# GNOME Nautilus file manager adds section headers for folder and file grouping

> **Key takeaway:** GTK's gridView widget now supports section headers, enabling Nautilus to visually separate folders from files with labeled divisions in an upstream development commit.

**Published:** 2026-11-10T23:51:38+00:00 
**Source:** OMG! Ubuntu 
**Category:** distro-news 
**Canonical URL:** https://fosswire.org/news/gnome-nautilus-file-manager-adds-section-headers-for-folder-.html 

## Summary
GNOME's default file manager Nautilus is gaining section headers to visually organize file listings, following a merge by GTK developer Christian Hergertr that added section header support to GTK's gridView widget. Nautilus developer Peter Eisenmann has already committed an upstream change implementing labeled divisions between folders and files, making the existing sort order more visually scannable for users browsing large directories.

The feature remains early work-in-progress for the GNOME 52 development cycle and could potentially extend to time-based grouping (Today, Past 7 Days, Older) or other smart segmentation beyond the initial folder/file split. No release timeline is set, and the implementation may change or be reverted as testing continues.

## GTK gridView changes and Nautilus implementation
- **GTK gridView widget:** Christian Hergertr merged section header support into GTK's gridView, the widget used by Nautilus and other applications to display item grids.
- **Nautilus upstream commit:** A development commit already exists adding headers to Nautilus itself, creating labeled divisions between folders and files in directory listings.
- **Visual organization:** Section headers render as separate rows rather than continuous content, making the existing folder-first sort order more immediately obvious to users scanning directories.
- **Potential future grouping:** The article speculates that time-based sorting (Today, Past 7 Days, Older) or other criteria could use the same header mechanism, though no developer roadmap confirms this.
- **GNOME 52 development cycle:** The change targets the active development branch with explicit warning that the feature is unfinished and subject to experimentation or reversion.

## Why it matters
For Linux desktop users and distribution maintainers shipping GNOME, this addresses a long-standing usability gap compared to macOS Finder's time-based grouping, potentially reducing cognitive load when navigating cluttered home directories and Downloads folders. The change at the GTK widget level also benefits other applications using gridView, though Nautilus as GNOME's default file manager carries the broadest user exposure across Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, and other major distributions.