why xp windows explorer is still more convenient (part 1)

[Adamantine]

1) Windows Explorer (WE) has very handy and important and endlessly used 'single click' feature. Since 1997. It's 2014, and xyplorer still doesn't have this feature implemented in a convenient way. And i don't see any adequate reason why this possibility cannot be added, for instance, to the ini-file. Those who need it, will find it and will use it. And will be grateful

2) Even today xyplorer still has absolutely not intuitive, not logical and really not convenient system of renaming. This is a huge constantly irritating problem. And i mean both the usual rename of a single file/folder and the serial rename

Usual rename would be much better if we had the following scheme:
1. a file is selected, we press F2
2. only a title is selected, excluding the dot and extension. so far everything is the way it should be, but inconvenience begins later
3. when we press 'right', the normal and convenient reaction of xyplorer should be: selection is gone, and the caret is placed BEFORE the dot (at the very end of a file name). Isn't is obvious? How many years more should pass in order Donald understand that this way of renaming is, first of all, the only normal and logical, and secondly, this approach at least has to be available as an option (in the ini-file)
4. when we press 'left', the normal and convenient reaction of xyplorer should be: selection is gone, and the caret is placed at the VERY BEGINNING of a file name (before the first symbol)

You may ask why is it so important? The reason is simple. I cannot recollect any single case when i needed to add any symbols to the beginning of an extension (as well as it is beyond any understanding: when will we ever need the situation with the caret placed 1 symbol to the left from the dot?)
But i had thousands and thousands of instances when it was necessary to add some symbols (sometimes quickly) exactly to the end/beginning of a file name (including cases with many files)
So it's just a question of convenience in a very routine renaming operations during file management. You either have this convenience or not. With WE+Pitaschio you have it the proper way. With Xyplorer you don't

When dealing with folders, the behaviour of xyplorer has to be the following:
1. a folder is selected, we press F2
2. when we press 'left', selection is gone, and the caret is placed at the VERY BEGINNING of a folder name

Serial rename is implemented in xyplorer in even worse and absurd way. This is what i propose:
1. a file is selected, we press F2
2. when we press 'down'/'up', the normal and convenient reaction of xyplorer should be: the whole title (without the dot and without an extension) of a lower/upper file gets selected

When dealing with folders, the behaviour of xyplorer has to be the following:
1. a folder is selected, we press F2
2. when we press 'down'/'up', absolutely the whole title of a lower/upper folder gets selected

3) Context menu. It would be great to have complete control of what we have there. I mean the possibility to remove, move, add ANY line/command

4) When i move some objects to another folder, they become alphabetically sorted (immediately after pasting). Though in configuration i have enabled the option 'add new items at the end of the list'



Let me also say some words about several aspects that could be better in xyplorer:

- Status bar. Why don't we have any possibilities to see it the way we want? For instance, i don't need this garbage information about percentage of free space on my current drive or all drives. I remember all this by heart. And when i'm obliged to see such an information constantly right in front of my eyes, it is irritaing a lot, believe me.
I also don't need to see: how many TB are used, what drive i'm currently on (i always remember it. Even more, i can see it in the title of a window, close to xyplorer icon).
Annoying baloon tips (above the status bar) should be customizable (i never need them)

- Branch view, navigation panel, views - detais, sort by - path (ascending), 'name' column is the only column: customization of level-indent width is available
But is it possible to have the level-indent width (say, 18 pixels) in 'views - list' mode as well? I only use 'list' mode. Always.

- 1 of the most important nuances: what should i do to always have width of the name column absolutely exactly as wide as the longest title of a folder/file within current navigation panel?

- Action log is limited to 100. But it seems to be not sufficient number at all

- Title bar. <app> is mandatory. Why? First of all, i don't need title bar at all. But as long as it is visible, only important information should be there. Path is more or less important information. The letters 'XYplorer' are not. I already know what program i'm in

- Tree. I have the very upper line 'My Computer'. But i don't need it (i only need to see hard drives). Is there a way to hide it (as i did with all that rubbish like: documents, user, network, recycle bin)?

- The least important aspect, but nevertheless here it is: how about optional vertical tool bar (in the left side of xyplorer)? It will look like task bar in ubuntu, but, what is more interesting, it will save precious vertical space


I had been reading this forum for 4-5 years, and i know a little about what is going here. So i don't really expect any serious and profound reaction from Donald (though of course i wish to be pleasantly surprised). I just would like to ask permanent and respectable forum members to support my suggestion(s). Maybe this will help to get his thoughtfull attention. He has his own harsh viewpoints about various aspects of how to develop his quite good and promising program.
Though it's a pity that he doesn't consider, doesn't want to provide various options (options that don't fit his way of thinking/using, like 'single click' feature) and doesn't implement many really useful things (at least in a 'hidden' way - via ini-file). Some of them are mentioned in this topic. Maybe in other time i will write several more
(english is not my native language so please don't judge strictly)

[admin]

What a weird posting! I don't think you have understood the way this forum works. There is communication here. Exchange of ideas. If you have an idea, or a wish, or a question, or a bug, you post it in the place where it belongs and you will get answers. This has been done here many thousand times by many thousand users for many years, and it's open to see for everyone. Please do it like everybody else does. It's the way it works here. Thanks.

[Filehero]

What a weird posting!...

Especially since every complaint is starting with a description of what is working perfectly! I really was pressing F2 more than once...

FH

[nerdweed]

Something can't be better than the other if it exactly similar.

I do agree with one of your points though, that on rename when the Right arrow is pressed, the caret should be placed just before the dot than after.

Single clicking is available - I do have some setting that opens items and navigates to folder on clicking the icon and have been using it since long.
General --> Menus, Mouse, Safety --> Single click on icons opens list items

[grindax]

.

[TheQwerty]

Already, you can go to the beginning or the end of the base name by pressing Up or Down.

Keep in mind that Serial rename by Up and Down keys is enabled by default so Up/Down for new users takes them to adjacent items instead of moving the cursor within the current item.

Of course if you disable that option then it works well and you gain the select all on serial renaming feature when you activate the adjacent items via Tab/Shift+Tab.

EDIT: That said, one nice advantage to the way Up/Down work for serial rename is that it makes it easy to modify similar sections of multiple file names. For instance:
2014-02-28_AwesomeFile.txt
2014-03-28_AwesomeFile.txt

If you want to change the year for a bunch of files like those above (without using the batch rename features) then you can change the first one to 2015 then all you have to do is hit Down, Backspace, 5 to change the next one, and so on. If they selected all then you'd have to hit Home, Ctrl+Right, Left, Backspace, 5.

[bdeshi]

Forgive me, but the topic title (Windows Explorer is convenient?) might tend to make us miffed WE users very .

While I do agree with your thoughts about the cursor positioning after de-selection (+1) although it seems to be standard behavior of text selection, your other points about multiple-renaming are already solved, by the superb batch rename,/regex rename/scripted rename operations. in fact, when you're trying to sequentially add symbols to the beginning/end of multiple thousands of files, why wouldn't you use those options? they are there for just such jobs! You'd rather press down+symbols thousands of times?

And I do like the way serial rename works now.

3) Context menu. It would be great to have complete control of what we have there. I mean the possibility to remove, move, add ANY line/command

Great idea. +1. (I saw similiar options in AkelPad with the ContextMenu plugin: you can edit the complete toolbar+context menu setup with textual editing!)

4) When i move some objects to another folder, they become alphabetically sorted (immediately after pasting). Though in configuration i have enabled the option 'add new items at the end of the list'

That options only applies to currently visible list, when you navigate to the "another folder", the sorting is done again, as usual.

edit-add:

status bar

It shows the size of current selection, and more importantly the total size of all listed files.

what should i do to always have width of the name column absolutely exactly as wide as the longest title of a folder/file within current navigation panel?

"Tools->Customize list->Autosize columns" does ticking/enabling this help?

Title bar. <app> is mandatory. Why?

To let everybody know what's that awesome powerhouse of a file manager you're using.

BTW, after reading the whole post, it seems to me you have your own "harsh viewpoints about various aspects of how to develop his quite good and promising program".

propose move this topic to Wishes.

[admin]

Next version will have a nice enhancement to Serial Rename.

[Moved the topic to Wishes].

[PeterH]

For me 2 points:

1) On rename, when part of the name is selected, and Left or Right is pressed, the cursor should move to left or right boundary of the marked part, not one character more
(i.e. for initial selection and Right: in front of the dot!)

2) On serial rename, pressing Up or Down should move to the column that was last selected. Imagine
xyplorer_14.30_beta.zip
xyplorer_14.30_beta_noinstall.zip
I want to add .0407 behind 14.30, so I:
- click line to select rename
- click behind 14.30 to select pos to insert
- type .0407
- press Down
Now I have a problem! Must press *about* 5*Left to reach correct position - but depends (for proportional font) of width of characters. OK: 5*Left, then Down works. But all would be just easy if Down would lead to column of last click, i.e. pos after 14.30

Serial rename will often be used to rename names of similar form - here this method will often be helpful. (No matter if insert, delete or change.) For ins and change the current method will not.
If names have different forms, it doesn't matter at all.

[admin]

1) this is not standard AFAIK

2) too smart

[PeterH]

1) this is not standard AFAIK

2) too smart

1) Isn't this the reason we use XY
2)

[highend]

1) this is not standard AFAIK

But makes definitely more sense than the current behavior. How often will the extension be changed instead of the file name?

[bdeshi]

1) this is not standard AFAIK

Ahem... tipping the scale towards our side: I voted for this too.

...I do agree with your thoughts about the cursor positioning after de-selection (+1) although it seems to be standard behavior of text selection...

[Quaraxkad]

1) Windows Explorer (WE) has very handy and important and endlessly used 'single click' feature. Since 1997. It's 2014, and xyplorer still doesn't have this feature implemented in a convenient way. And i don't see any adequate reason why this possibility cannot be added, for instance, to the ini-file. Those who need it, will find it and will use it. And will be grateful

I personally have never liked using the single-click option for Desktop or Explorer items. Just out of curiosity, how is it better than single-click to select and double-click to launch/execute? It may make sense on Desktop icons, but if you are a heavy file-manager user, then single-clicking to select is a considerable amount faster than hover to select (as is the way it works in Explorer when that option is enabled).

3. when we press 'right', the normal and convenient reaction of xyplorer should be: selection is gone, and the caret is placed BEFORE the dot (at the very end of a file name). Isn't is obvious? How many years more should pass in order Donald understand that this way of renaming is, first of all, the only normal and logical, and secondly, this approach at least has to be available as an option (in the ini-file)

This is not the way that text selections work anywhere else. It doesn't make sense to alter that in XY *but only during file rename operations*. It just complicates things. A user should be familiar with how text selections work, if you've been doing it long enough it should be second-nature to rapidly tap Right+Left when you want to drop the selection and set the cursor to the end of where the selection was. Or if you know that you need the cursor at the end of the filename, before the extension period, then double-tap F2, or press F2 then Down.

4. when we press 'left', the normal and convenient reaction of xyplorer should be: selection is gone, and the caret is placed at the VERY BEGINNING of a file name (before the first symbol)

When dealing with folders, the behaviour of xyplorer has to be the following:
1. a folder is selected, we press F2
2. when we press 'left', selection is gone, and the caret is placed at the VERY BEGINNING of a folder name

This is what the Home button on your keyboard is for.

Serial rename is implemented in xyplorer in even worse and absurd way. This is what i propose:
1. a file is selected, we press F2
2. when we press 'down'/'up', the normal and convenient reaction of xyplorer should be: the whole title (without the dot and without an extension) of a lower/upper file gets selected

When dealing with folders, the behaviour of xyplorer has to be the following:
1. a folder is selected, we press F2
2. when we press 'down'/'up', absolutely the whole title of a lower/upper folder gets selected

This is also non-standard convention, Tab and Shift+Tab are standards for that. I do use some other programs that work this way using Up/Down. I don't like it, Although I can see how up and down may be quicker in many instances, it could be made available as an option.

3) Context menu. It would be great to have complete control of what we have there. I mean the possibility to remove, move, add ANY line/command

XY has all the customization of context menus that Explorer has, plus a little more.

Just to be nit-picky, your thread title suggests that Explorer is better than XY because of all of these things that Explorer does that XY doesn't. Among your entire post, this is one of many things that is certainly not available in Explorer. So it seems that you just want XY to have a few more features and configurations, but you can't argue that Explorer is anywhere near approaching a competitive edge against XY.

4) When i move some objects to another folder, they become alphabetically sorted (immediately after pasting). Though in configuration i have enabled the option 'add new items at the end of the list'

Disable Auto-Refresh.

- 1 of the most important nuances: what should i do to always have width of the name column absolutely exactly as wide as the longest title of a folder/file within current navigation panel?

Uncheck: Tools>Customize List>Autosize Columns.

- Title bar. <app> is mandatory. Why? First of all, i don't need title bar at all. But as long as it is visible, only important information should be there. Path is more or less important information. The letters 'XYplorer' are not. I already know what program i'm in

Agreed! I added a whole bunch of spaces between <folder> and <app> so that <app> is always off the edge of the screen. It does end up showing and ellipsis in the taskbar, but it's less annoying than seeing XYplorer in there.

[Quaraxkad]

2) On serial rename, pressing Up or Down should move to the column that was last selected. Imagine
xyplorer_14.30_beta.zip
xyplorer_14.30_beta_noinstall.zip
I want to add .0407 behind 14.30, so I:
- click line to select rename
- click behind 14.30 to select pos to insert
- type .0407
- press Down
Now I have a problem! Must press *about* 5*Left to reach correct position - but depends (for proportional font) of width of characters. OK: 5*Left, then Down works. But all would be just easy if Down would lead to column of last click, i.e. pos after 14.30

Add a Shortcut for Edit Item Names. Select the files to work with, press the shortcut. This is what you are looking for. It opens the filenames in a plain textbox, which allows up/down/left/right exactly as you describe.