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Easier way to view "target" of a shortcut possible
Posted: 21 Dec 2007 19:34
by j_c_hallgren
I've been doing some clean-up on my system and part of that is removing some redundant shortcuts that were created via software installs that put things where I don't want them...but to verify which is current and which is same function but different dates, I have to keep using Properties via right-click to see the target string...so...
Is there a quicker way to do this via XY, or if not, could there be an enhancement to display some of these values within the Preview tab of IP for LNK type files?
Posted: 21 Dec 2007 19:56
by serendipity
Probably you can view target with "Raw view".
Re: Easier way to view "target" of a shortcut poss
Posted: 21 Dec 2007 20:07
by admin
HA!
I have added this today BEFORE you asked for it:
Code: Select all
+ List: added functionality to jump to the target of *.LNK files
(aka Shortcuts). You find it in the context menu of List items (if
the focused item is a shortcut). The target is displayed in the
status bar when hovering the menu command.
You also find a new command in CKS | Miscellaneous | Go To: Go to
Shortcut Target.
BTW, you can already see the target of LNKs in the File Info Tip under "Comment".
Re: Easier way to view "target" of a shortcut poss
Posted: 21 Dec 2007 20:28
by j_c_hallgren
admin wrote:BTW, you can already see the target of LNKs in the File Info Tip under "Comment".
Yes, somewhat...but not on all of them!
On a number of them, all I see is the generic comment describing what it is, such as "Launch Skype" or "Trillian : The ultimate chat program"...

So when the Comment field has a value, then the target doesn't show, so maybe a new Tip field showing the only target is needed?
And...on the ones that
do show a location, they don't show the
full value of target, which includes the actual file name, as in some cases, that is what accurately tells me exactly what is being pointed to...when you have multiple shortcuts pointing to various modules within a folder, knowing which one points to which module would allow me to remove the unneeded ones with more confidence, ok?
Re: Easier way to view "target" of a shortcut poss
Posted: 22 Dec 2007 09:31
by admin
j_c_hallgren wrote:admin wrote:BTW, you can already see the target of LNKs in the File Info Tip under "Comment".
Yes, somewhat...but not on all of them!
On a number of them, all I see is the generic comment describing what it is, such as "Launch Skype" or "Trillian : The ultimate chat program"...

So when the Comment field has a value, then the target doesn't show, so maybe a new Tip field showing the only target is needed?
And...on the ones that
do show a location, they don't show the
full value of target, which includes the actual file name, as in some cases, that is what accurately tells me exactly what is being pointed to...when you have multiple shortcuts pointing to various modules within a folder, knowing which one points to which module would allow me to remove the unneeded ones with more confidence, ok?
Okay, I added a field "Shortcut Target" to the File Info Tips.

Posted: 23 Dec 2007 03:34
by j_c_hallgren

As serendipity stated in other thread, I
like this new feature!! And the context option which is also handy!
But: I'd remove the "Location" & string from 'Comment' as it's now essentially duplicated (and a bit misleading), and when you view this field via "Properties", it would show as blank in most cases, while if Comment is truely in use, then it would show 'Launch Skype' or similar...ok?
So maybe Comment entry should only show in ToolTips when data exists there?
Posted: 23 Dec 2007 09:06
by admin
j_c_hallgren wrote:But: I'd remove the "Location" & string from 'Comment' as it's now essentially duplicated (and a bit misleading), and when you view this field via "Properties", it would show as blank in most cases, while if Comment is truely in use, then it would show 'Launch Skype' or similar...ok?
So maybe Comment entry should only show in ToolTips when data exists there?
I agree, but I'm not guilty. It wasn't me! Look at the "Comment" column (show it in List View) of LNK files in Explorer. The system does it...
Posted: 23 Dec 2007 09:40
by j_c_hallgren
admin wrote:I agree, but I'm not guilty. It wasn't me! Look at the "Comment" column (show it in List View) of LNK files in Explorer. The system does it...

Huh?? I've never seen a Comment column in Explorer...and... I thought it was your coding that put the "location" and value into Comment line on Tool Tips? You're saying it's not? Just a bit confused...
Posted: 23 Dec 2007 09:41
by admin
j_c_hallgren wrote:admin wrote:I agree, but I'm not guilty. It wasn't me! Look at the "Comment" column (show it in List View) of LNK files in Explorer. The system does it...

Huh?? I've never seen a Comment column in Explorer...and... I thought it was your coding that put the "location" and value into Comment line on Tool Tips? You're saying it's not? Just a bit confused...
Right-click an Explorer column header... I'm just plugging into a system functionality here, plus adding some own stuff.
Posted: 23 Dec 2007 11:24
by j_c_hallgren
admin wrote:Right-click an Explorer column header... I'm just plugging into a system functionality here, plus adding some own stuff.

It's been SO long that I've set up my views of Explorer that I'd forgotten about that config/setup...so I turned it on and see that there are two distinct types of shortcuts: Those that have text comments and which shows there plus via Properties (like Skype/Trillian)...and...those that have "Location" in them which admittedy does show on Win Expl, but which does
not show when viewing item via Properties, which shows comment as blank/empty.
So...is there no way to trap the Location type items and then not show Comment on Tooltip since you're now showing that plus filename via the Target? It would just present a cleaner Toolotip, IMHO.
Posted: 23 Dec 2007 12:15
by admin
j_c_hallgren wrote:admin wrote:Right-click an Explorer column header... I'm just plugging into a system functionality here, plus adding some own stuff.

It's been SO long that I've set up my views of Explorer that I'd forgotten about that config/setup...so I turned it on and see that there are two distinct types of shortcuts: Those that have text comments and which shows there plus via Properties (like Skype/Trillian)...and...those that have "Location" in them which admittedy does show on Win Expl, but which does
not show when viewing item via Properties, which shows comment as blank/empty.
So...is there no way to trap the Location type items and then not show Comment on Tooltip since you're now showing that plus filename via the Target? It would just present a cleaner Toolotip, IMHO.
No way, because it's locale aware: "Location" in english, "Ort" in German, etc. I don't know the term in for Location in, say, Urdu.
Posted: 23 Dec 2007 23:15
by j_c_hallgren
Oh!

Ok...so something like parsing the Comment field for a ": " and extracting the remaining portion, and that compared against the new Target string parsed backwards stopping at last "\" to eliminate filename isn't possible either?
Posted: 24 Dec 2007 09:17
by admin
j_c_hallgren wrote:Oh!

Ok...so something like parsing the Comment field for a ": " and extracting the remaining portion, and that compared against the new Target string parsed backwards stopping at last "" to eliminate filename isn't possible either?
Sure, but what if exactly this happens to be the comment the user personally typed in?
Or what about users that simply got used to this smart-stupid MS idea to map one field onto another if the other is free?
Posted: 14 Jan 2008 07:46
by mwb1100
It would be nice if the shortcut target were displayed in the Properties panel as well.
Posted: 14 Jan 2008 08:06
by j_c_hallgren
mwb1100 wrote:It would be nice if the shortcut target were displayed in the Properties panel as well.
Due to how long some of these entries can get, I don't see where one could fit it and still have it be usable...for typical user created shortcuts, this isn't a problem as I see it, but when one looks at some M$ Office shortcuts that are in Start/Desktop, these targets get quite lengthy! As the original requestor of this, I'm now sufficiently happy with the current implementation.