are several columns for different information. If you have a dedicated column for the file name and the file itself, then it is optically clear that these two things are not the same. Furthermore, they are clearly and consistently separated, so chances of clicking in the wrong column are slim. So clicking the file name - once! - should give you the option to change the file name. If you click the file/folder icon, then the usual things should happen. You could also highlight the name field and not the icon field, when you move your mouse across that field, so you have an additional optical confirmation of what you are about to do...

One more suggestion: If you mistakenly click the file name, it's difficult to get out of this mode, as far as I remember. You have to turn to the keyboard and press escape or enter or click on some other arbitrary item. That's just something you are not prepared to do, while your clicking through folders. As a default behaviour, a second click on the file-name field should deselect the file name. In this case, users shouldn't be bothered so much.

A little off-topic: I actually prefer list view because it displays the files in an orderly fashion and you can easily switch the order, in which everything is displayed. You can open and close particular trees. It's very powerful and easy to use. There is one drawback. You don't have nice previews of photos or videos as in the icon-view. It would be nice to have a preview (only) of the selected photo/video in list view - only for multimedia files, where it makes sense. It seems that this is what apple is doing - well sort of...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Finder.png

Looks snazzy, but is it really better?

Good day and good luck and keep up the great work!