XYplorer Beta Club

I'm new to xy. I want it to replace PowerDesk, as they are beginning to be a pain to deal with. Several remarks about my initial experience with xy:

1. Changing colors is either a major pain or I'm not grasping something. When I change a color, I have to exit out of the configuration window to see what (if anything) actually changes. Usually, nothing does...and I have to go back and try to find where I left off tinkering.
Suggestion 1: Rig the color change window with a sample display to the right so the user can see what changes immediately when a setting is modified.

Suggestion 2: Provide several "themes" as does windows so the user can scroll through them and click the one desired. The theme would change all the color settings so the user doesn't have to wade through all the individual choices. Again, this may be possible already. I haven't had the time to find out...but if it can be done...it must not be too intuitive.

Question about colors: I'd like to have one solid color in an entire window (tree and file list).....and have any file I click on be highlighted by bold yellow text on red background....that extends across all of the file stats (size, date, etc.) How can this be accomplished?

2. The power of powerdesk, at least in my situation, was its ability to allow me to drag a file from a directory listing up to the tool bar, and modify its icon to make it intuitive enough to remember its purpose. I'm assuming xy can't do this. If it can, please enlighten me.

3. I finally figured out how to get the drive letters to the tool bar..but the text is so small I can hardly see it. It looks like it's about six point font. How do I enlarge this?

4. How do I get xy to list a default directory in the top box, and a 2nd default directory in the bottom box...such that those 2 are showing automatically when I launch xy?

5. Is there a video tutorial somewhere on xy?

6. Oh...and how do I get that photo pane on the right that appears on the main website page?

danman wrote:2. The power of powerdesk, at least in my situation, was its ability to allow me to drag a file from a directory listing up to the tool bar, and modify its icon to make it intuitive enough to remember its purpose. I'm assuming xy can't do this. If it can, please enlighten me.

You can't, but I like the idea.

6. F11.

Your other questions: As you look for a replacement for your previous now defunct file manager it's natural that you'd like one as close as possible, optimally a clone minus the problems. But XY is an integrated product. I will not just add features from PD. So might better look around if you find something that's closer to PD by nature.

danman wrote:I'm new to xy. I want it to replace PowerDesk, as they are beginning to be a pain to deal with. Several remarks about my initial experience with xy:

1. Changing colors is either a major pain or I'm not grasping something. When I change a color, I have to exit out of the configuration window to see what (if anything) actually changes. Usually, nothing does...and I have to go back and try to find where I left off tinkering.

Most of the color item names are self-explanatory but also many apply to cases that won't always be seen on every screen so may not be easy to verify

Suggestion 1: Rig the color change window with a sample display to the right so the user can see what changes immediately when a setting is modified.

I think that would be too complicated -- however, maybe Don could provide a screen shot or two via website (since AFAIK, Help doesn't have embedded pix) that provides a cross reference to where those items appear similar to the green nbr 1-9 on Product page that describes main interface?

Suggestion 2: Provide several "themes" as does windows so the user can scroll through them and click the one desired. The theme would change all the color settings so the user doesn't have to wade through all the individual choices. Again, this may be possible already. I haven't had the time to find out...but if it can be done...it must not be too intuitive.

Via screenshots, we've seen here some very unusual color combinations so it seems easier just to allow users to pick and choose the items that match their desires like it does now.

Question about colors: I'd like to have one solid color in an entire window (tree and file list).....and have any file I click on be highlighted by bold yellow text on red background....that extends across all of the file stats (size, date, etc.) How can this be accomplished?

Extending across columns? That sound like what is called "full row select" which I never use and is avaliable via Tools>Customize List/Tree

2. The power of powerdesk, at least in my situation, was its ability to allow me to drag a file from a directory listing up to the tool bar, and modify its icon to make it intuitive enough to remember its purpose. I'm assuming xy can't do this. If it can, please enlighten me.

Just curious: How often did you do this? Because it would seem your toolbar would become quite crowded quickly...maybe you can investigate using the Catalog as alternative?

3. I finally figured out how to get the drive letters to the tool bar..but the text is so small I can hardly see it. It looks like it's about six point font. How do I enlarge this?

I don't believe you can enlarge it as I think it's part of the icon -- maybe use the Drives TB icon instead? Of hover on the tB icon to see tooltip?

4. How do I get xy to list a default directory in the top box, and a 2nd default directory in the bottom box...such that those 2 are showing automatically when I launch xy?

This can be done via Tabsets or a script on startup...(I don't use/do this but took this info from another thread)

5. Is there a video tutorial somewhere on xy?

Nope...sorry...i alwsys suggest to new users to pueruse the release notes on the website for prior vers as Don often provides the best info there about the features newly added...there are some limited quick videos via the Features web page (also use it to get info about various topics from release notes)

Now remember that XY and Pd are totally different products and while both likely should support all features available with Win Expl, they may not have same unique features and so you may have to adapt to slightly different ways of doing things with XY -- and there might be some things that XY can't do -- but you must balance that with those things XY can do which PD can't and I'll bet the support for XY beats PD hand's down so that's another benefit here.

2. dragging to an icon on the toolbar, created by the script you can find below, can be done so as to make a menu if you then edit the menu created you will
find you can change the icon.
http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... 044#p91044

I used PowerDesk for years before finally switching to XY. I recorded my experiences here for people wondering if XY is worth it. Personally, after switching to XY, I have never looked back.

At first, I also wanted something as close to PD as I could find, after all, I could work it in my sleep. XY is indeed different, but so much more powerful. It won't take you long to master the parts you need (I say parts you need because I don't think anyone has mastered all of it, it is so feature packed).

Also, if you have any questions, this community is great, not like PD where you had to submit a blood sample to get permission to submit the question itself! Truthfully, I'm glad Avanquest (or whoever owns PD now) screwed up, because if not, I never would have found XY.

Believe it or not, after ripping us off 3 times with paid updates, they want to charge again for version 9! OMG! The only reason I know this is because I looked it up after reading your post.

So, good luck. If you already bought XY, good choice; if you are trying to decide, XY is great (again, read my review linked above).

Indeed...PowerDesk, in my view, has become one collective jerk. I would have bought PD 8.3 if they would have allowed me to activate the program without hooking my business laptop to the net, but they wouldn't budge on that issue. They lost a long-term customer that day, but I don't think they give a rip.

Yes, I did buy xy. It's going to be a steep learning curve, evidently. I don't even understand some of the stuff that was said in the replies, and I'm pretty good at tinkering with software. I don't want a clone of pd...just a couple of the features. My tool bar didn't get too crowded in pd. I just had a few icons that brought me right to a directory I needed to get to quickly. If I can't figure out how to go to a preferred directory in one click, I guess I'll continue the search for a file handler. I guess I should have waited out the 30 day trial period, but it looked pretty good by day 2.

danman wrote:My tool bar didn't get too crowded in pd. I just had a few icons that brought me right to a directory I needed to get to quickly. If I can't figure out how to go to a preferred directory in one click, I guess I'll continue the search for a file handler. I guess I should have waited out the 30 day trial period, but it looked pretty good by day 2.

I wish I was on my desktop, I could get you there no problem, if that's all you are looking for (for now)! I certainly wouldn't get another file manager for this reason as XY can do this and oh so much more. But, instead of putting drive/directory one-click access on the menu bar, might I suggest you use tabs? Create a separate tab for each drive/directory you want quick access to and be sure to save your settings. Even better, learn about the Catalog (see below).

I suggest you go to the script exchange topic and post the menu bar request if you really want access from there and one of the XY pros could set you up quickly. But again, there are a few other ways to make this work.

XY can be a bit intimidating at first, but I would hate to see you spend money on something else when you already have the best file manager around. Its just strange to you right now, once you start getting use to it, you'll be happy you spent some time learning its ins and outs.

Since you purchased the program, go to the License Lounge and download the various PDFs (guide and cheat sheets) and spend some time reading. Or, you could do what I did and find what you want to learn here and start reading (read about the Catalog on this page).

Nothing worth having is not without some effort. Once you setup XY like you want it, you'll wonder how you got along without it.

Really, give it some time.

danman wrote:Yes, I did buy xy.

And we appreciate that you did so!

It's going to be a steep learning curve, evidently. I don't even understand some of the stuff that was said in the replies, and I'm pretty good at tinkering with software.

XY can't be learned in a day or two because it has SO many features that one may not use just like Word or such but once you get the hang of the parts you need, it's quite easy, I think...and if we sid stuff you don't understand, PLEASE let us know so we might try and explain better...I'll admit we often use some terms/abbrev/jargon here that a newbie may not follow so if we have confused you, let's try to fix that, ok?

My tool bar didn't get too crowded in pd. I just had a few icons that brought me right to a directory I needed to get to quickly.

Ok, but the way you first phrased it, it sounded like it was something that you did quite often (drag folder to icon) and unless you were reusing one icon, the TB would get full quite soon.

If I can't figure out how to go to a preferred directory in one click, I guess I'll continue the search for a file handler. I guess I should have waited out the 30 day trial period, but it looked pretty good by day 2.

As we said, there are various ways to handle it in XY and some may be new to you so we just need to find out which method may work best for you, ok?

I had suggested using the Catalog as alternative...while it's not a TB icon, it can give one-click access to a given directory.
You can also look at using the CTB's (Custom Toolbar Buttons) -- ok, so you have to set it up a bit differently maybe than PD, but should get job done as well.

I'd also suggest to go for the Catalog. You can have categories, add items (and also sort them) by drag and drop, scroll it, see the full path of each item, and much more. See attached screenshot of my own catalog, which I click on hundreds of times everyday. Luckily it's wear-free.

It's been awhile since I logged on here. Looks like catalog will be helpful, if I can figure out how to use it. Is it possible to add a feature that would allow the user to drag a file folder up to the toolbar for quick access..then modify the icon later?

Also, can you direct me to a features list so I can see if any features have been added since version 12.8 that would be useful in my situation?

danman wrote:Also, can you direct me to a features list so I can see if any features have been added since version 12.8 that would be useful in my situation?

Best thing to do is review http://www.xyplorer.com/whatsnew.php periodically as that gives the most user friendly desc of changes...