Settings layout rework: organize options into clearer sections

[Caelestis94]

Summary

The settings page has grown into a long vertical stack of controls. It works, but it is becoming hard to scan and navigate as more options are added.

This discussion is for exploring a more KDE-consistent organization for AppGrid settings.

Problem

Most settings currently live in one large General page. As the app gains more options, unrelated controls sit next to each other:

• Launcher identity and grid sizing
• Appearance toggles
• Search/KRunner behavior
• Animation options
• Power/session button controls
• Hidden apps management

This makes specific settings harder to find, and repeated/content-heavy controls like hidden apps do not scale well in a plain vertical form.

Possible direction

A first-pass PoC splits the settings into tabs:

• Launcher
• Appearance
• Animation
• Search
• Power
• Hidden Apps

The PoC also changes Hidden Apps from an unbounded stack of rows into a bounded list control with search/filtering, so a larger hidden-app list does not stretch the whole settings page.

Some screenshots of a possible layout :

Notes

The goal is not to make a custom settings shell, but to stay reasonably consistent with KDE/Plasma settings patterns while making the page easier to navigate.

This idea came about when I tried adding a setting for #128, I realized how populated the settings are at that point.

[xarbit]

Agree .. something needs to be done in the settings menu and it needs some love.

[xarbit]

will add this as work item for 1.9.0

[Caelestis94]

Good stuff 🙏

[xarbit]

try main and give feedback ..

[Caelestis94]

Had some time before work, that's certainly more manageable now. I see the hidden apps are still unbounded.

There's also something like this, I am not sure how things should be layed out, there's a mix of left alignment and center alignment. But looking at other

Looking at most KDE settings, they seem to favour center alignment :