Favorites bar

[chiron]

Hi, I've just started trying XYplorer. At work I have Windows 7 and hate the file explorer with a passion. The best replacement I've been using so far is Explorer++. What makes that so useful to me is the Drive bar and the customizable Favorite folders Bar and the customisable application bar. As you can see at work we have a large network with many mapped drives, and there are quite a few folders that I access frequently. The Favorites bar is just so much quicker than going to a menu and having to pick from a list, similarly it is much easier to click on the drive bar than navigate drives via the tree view. The application bar is a just a nice touch. The dual file panes gives XYplorer many advantages but at the moment the navigation bars mean I still need Explorer++ for fast file access. Are these features in XYplorer and I've just missed them so far?

[j_c_hallgren]

Hi and welcome to the XY forums!

While i don't have anywhere the nbr of drives that you deal with, have you looked at the various toolbar icons available for either a group of drives (with individual ones avail via pull-down) or specific ones per drive?

As to the folders, one solution I'd look at is via the Catalog...and while it's true that may take a bit more horizontal room but does preserve vertical space in list.

I'm sure our other regulars here may have some better ideas given that they may have more experiance with these situations.

[binocular222]

what is navigation bar?

[Slavaon]

In XYplorer you can make a "Favorites" button for quick access to files and folders (use the left and right mouse button):

Favorites button.gif (68.89 KiB) Viewed 6168 times

[j_c_hallgren]

In XYplorer you can make a "Favorites" button for quick access to files and folders (use the left and right mouse button):

Favorites button.gif

I don't use that so didn't think of it...and THANKS for that GIF which really helps explain it!

Edit/addendum: I was thinking of using the built-in Favorite File/Folder TB icons...of course, those requires a click to open menu/dropdown but once that's done, the remaining effort isn't any more than selecting from a Favorites bar.

[jjk]

In XYplorer you can make a "Favorites" button for quick access to files and folders (use the left and right mouse button):

Favorites button.gif

I don't know how to obtain that button. Is it an user button ? And, if yes, how to configure it ?

[Slavaon]

I don't know how to obtain that button. Is it an user button ? And, if yes, how to configure it ?

Create "User Button", mark "Fire click on mousedown".
In the section "On left click" and "On right-click" add the desired files and folders.
For example:

Code: Select all

C:\
%windir%
C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\
"Convert photo" D:\Work\Convert photo\
-
"XYplorer" I:\Install\XYplorer\onenote.url
-
"Recent Documents" C:\Users\%UserName%\Desktop\Recent Documents.lnk
-
"JPEGView" T:\Soft\Foto\JPEGView\JPEGView.exe

P.S. Here there are more options - Share your buttons!

[TheQwerty]

Unfortunately, User Toolbar Buttons and the Catalog are only available in the Pro Edition.

But there are a couple alternatives in the free version...
1) You can add Favorite Files or Favorites Folders icons to your toolbar, by selecting Tools > Customize Toolbar. They'll still be in a menu but they are a little easier to access.

Favorite Folders toolbar button menu.

screenshot.4.png (30.51 KiB) Viewed 6101 times

2) The Favorite Folders menu is also displayed when you right-click in the empty space of the tree (to the right or under everything).

Now's a good time to mention that although XY maintains two different lists for favorite files and folders, if you go to Tools > List Management and select Favorite Files or Favorite Folders (or right-click the toolbar buttons and select Customize) you can put files in the folders list and vice versa. This is also how you add captions to a favorite.

Tools > List Management > Favorite Folders

screenshot.3.png (40.3 KiB) Viewed 6101 times

3) This is really ugly but it would get you the closest to one-click access in the Free Edition... You could use Windows' subst command or something like Visual Subst to map your favorite folders to drive letters. Then add the drive or drive group buttons to your toolbar.


Thanks for stopping by and hopefully that helps you feel a little more at home in XY!



EDIT: One more thought!

If you enable Open favorite files directly under Tools > Configuration > Controls and More > Miscellaneous and use the knowledge from tip number two then you can use the Favorite Folders to go to items and the Favorite Files to launch items - which should help you replace that last toolbar.

EDIT 2: Anticipating the next question... Unfortunately we are currently limited to a single-row toolbar in XY, but you can make it scroll & wrap if you'd prefer that to the overflow menu.

[chiron]

Great stuff Thank you everyone for your help. There's a lot to this program - it was all a bit overwhelming at first
Cheers

[teejay03830]

Feature Suggestion

I personally think that the use of favorites can be one of the most valuable and time saving features for a file explorer.

i personally use 20 plus favorites for all of my different projects.

With that in mine here is my suggestion for an improvement.

Implement a dedicated, scroll able, Favorites list, with the ability to re-order and categorize favorites

It could live just above the file tree and would auto expand / minimize when the mouse hovers over it.

Thanks

[RalphM]

Welcome to the forum.

You should check out the catalog which can be used for this and so much more.