Useful ideas...

Features wanted...
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Adequat
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Joined: 20 Jul 2007 12:03

Useful ideas...

Post by Adequat »

Possibility to assign a key shortcut to a favorite folder or to an item in the catalog

In case of a dual-screen setup, option to have the preview systematically displayed on the second screen.

Remember the style of view (list, thumbnail, etc...) per tab/folder. Or at least for the favorite folders.

Option to specify a command line before starting an application (ie. option in the menu when right clicking on an application)

Option to start a console application and capture its text output and displays this contents (ie. option in the menu when right clicking on a console application)

Option to find all files BUT those with some specific patterns (ie. I want to select all files that are not this and that, so that to erase them in a second step).

Decent free space explorer (eg. see this freeware: http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/)

When **closing** the application other than through the menu, option to minimize it to the tray instead.

j_c_hallgren
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Post by j_c_hallgren »

Due to work duties today, I can't fully research and respond as I'd like to but I do believe that most of your wishes are/have already either: in XY but not obvious to new users; been discussed previously here in other threads; part of future plans; not possible or not something the author wishes to do...

Have you thoroughly read thru the wiki for those items you've listed?
Some of the best documentation on obscure XY features can be found there...
Still spending WAY TOO much time here! But it's such a pleasure helping XY be a treasure!
(XP on laptop with touchpad and thus NO mouse!) Using latest beta vers when possible.

jacky
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Re: Useful ideas...

Post by jacky »

Quickly, with what I know/can remember...
Adequat wrote:Possibility to assign a key shortcut to a favorite folder or to an item in the catalog
not possible yet, but that (and more) is coming soon, with "scriptable hotkeys" or whatever the name will be ;)
Adequat wrote:In case of a dual-screen setup, option to have the preview systematically displayed on the second screen.
hmm.. not sure what you mean : the preview is part of/done within the Panel in XY, so within its (main) window.
Therefore, it cannot be done on another monitor!
Adequat wrote:Remember the style of view (list, thumbnail, etc...) per tab/folder. Or at least for the favorite folders.
I think this has been discussed before, and won't happen. But I'm not 100% positive & can't find it right now...
Adequat wrote:Option to specify a command line before starting an application (ie. option in the menu when right clicking on an application)
It's not on the context menu, but in XY menu File|Open with Arguments
And you can assign a KS for it, of course ;)
Adequat wrote:Option to find all files BUT those with some specific patterns (ie. I want to select all files that are not this and that, so that to erase them in a second step).
Find, or Select ??
The search feature is quite powerful and supports for example boolean mode (eg. NOT *.exe). For more please check the wiki.

To select, List context menu or Edit, and Selection Filter (Ctrl+M)
You can use exclamation point ("!") as prefix to invert it. eg: "!*.exe;*.dll" to select all but EXEs and DLLs
(Note that it selects folders too, so you might have to unselect those manually afterwards)
Proud XYplorer Fanatic

Adequat
Posts: 96
Joined: 20 Jul 2007 12:03

Post by Adequat »

Thanks for your comments.

For the idea of a preview on a secondary screen, yes, this would need a separate view than the current dedicated Panel. This remains however a good idea for optimizing dual screen setups. Too few application consider dual screen setups, which is common setup among power users... a category of users that don't like to stick with Windows Explorer and search alternatives such as XYplorer.
The XnView freeware application provides this features, though this is limited to photos (I wish I could see text files in this way).

About remembering the style of a view (list, thumbnail, etc...). Windows'es Explorer can make it, and for me this makes sense eg. a folder with photos should not be presented by default as a folder with text files. I hope this is a valid argument...

j_c_hallgren
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Post by j_c_hallgren »

Adequat wrote:About remembering the style of a view (list, thumbnail, etc...). Windows'es Explorer can make it, and for me this makes sense eg. a folder with photos should not be presented by default as a folder with text files. I hope this is a valid argument...
I'd agree with your original comment that this could be available for Favorite Folders at least...I could also see it for entries in Catalog as a Property...but for any other folders, the overhead needed to maintain styles would be too much, I believe.
Still spending WAY TOO much time here! But it's such a pleasure helping XY be a treasure!
(XP on laptop with touchpad and thus NO mouse!) Using latest beta vers when possible.

Adequat
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Post by Adequat »

There would be no overhead if eg. the settings of only the last 20 accessed folders would be remembered; and that would be already a good help.

zridling
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Re: Useful ideas...

Post by zridling »

Adequat wrote:Possibility to assign a key shortcut to a favorite folder or to an item in the catalog.
Lots of good ideas, but I especially like this one. Having a keyboard shortcut to switch between drives — often between to a specific folder on another drive — would be great. Still, the one-click catalog is stupid-easy.
- Zaine Ridling, The Great Software blog

admin
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Re: Useful ideas...

Post by admin »

zridling wrote:
Adequat wrote:Possibility to assign a key shortcut to a favorite folder or to an item in the catalog.
Lots of good ideas, but I especially like this one. Having a keyboard shortcut to switch between drives — often between to a specific folder on another drive — would be great. Still, the one-click catalog is stupid-easy.
This is the next bigger feature on my list. It will be part of the so-called "user commands". Will come in ver 6.2 or 6.3.

Adequat
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Post by Adequat »

For these folder shortcuts, ideally, there should be the option to have them System wide. That is, active even if being in another application

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Post by admin »

Adequat wrote:For these folder shortcuts, ideally, there should be the option to have them System wide. That is, active even if being in another application
XY does no registry stuff, no system changing. It's the fundamental philosophy here.

Adequat
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Joined: 20 Jul 2007 12:03

Post by Adequat »

I understand. Though you have already an exception with the "Shell context menu".
Note: the philosophy you describe, is more "Programmer oriented" than "User oriented" (as a programmer, I do understand).
But from the user point of view, my philosophy would rather be: "I want to perform the least action to produce my most current task".

Anyway, with a good system wide keyboard macro application, I can find a solution if you implement in-application folder shortcuts.

admin
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Post by admin »

Adequat wrote:I understand. Though you have already an exception with the "Shell context menu".
Note: the philosophy you describe, is more "Programmer oriented" than "User oriented" (as a programmer, I do understand).
But from the user point of view, my philosophy would rather be: "I want to perform the least action to produce my most current task".
Don't forget that XYplorer is "The portable file manager." You can take it anywhere and leave without traces.

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