gedit file browser screen (left side) cannot be closed or minimized

Under Gnome 2, (and other screen managers), GEDIT used to be a very useful application.

Many of the changes made to GEDIT under GNOME 3 are making GEDIT more and more less useful.
especially if one wants to use GEDIT with a "full" or almost "full" screen...

GEDIT 3.20.2 repaired the damage in some cases, but introduced other "problems".

1. the "file browser" window makes GEDIT less usefull, as the browser window takes up more than 1/3 of my terminal screen and has no provision for resizing or minimizing it.

2. The "open" pulldown window used to let you select "other" at the bottom of the list.
   but only if the list is only 5 items long or less. My list is 10-items long, and most of the time the windows does not show the full 10 items, because it is only created a few pixels larger than then main edit window.

The following corrections should be made:
1. Add a "x" or close widow to the file dialog feature.
2. Make the open file window "dynamic" in that, if the windows can not display --ALL-- of the items plus the "other" category, that it becomes a scrollable pulldown window.
3. Consider placing the "other" selection at the top of the list, rather than at the bottom.

- - -

the concept of having to click on the "three-bar" menu button, and then scroll down to find the "find" or "replace" or other options is a good waste of user productivity. I can say the same for having to move your cursor to the top of the PRIMARY screen to find the currently open application name, and then clicking on it to be able to select an option or preference.

Allowing the --user-- to position options that --they-- use constantly on the "title" bar would be a good compromimse between the concept of "minimalization" and productivity, especially since the choice of what should be place there are going to vary greatly between users.

(And by "title" line, I mean the bar that currently contains the "open" and "new" buttons.)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: gedit 3.20.2-2ubuntu1~ubuntu16.04.1 [origin: LP-PPA-gnome3-team-gnome3-staging]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-57.78-generic 4.4.35
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-57-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.4
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Sun Jan 8 09:12:57 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-05-11 (973 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
SourcePackage: gedit
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)