Vscode: Change "Toggle Editor Group Layout" to more understandable description

[jgclark]

I had to hunt on Stack Overflow to find the answer to my question: can I get VSC to split window horizontally not just vertically? It turns out to be easy, but the "Toggle Editor Group Layout" command to do so isn't obvious at all, at least to me. Is it doing something more than "Toggle Vertical to Horizontal splits"?

It also pointed me to the little icon/button in the explorer, but that was too subtle to discover.

• VSCode Version: 1.20.1
• OS Version: 10.12.6

[vscodebot[bot]]

(Experimental duplicate detection)
Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• Provide an option to set default editor group layout (#33102)
  

[liamfmoran]

Maybe "Toggle Editor Group Layout Orientation/Direction" would make more sense?

[vviikk]

"Toggle Editor Split Direction". I think the word __split__ is what everyone would be having on their minds.

[jgclark]

That would be an excellent title. Thanks.

From: Vik Ramanujam [e-mail] [e-mail]
Reply: Microsoft/vscode
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Date: 3 March 2018 at 19:33:58
To: Microsoft/vscode [e-mail] [e-mail]
CC: jgclark [e-mail] [e-mail],
Author [e-mail] [e-mail]
Subject: Re: [Microsoft/vscode] Change "Toggle Editor Group Layout" to
more understandable description (#44969)

"Toggle Editor Split Direction". I think the word split is what everyone

would be having on their minds.

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[rdickert]

I think the word split is what everyone would be having on their minds

Agreed. This is actually a really important ux issue. I just spent ten minutes of frustration trying to find this command. I only found it because the word "split" was present in this issue. If you want to get fancy, maybe cmd-click on the button could also toggle it.

[preist]

Took me three StackOverflow searches to figure this one out.

[bpasero]

I am closing this given that the grid work has landed on master (see https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/14909#issuecomment-393870565) and splitting vertically and horizontally is now much easier and does not require to use this action anymore.

The action is still there though and has been renamed to "Flip Editor Group Layout".

[preist]

@bpasero Why say "editor group layout" when "editor layout" is enough? Also, the word "flip" is not a significant improvement over "toggle".

Users are likely to look for the words: vertical, horizontal and split in this context.

Why not call it something simpler, e.g. "Flip editor split orientation", or "Horizontal editor layout / Vertical editor layout". In my opinion https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/14909#issuecomment-393870565 does not address the issue above, since "editor group layout" is not a term generally used in this context. 🤔

[bpasero]

Looks ugly as **, but I guess its clearer now: