Add a Preview pane integrated in Nemo [Feature request]

[Tyco72]

For many users it is essential to have a preview pane integrated in the right side of the file manager, to show a large preview for only the currently selected file.
A preview pane allows to use more efficiently the space in the window, showing much more files in the screen, without to fill up the space with previews of files which don't interest.
It would avoid also the unwanted work in the background of generating/caching previews for all the images contained in the folder (which can be many hundreds of files and of large size).

I guess it would not be a too big effort to add a preview pane, at least for photos and videos, because Nemo is already able to generate previews (as icons) for these file types. Consider that MS Window integrates a preview pane in the file explorer since the times of Windows 98. Here a sample pic, of what I mean:

(Issue reported with Nemo 4.0.6 on Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon)

I'm not sure @Tyco72 if does that work. The feature was already integrated in older versions of Gnome, e.g. in Fedora 20. But the algorithm had the problem described. The Photos app has the same problem. The higher the number of files and the larger a file the longer Gnome has worked in the background. If I understand you correctly, you can only preview the currently selected file. What if multiple files are selected?

[Tyco72]

Hi, thank you. When you select more files it should be not a problem. The preview pane would show the preview only of the last selected file. Anyway only one image at time would be cached.

[icarter09]

Many thanks for submitting your feature request for Nemo. Your feature request has been documented and will be reviewed by the Linux Mint team.

For more information on our workflow and feature requests, read https://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html.

[Tyco72]

Thank you very much. I'm looking forward for this feature.

[JayBeeDe]

Hi,
I would also apreciate this very nice feature... For pdf files it is possible to use evince preview API. Or libreoffice can handle pdf as well as odt, etc. And what about audio/video files preview ? (too complicated for the moment I can admit it)

[pedroolmedo98]

I would be a wonderful feature.

Let me write something about this wonderful feature. A field report with Fedora and Gnome. I know this feature was or is already implemented in Gnome and Nemo. But I have always had performance problems with it. My use case is simple, I have local folders with photos in different file sizes. The names of the files are autogenerated, as it is the case today with embedded operating systems for digital cameras. And the view or the view change on the camera is more performant, yes, much more performant than on Fedora with Gnome. When switching from one photo to another, it happens that Fedora/Gnome/Nemo gets stuck and does not return to normal operation. A switch to switch on/off the feature may be useful. But more important is a redesign to solve this performance problem.

[Jeremy7701]

Have you considered a dedicated photo management tool such as digiKam etc?

[ptandler]

Any update here? I just found here that you can use the space key to open a preview as popup. This is already helpful, but

• is not mentioned in the help dialog with all keyboard shortcuts
• does not automatically update when I select another file

Many thanks for submitting your feature request for Nemo. Your feature request has been documented and will be reviewed by the Linux Mint team.

For more information on our workflow and feature requests, read https://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html.

Is the list of feature request "that have been documented" and their status (e.g. position in roadmap) available somewhere?

[nd-]

I switched from Files (Gnome on Fedora) to Nemo, because Files is really too simple and limited.
Nemo is almost perfect for me, but this feature of a preview pane would be really awesome.

[Jeremy7701]

Nemo has many little-known features, some excellent but at least one "feature" is downright weird.
However, full user documentation would appear to be too time consuming.