Tree and Catalog as separate columns

[Guerrand]

The file tree and catalog inherently require different horizontal widths: as you expand and browse deeper into the tree, the horizontal width needed to view it in its entirety increases with it. In contrast, the catalog has a relatively fixed width requirement, which (in my case) is significantly narrower than for the tree. As such, it would be nice to have the option to have the Tree and Catalog in separate columns rather than both being fixed to a single column, similar to the "Horizontal Panes" option for file panes.

This has been requested previously, but I think it's time to revisit it and consider prioritizing it sooner than "Faaar out" now that click & search and tag clouds have been implemented, which encourage the use of even more vertical space in the Catalog view.

[admin]

Yes, chances for this are rising. The Catalog is getting more and more powerful these days. And I have more plans with it...

[Filehero]

Yes, chances for this are rising.

What's the current slope?

[j_c_hallgren]

The file tree and catalog inherently require different horizontal widths:

This was also mentioned about 3 yrs ago in http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6599

Now that most screens are based on 16x9 layout vs older 4x3, it becomes more important to make best use of that extra width and this would help do so.

[admin]

Maybe 14.20.

[Filehero]

Maybe 14.20.

That would be phantastic!


Cheers,
Filehero

[Enternal]

Hahaha it's about time! Was getting bothered how the catalog keeps getting longer and longer so I even had to group many scripts and scripts with pop-outs for each items to save space.

[binocular222]

Yes, chances for this are rising. The Catalog is getting more and more powerful these days. And I have more plans with it...

IMO, catalog is for people who use mouse heavily. Eveything catalog does can be accomplised via script (menu popup), which can be trigger very fast via keyboard. And catalog takes a lot of screen space. I'm not against catalog but it should have something unique to persuade me to turn it on.

[Filehero]

I'm not against catalog but it should have something unique to persuade me to turn it on.

Showing fav files and folders permanently to the right of the list (likewise any othe list of interest).


Cheers,
Filehero

[murdock01]

I use the catalog instead of the directory tree and love it.
I put in my favorite folders for what I need and then use the breadcrumb to get around if I need to.
I have over a dozen catalogs each with a specific function. I have one for folders at work. I have one for folders at home. I have one for drag-n-drop apps, one with scripts, a tagcloud, and so on. So now depending where I am or what I want to do, I can call a catalog, and include others with it, to have a custom panel with everything I need right there. If it is a configuration I use a lot I can assign a keyboard shortcut to it. The problem with keyboard shortcuts is eventually you use up all the shortcuts that make sense and eventually hit kind of a barrier of how useful they are.
I use all of this with portable file and drive abstractions and I can go anywhere.
All of this came about because the tree and the catalog lived in the same column. So I turned off the tree and I have not missed it.

[highend]

murdock01, mind to share a few screenshots?

[murdock01]

Highend,
Here is a SS showing some of what I explained. If anyone is really interested in what I did I could start a new discussion in tips and trick forum.
In the screenshot I am showing my 'at home' config. I click on the little house CTB which runs a script to load the home.dat catalog. The script also includes the quick, dragndrop , tasks, and ratings catalogs.
The home catalog basically has my favorite folders I use all the time at home. Each entry points to a folder using things like <xydrive>, ?:, or volume label so I am not dependent on drive letters. This really comes into play with the first 3 items, the portable directories. These are replicated to my USB stick that I carry around. They contain all my apps, utils, documents, and the XY folder. The other favorite folders dont really change but I use the variables for consistency.
I also have a work.dat which is the root catalog of favorite folders at work. From these favorite folders I can use the breadcrumb bar or the address bar to get else where.

The quick catalog is for things I use all the time, things like my scripts and computer manager. The 'scripts' item, in that catalog, is actually a menu that points to the user\run script menu (command ID #9). I put my scripts in there so I can assign a hot key if needed and I also get a command ID for the script itself to reference other places if needed.
All my scripts use the same variables and relative paths to stay away from drive letter changes.
This catalog is loaded for my 'home' and my 'work' configs. So If I update the quick catalog, the update will show up anywhere the quick catalog is included.

Like I also said I have other catalogs like clean.dat, hash.dat, powershell.dat, security.dat,.... So if I am at the Mother-in-laws house cleaning malware off her laptop I can load my 'cleaning' config. This loads the clean.dat root catalog, includes the security and hash catalogs, and I get what you see in the 2nd screenshot.
Again everything here lives in the portable directory and all the items are using <xydrive> or the volume label - basically relative path names. So I dont have to worry about what my USB drive letter is.

Again if enough people what to know how I do all of this, the "guts", I could put together something in another forum or a document.
Hope this helps you, or anyone. Enjoy.

[admin]

OK, I going to add that today.

Need some help in English captions:

Now we have:
Window | Catalog Above Tree

But then we need this instead:
Window | Catalog Above or Left of Tree
Window | Catalog and Tree Vertically Split

Better ideas?

[grindax]

.

[j_c_hallgren]

How about this:

In the Window menu:

Rename 'Layout' to 'Position of Address Bar and Toolbar'
Create a new entry called 'Position of Catalog', which has as its options the following:

Catalog Above Tree
Catalog Below Tree
Catalog Left of Tree
Catalog Right of Tree
Catalog Right of List

Somewhat agree -- benefit would be to swap out "Cat above tree" for thie new entry.
But submenu would might only need 2 items max as they are checked or not and the "not" would be the other choice.
So you need only "above tree", "left of list" --IF we said that tree would always be at extreme left edge.
If not, then "tree left of Cat" could be added which when inverted could put tree at right of screen as well.
Obviously, above and 'tree left of cat' would be multaully exclusive but 'left of list' would always be needed.