Quick Directory

[Stretto]

Routinely I have to move files from a base dir to a sub dir.

I do this by dragging the file in the right pane to the left directory tree.

For very long files it requires a lot of scrolling to search for the directory since it is several "pages" long. This is very slow.

I was thinking, if the directories were not one per line, one could see a lot more and wouldn't have to scroll but could drag immediately.

So instead of something like


Dir 1
...





...
Dir N

we have

Dir 1, Dir 2, Dir 3, ...
Dir k, Dir k+1, ...
.....


and this would be a popup that happens. Basically a matrix grid of the directories, which should be able to fit many more on a page(for very large number we might still have to scroll but it would be much less of a problem). For long dir names, they could be shortened, font size reduced, etc...


A hot key could pop up a window:

e.g.,

1. Select file and start the drag(click file and hold LMB).

2. Hit hot key to bring up current dir(from left pane) that displays this new grid/matrix view.

3. finish dragging to folder in the matrix view.

The dirs could be color coded by first letter(or other means) as to easily distinguish them, etc.

[highend]

Which directories should it display exactly, the one that are currently open in the tree?
or the ones that are currently visible in the inactive pane?

And in which way should they be shortened (be precise please)?

[highend]

Just one way how this could be solved...

The nav links at the top don't do anything, they would
jump to a group beginning with that char...

Shortening is done via filling in "..." in the middle of a folder's base name
when it contains more chars than configured

Each item that has a new first char is color coded differently

Clicking on an item would than close the window and return
it's full path, ready to be used as a destination folder...

With this kind of setup you can display a lot of folders without the need of scrolling.
In this case there are 71 folders...

htmlselector.gif (148.25 KiB) Viewed 1521 times

[Stilez]

Clever idea. Worth looking at.

[highend]

Or something like this, even more navigable...

113 folders shown, the upper char bar navigates to the orange char at the left
and each char on the left leads back to the top of the page...

preview.png (30.05 KiB) Viewed 1464 times

[klownboy]

Hey highend, that idea of a Quick Directory seems like it could be very useful. How would a user populate the that listing. I ask because I noticed in the related html link that your directory entries were all entered in the html file.

Would the resultant script be able to read a drive or folder structure to obtain the listing?

Also, when this dialog pops up would it be possible on selecting the folder, have the selected file(s) automatically be copied or moved to the selected folder?

And, is dragging the file(s) to the listing a possibility here?

Thanks,
Ken

[highend]

Hey Ken,

atm the script fills the content with the folders that are in the current tab of the inactive pane.

Reading a drive or a folder structure (recursively) would be possible as well but I don't think that
makes much sense because you'd need to show the full path in each link and even if you use
only 2 columns space would be a limiting factor, esp. for deeper nested folders...

Copied / Moved: That's the idea behind it, the form just returns the folder that was clicked on

The html dialog is modal, you can't just drag and drop to it in that state

[bdeshi]

The html dialog is by modal, you can't just drag and drop to it in that state

Run it from a slave xy instance!