[UX] Docked dialogs minimum size should be harmonized and configurable in the settings

This is related to #1864 (closed), it's a great UX discomfort for me, and in my opinion is not solved.

Problem

Currently each docked dialog has a different minimum width based on how reflow has been implemented on it and a bunch of other factors. This is very inconsistent from the UX standpoint and brings a few usability problems:

  • The user should be free to modify their workspace with as much freedom as possible.
    • For example, they should be able to resize the docked dialog to make it very small (say 120px) temporarily to better see what's on screen.
  • When multiple docked dialogs are "tabbed" and you switch between them, the minimum width of the largest one will be applied and mess up the user's desired width. The user should be able to make choices regarding their workspace and the tool should work towards not modifying it. This is a very big ux problem imho.
  • Lots of docked dialogs have very large minimum width compared to other vector graphics tools, and there is no way to configure that other than, I believe, editing the theme you're using.

Proposed solution

  1. All docked dialogs should be allowed to shrink to any size even if the content is hidden. The content should be cropped and a horizontal scrollbar should optionally appear.
  2. Add a global "docked dialog minimum width" setting, which would have a very small default (100px or so).
  3. Additionally other settings can be added to make the behaviour customizable, for example being able to restore the current behaviour (minimum size different for each dialog type)
  4. Provide more mechanisms to reflow docked dialogs to the smallest size possible, which would include :
    • Lowering margins and paddings under a certain width
    • Using abbreviated or truncated titles or text (Affinity Designer does it for example)

At the very least: size set by the user shouldn't be modified when tabbing in a different dialog.

How to reproduce

  1. Open Inkscape any version
  2. Enable two docked dialogs, eg Fill & Stroke and Text & Font
  3. Try to make them very small, you can't beyond a certain point
  4. Resize the Fill & Stroke dialog to its minimum width
  5. Jump to the Text dialog and come back, now the width you chose previously has changed

What should happen

  1. Try to make them very small, they become as small as you wish, the content reflows beyond a certain point after which it crops
  2. Resize the Fill & Stroke dialog to a small width
  3. Jump to the Text dialog and come back, now the width you chose previously stayed the same

Reference

Example mockup I made of my own Inkscape installation vs two popular commercial programs (Affinity Designer & Adobe Illustrator). This is to show the default size of the "sidebar" of those pieces of software vs the minimum I'm able to achieve. minwidthmockupinkscape

Inkscape Version

Inkscape 1.3.2 (091e20ef0f, 2023-11-25)