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

[SkyFrontier]

1) this is not standard AFAIK

2) too smart

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

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...

Switch to Include/Exclude File Extensions on the Fly.
Long time wish, although I think there's a clearer post of mine requesting specifically for this behavior - which I couldn't find as of now.
And please don't miss Quaraxkad's posts (above) just because of this "+1" little addition...

[admin]

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?

Not sure how this relates to:

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!)

But maybe you mean what KeyUp/KeyDown (or PageUp/Down) is for in XY when there is a selection in the rename box? Try it, it's cool...

[mwb1100]

For whatever it's worth, I agree with PeterH's proposal for how to handle the left/right arrow when there's a selection in a file rename edit.

It would be an improvement over the current 'standard' behavior, and it's a behavior I've wanted for quite some time (not necessarily in XY specifically - I think it should be the standard Windows behavior), but never with enough urgency to formulate a request.

If you want a precedent for this behavior, you have to look no further than Notepad or Word.

[Quaraxkad]

If you want a precedent for this behavior, you have to look no further than Notepad or Word.

Notepad does not work that way. At least not in XP, Win7, or Server 2008.

[PeterH]

If you want a precedent for this behavior, you have to look no further than Notepad or Word.

Notepad does not work that way. At least not in XP, Win7, or Server 2008.

Oh - didn't know this: when marking chars for selection, the cursor remains at the end of the selection - be it right or left of the selected chars. (Dependent of direction of selection.) It's just hard to recognize.
Now pressing Left or Right works from that position

OK, my point of view: I have XY to make it better

[mwb1100]

Notepad does not work that way. At least not in XP, Win7, or Server 2008.

Arrgh! I must have tested in notepad2 (one of the notepad replacements I use) accidentally instead. I really meant to try it in the base notepad so it would have the 'weight of Windows' behind it. Oh well, let me change tack... Notepad.exe is so lacking, why should anyone want to use it as a model for what to do?

I think Word is still a pretty good precedent. I've also tried VC++ 6 and 2013, and the editors there also behave this way. And for what it's worth, Notepad2 and Notepad++ behave this way, too (though they don't have Microsoft clout).

[admin]

In XY KeyUp/Down work that way, right?

But I see now that even this very edit box I'm writing in right now, and the Firefox address bar work as you want it. Also my favorite editor (EmEditor). So, I might consider adding this to XY...

[Enternal]

Sweet! Renaming feels much better now. Now only if all text fields in XYplorer can behave like Notepad2 and many other editors. What I mean is smart selection when you double click text but that's for a future future wish instead heh.

[admin]

Sweet! Renaming feels much better now. Now only if all text fields in XYplorer can behave like Notepad2 and many other editors. What I mean is smart selection when you double click text but that's for a future future wish instead heh.

Hmm, there is something like this built in. Maybe you want other word boundaries? Give an example, please.

[SkyFrontier]

Thanks for the little change, renaming is much more soft now.

[Enternal]

Sweet! Renaming feels much better now. Now only if all text fields in XYplorer can behave like Notepad2 and many other editors. What I mean is smart selection when you double click text but that's for a future future wish instead heh.

Hmm, there is something like this built in. Maybe you want other word boundaries? Give an example, please.

Oh. I meant something like this: http://xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11404

[admin]

Yes, that's what I meant. It's built in and it works (here).

[Enternal]

Hmm... that's odd. It's not exactly working for me. Here's an example using the PFA editor:
"Media Player Classic" avi;mkv;mp4;mpeg;ogm;wmv;mpcpl>"C:\Program Files (x86)\K-Lite Codec Pack\Media Player Classic\mpc-hc.exe" /add

If I double click [Classic], it ended up highlighting [Classic" ]. It ended up selecting the quotations and the space. In other applications including Firefox or Chrome, selecting [Classic] highlights [Classic]. You can also try double clicking [Program] from Program Files and you will see it ends up highlighting [\Program ]. It's not only in PFA. Copy and select the example text I was using into some other text field such as Find Files or the Quick Search and you get same results. In text editors such as Notepad2, Notepad++, and EMEditor if I remembered correctly, it's even smarter since it does not highlight any spaces since it understood that you simply want the text and not any trailing or leading spaces. Actually, this "smarter" understanding seems to work with almost all applications I tried.

[admin]

Yes, I did not say it's perfect. But it's built in. One day I will refine it...

[Adamantine]

nerdweed, yes, single clicking is available; available in an emasculated form. It is better than nothing but it is not enough

TheQwerty, you have mantioned "Tab/Shift+Tab". I think that during serial renaming it is much faster and more convenient to have the right hand in 1 place and quickly press Up, Down, Left or Right than to have your hand everywhere above the keyboard in search for buttons like Tab, Home, PageUp, PageDown (+ mentioned above Up, Down, Left, Right). Also Shift+Tab; which is pure evil, in fact. Many of such combinations must eventually disapper some day (them and ergonomics are completely different things). Just because they are less convenient for fingers than pressing only 1 button. Use your curiosity, your brain, and you will succeed in making your file-managing-life easier. For example, for many years i had been using brilliant hot-key-manager 'Keyboard Maniac (KeyMan)'. Which allowed me to forget about 100% customary but also 100% not considered and not comfortable things like: Ctrl+C (i use F9 instead), Ctrl+X (i use F10), Ctrl+V (i use F11), Shift+End (i use F2), Shift+Home (i use F3), Ctrl+A (i use F4), Ctrl+S (i use F12)...

SammaySarkar, enabling 'Tools->Customize list->Autosize columns' does not help so i always keep this setting disabled. Because when it is enabled, for some reason width of the name column ends somewhere in the middle of the longest title within current folder

Quaraxkad
hover to select is much faster than single-clicking. And much more convenient. It is especially obviously in case of executing: you have to click twice, i have to click once. And real 'heavy file-manager users' will always choose the way with less amount of clicking

a user should be familiar with how text selections work

Does this ordinary user familiar with things like mini-tree, branch view and other dozens of xyplorer additions/innovations that are not availbale in the standard microsoft windows set? No, a typical user does not know anything about that. So the real goal of xyplorer should be making new convenient trends and not following outdated, questionable and illogical patterns; patterns from some text redactors like notepad (not notepad2) which is literally used by nobody. Why ever we need to think about behaviour of the caret in some of these redactors? (If you like to analyze how they work, it is better to take the best from them. Like Ctrl+Down from notepad2. This combination scrolls only 1 line down. And i don't see such an option in xyplorer). After all it is the manager we talking about (not a text redactor). The file manger that has everything to become absolutely second to none soon. But with such an attitude from the author, xyplorer will always have its today's tiny piece of the world market of file managers. I mean, is it really so difficult to spend not so much time in order to properly implement at least those my proposals about renaming? I don't ask much, i just want to have choice. Even if this choice will be hidden deep inside of the ini-file

This is also non-standard convention

But xyplorer itself is a perfect example of non-standard, full of different choices (mainly useless and not interesting to overwhelming majority of typical users of a file manager) program

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

Probably you are not familiar with tested and reliable small programs like: Shell Toys, Pitaschio, Better File Rename, Better File Select... The 1st of them is a shell extension which allows to make windows explorer much more handy. And in many aspects more convenient than xyplorer. But it is evidently that windows explorer does not have decent future (it was demolished in vista, it has no signs of life to this today). So this is the reason why i'm trying to explain here all the current disadvantages of xyplorer - i really want to make it my only file manager, but i still can't do it

Disable Auto-Refresh

I always have it disabled. Everything is not so simple as you think. I'm not trying to irritate anyone here. I only write when i have real problem or have a considered (during long period of time) opinion concerning some topic that is important to me

Uncheck: Tools>Customize List>Autosize Columns

I always have it unchecked. As i said, everything is not so simple as you think. Before asking for some help, i spend a lot of hours/days.. to find a solution myself. And, naturally, before posting i try to dig into all or almost all the settings of a program

admin, as i understand, part 2 of this topic in a separate thread is the thing that you do not want to appear. So i ask you to permit me to write some my new thoughts and questions later here in this topic
alternatively, i may create approximately 15 new topics + in this case i will also repost (in nearly 8 more new topics) my questions/thoughts/proposals from the 1st message of this thread