Dual Pane Wishes

[j_c_hallgren]

tacchan23, the other critical factor (I believe) that you should take into consideration is the level and quality of support...and I think that you'll find that XY excels in this area...we are quite active here in the forum and if there is a problem, Don responds very promptly...that speedy support is something that is quite unusual and shouldn't be discounted.

I would take full advantage of the trial period and then see if XY may fit your needs better when all things are considered.

[tacchan23]

tacchan23, the other critical factor (I believe) that you should take into consideration is the level and quality of support...and I think that you'll find that XY excels in this area...we are quite active here in the forum and if there is a problem, Don responds very promptly...that speedy support is something that is quite unusual and shouldn't be discounted.

I would take full advantage of the trial period and then see if XY may fit your needs better when all things are considered.

As said before, I like XYplorer more but so far I'm having some difficulties (of course personal for my mind structure^^) in using the Dual Pane feature without a Dual Tree and honestly the Dual Pane is one of the main feature I'd like to use if I buy a new file explorer to replace the Window one.
Anyway for sure I'll use the 28 days left to try to get used to it before making a choice:)

[admin]

I am quite a casual user (meaning that with winXP the standard file explorer was enough for me)...

If the XP Explorer was enough for you, what feature or (non-feature) of the Win7 Explorer finally made you want to change? Just curious...

[tacchan23]

I am quite a casual user (meaning that with winXP the standard file explorer was enough for me)...

If the XP Explorer was enough for you, what feature or (non-feature) of the Win7 Explorer finally made you want to change? Just curious...

Some of my issues with Win7 explorer:
1) a lot of useless (just my opinion of course) folders displayed in the Tree panel taking a lot of space (Libraries, Home group, Favorites
2) the lines of folders/files are way too "tall"... I can see at least 6-7 files less with Win7 explorer than before
3) no lines to connect the folders in the Tree as well as the stupid arrows replacing the + and -

Maybe they sound stupid too most people... but for me they were enough to make me decide to look for something else^^
As said, I have no need for many powerfull commands that more advanced users may appreciate of Xyplorer. I'm just looking for something more "neat" (for my job I need to keep organized a lot of drawing files, structural calculations, documentations and so on... and Win7 makes it more messy^^ also I tought that the Dual pane may prove usefull to move files around while organizing them or to develop a new project from an old one etc, so I was looking at this feature too)

[admin]

I am quite a casual user (meaning that with winXP the standard file explorer was enough for me)...

If the XP Explorer was enough for you, what feature or (non-feature) of the Win7 Explorer finally made you want to change? Just curious...

Some of my issues with Win7 explorer:
1) a lot of useless (just my opinion of course) folders displayed in the Tree panel taking a lot of space (Libraries, Home group, Favorites
2) the lines of folders/files are way too "tall"... I can see at least 6-7 files less with Win7 explorer than before
3) no lines to connect the folders in the Tree as well as the stupid arrows replacing the + and -

Maybe they sound stupid too most people... but for me they were enough to make me decide to look for something else^^
As said, I have no need for many powerfull commands that more advanced users may appreciate of Xyplorer. I'm just looking for something more "neat" (for my job I need to keep organized a lot of drawing files, structural calculations, documentations and so on... and Win7 makes it more messy^^ also I tought that the Dual pane may prove usefull to move files around while organizing them or to develop a new project from an old one etc, so I was looking at this feature too)

I follow you completely. Each of these points would be enough for me as well to look for something better. And you are certainly within XYplorer's target group, if...

if it were not for that Dual Tree thing... ... it's not on my list currently.

[tacchan23]

I'm finding more issues with TC every day now^^
Really no chances to see a dual tree on XYplorer?

[admin]

I'm finding more issues with TC every day now^^
Really no chances to see a dual tree on XYplorer?

Not any time soon. But never say never...

[serendipity]

I've never used dual tree, so here is a naive question:
Is it OK to have two trees at the same physical location (like two sides of a coin) or dual tree has to be two separate locations? I am talking in terms of usability. Is it required that user needs to see both trees at the same time?

With Dual list I somewhat understand that comparing contents is necessary like for drag-drop purposes etc. But what exactly is user wanting with dual tree?

In short, is it OK to have two switchable trees in the same position or does it have to be two separately positioned trees?

[j_c_hallgren]

I've never used dual tree, so here is a naive question:

I've only used it very rarely so I'm no expert either but...

In short, is it OK to have two switchable trees in the same position or does it have to be two separately positioned trees?

Based on my limited look-n-see at our competitior TC, it has the option to do either one AFAIK...the tree switches to match the pane in use or you can have a "tree - pane | tree - pane" style layout.

The users who are desiring DT are most likely wanting to see both at same time because what they are wanting (I believe) is sorta like two instances of XY merged on one window...and why have DT's?

My understanding is when you have, let's say, drive C on one pane and drive D on 2nd pane...and thus you can better view (and thus verify) that you've got the desired folder on both sides by seeing the trees at same time...and I would also presume that by having an expanded folder showing on both trees would make visual compare of match/unmatch of that nested folder structure easier.

[SkyFrontier]

I've made some considerations on Dual Tree and usability problems on not having them here, in Forest for the Trees.
For the purpose of records, a sample follows:

Self quote:
-tree becoming too long to deal with (we've tried your mini-tree feature, but its uncomfortable to the average Joe; I like it very much!)
-accidental deletion of files -shift+del, usually, thus leading to a complicated file recovering operation
-multiplication of files mistakenly copied to heaven knows where - we are finding files and working with them as if they were originals when they in fact are just copies, making multiple asynced versions of documents
-(matter of personal taste) I would like to be able to swap the whole set of tabs from top to bottom in a single click, as we have a routine to always keep on top the source of files and sometimes we stumble upon a file/source of files that quickly need to be copied/updated.

Considering Don's opinions on Dual Tree and its Roadmap, plus a post on competitors usage of backgrounds

Admin:
Actually, your backdrops look very good to my taste. I also like the idea of that "warning sign". Hey, I might steal it...

came to me the idea to match background color and tree color when dealing with pane 1/pane2. This way COULD be a visual hint on what pane's attached to currently displayed section of the tree, diminishing the confusion on who belongs to who. User-define-able, of course - enable or disable that feature at your will/need. I BELIEVE (haven't seen that feature on any other software yet) this COULD BE be of a serious help on that matter, WHILE WE CAN'T achieve a hardcore dual tree which I can speak from 8 years of usage does NOT need any color code to tell user where he currently is (and yes, I'm still getting usage errors on copying/moving files on a single tree, at the same time not having available UNDO moves due to a kind of "only-on-my-two-different-machines-inability-to-log-file-operations-from-pane-to-tree-bug").

No, I usually don't have problems migrating from software to software and can learn fast new ways to operate anything even after years-old regular usage. Work colleagues simply steer away after not being able to adapt their work style to a single tree/dual pane layout, and I don't condemn them - I've tested XYplorer in its v5 incarnation and did the same after realizing how dangerous can be using a file manager without undo feature.

Now we have undo, scripting and dual pane. To my likings, just adding dual tree would suffice to make XY perfect (I fear "fast copy operations" based on disastrous experiences in the past with another software and hope it also could be user-decided to whether or not use it, but that's another question). But - that's just another 2 cents on the jar!

[serendipity]

I've never used dual tree, so here is a naive question:

I've only used it very rarely so I'm no expert either but...

In short, is it OK to have two switchable trees in the same position or does it have to be two separately positioned trees?

Based on my limited look-n-see at our competitior TC, it has the option to do either one AFAIK...the tree switches to match the pane in use or you can have a "tree - pane | tree - pane" style layout.

The users who are desiring DT are most likely wanting to see both at same time because what they are wanting (I believe) is sorta like two instances of XY merged on one window...and why have DT's?

My understanding is when you have, let's say, drive C on one pane and drive D on 2nd pane...and thus you can better view (and thus verify) that you've got the desired folder on both sides by seeing the trees at same time...and I would also presume that by having an expanded folder showing on both trees would make visual compare of match/unmatch of that nested folder structure easier.

Thanks JC!

[admin]

Question to the DualTreeNiks: would it help to mark the current path of both panes in the single tree? Say, pane one green, pane two blue, or so...

[SkyFrontier]

It would be of a little help, for sure, and little is better than nothing.
Hmmm... how exactly do you plan doing that, Don? I imagine you're planning to put that color right on navigation bar, coloring the path according to what pane it refers to. May be misunderstanding what you have in mind. Anyway, that's a thing.

I know that making background color to match tree vs pane 1/pane 2 sounds a bit of bad taste, but in terms of visual response I believe it would be more effective. Brain's response can be immediate when seeing a large colorful block in "F" shape (tree+pane1) or "L" shape (tree+pane2), I mean. If possible, transparency control could reduce any negative impacts on one's overall visual theme.
As I said, if one doesn't need such "unpleasant" feature, just keep it disabled.

...but hands down my vote goes for plain dual tree when possible, I have to say as a DualTreeNik. lol

[j_c_hallgren]

It would be of a little help, for sure, and little is better than nothing.
Hmmm... how exactly do you plan doing that, Don? I imagine you're planning to put that color right on navigation bar, coloring the path according to what pane it refers to. May be misunderstanding what you have in mind. Anyway, that's a thing.

I know that making background color to match tree vs pane 1/pane 2 sounds a bit of bad taste, but in terms of visual response I believe it would be more effective.

I agree that marking the current path in either different colors would help but if you used blue, how would you distinguish that from the currently selected blue item in list? Or am I missing something? Maybe you meant a diff shade of blue as default?

And to SkyFrontier's idea...sounds good in theory, but how would it work in practice since my active pane is always white and inactive is always gray? Unless you mean to have a new background color specifically assigned to each pane that would then apply to tree...because right now the pane colors alternate depending on whether it's active or not, not because it's pane 1 or 2.

[admin]

I now think it's not a good idea to mark two folders in the Tree. Let's forget about it.