Help me be convert from DirectoryOpus

spamalam · Post by **spamalam** » 23 Jun 2007 22:30

Hello,
I am not new to new file explorers but am new to XYplorer. I do a lot of work which involves connecting to remote machines, copy and pasting, editing files, etc. in a relatively technical field, and i find standard explorer a major hinderance to my ability to work.

I have long been using Directory Opus which i find to be excellent, if a little slow in responding sometimes. What I dispise about it is the pathetic licensing they have, which are completely unreasonable in regards to letting people use it when they have several machines, etc.

I have installed XYplorer but I am trying to get the best of what I'm used to and any advantages XY offers and was wondering if you guys could help me achieve that?

Firstly, I can not work without dual panes/norton commander view... I can't find this at all in XYplorer. The tabbing seems to be there but a side by side view is completely missing... is this basic feature not implemented? I find it very hard to work without it, preferring the "Dual View" over "Commander", and both greatly over a basic single view.

Next up, how do I make XYplorer my shell so it loads up whenever I open a window. ie. start ., win+e, double click a link somewhere? I'll have a scout for a registry hack, but hoped there would be an implementaiton/configuration somewhere in preferences.

I often work with FTP locations, is this supported? With directory opus i can open an ftp in one tab and drop files across all in the explorer.

Can you turn on clickable breadcrumbs, so i can jump back to root or a particular folder by clicking on a part of the path?

I use an application called FreeCommander on places I'm not licensed, and I love the "Favourites" you have in the context menu in that. I can "favourite" two folders/network locations and then click the favourite entry (you can give it a name) for it to load the two locations up in two different panes.

I don't want to have to give in to the crummy licensing of directory opus, so if someone can help with these that would be awesome.

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 24 Jun 2007 00:15

Hi,

Welcome to XY!

spamalam wrote:Firstly, I can not work without dual panes/norton commander view... I can't find this at all in XYplorer.

Nope, there's no dual pane in XY. But Donald (the author) has finally decided to make all you "dual-pane freaks"

happy and added it on his roadmap! So it should come, but not today.

spamalam wrote:Next up, how do I make XYplorer my shell so it loads up whenever I open a window. ie. start ., win+e, double click a link somewhere? I'll have a scout for a registry hack, but hoped there would be an implementaiton/configuration somewhere in preferences.

No options for this, no. However, you'll be able to find on the wiki detailled & easy instructions on how to make XY your default file manager, as well as how to start it usig WinKey+[some key]

spamalam wrote:I often work with FTP locations, is this supported?

No, XY is a file manager only, no FTP support.

spamalam wrote:Can you turn on clickable breadcrumbs, so i can jump back to root or a particular folder by clicking on a part of the path?

In XY breadcrumbs works through popup menu. It can be accessed by different ways:
- clicking on the arrow next to the Up button on the Toolbar
- right-clicking on the Up button on the Toolbar
- right-clicking on the Hotlist button on the Toolbar
- menu Go/Breadcrumb... (Ctrl+Backspace)
- right-clicking on the folder icon on the tab header. This allows one to pop up the breadcrumb menu specific to that tab, and use it to change the current tab location.
You can read more about this on the wiki.
Again though, "Vista-like clickable breadcrumb", if this is what you had in mind, is on the roadmap.

spamalam wrote:I use an application called FreeCommander on places I'm not licensed, and I love the "Favourites" you have in the context menu in that. I can "favourite" two folders/network locations and then click the favourite entry (you can give it a name) for it to load the two locations up in two different panes.

You can define favorites in XY using menu Favorites. Once you've done so, right-clicking an empty area on Tree will popup a menu with all favorites.
If you don't feel like going to each location and then use menu Favorites|Toggle Favorite Folder (Ctrl+B) you can also use XY's great tool: List Management
For a major enhancements on Favorites, I'd highly recommand you to take a look into XY's Catalogas well!

Hope this can help, and you'll enjoy the amazing software that XY is.

spamalam · Post by **spamalam** » 25 Jun 2007 02:39

Thank you for your responses

Its a shame dualpane isn't in there, its much more difficult to do comparisons without the dual view and I find its much easier to work with in such a mode. I'm ending up loading two XY instances to achieve the same thing. Glad to hear its on a roadmap, any idea how far away it is?

I didn't spot the page with the registry changes on

Is there any chance this could be implemented and put on the gui as a button to add/remove registry entry?

FTP is a pretty basic and old protocol, and is supported by a lot of explorers/file managers (it is the file transfer protocol

). It would be great to see this implemented, its pretty important when working with blades/unix remote systems... saves having to switch to filezilla for something that is essentially a file management operation.

I'm not sure what vista's breadcrum style is, I use/used directory opus so its from that. Same as WinSCP too. I find it much quicker and more accurate to jump to the right place using this method and the popup is much more clumbersome. I often use shortcuts to the same effect, but when i'm navigating down a large tree, it provides a much better option.

Thank you for the information on the favourite systems, with the list management and catalog features... that will be very useful. I guess that dual favourites is something for after the absent dual pane is implemented. Any dates for DP?

Thank you.

spamalam · Post by **spamalam** » 25 Jun 2007 02:48

I think reviewing the features and using it for the past days that I'm going to buy it.

Look forward to seeing DualPane implemented. Can't wait for that

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 25 Jun 2007 06:49

Hi!

I'll extend my welcome to the world of XY also!

spamalam wrote:Its a shame dualpane isn't in there, its much more difficult to do comparisons without the dual view and I find its much easier to work with in such a mode. Glad to hear its on a roadmap, any idea how far away it is?

Dual pane is something that I've desired also, and use xplorer2 for those rare times when I have to do so...DP is a feature that (as I understand it) Don may still not feel is 100% needed but he's willing to implement it to entice more users to XY who would ignore the other unique outstanding features that XY has because of lack of DP.

spamalam wrote: Is there any chance this could be implemented and put on the gui as a button to add/remove registry entry?

I suspect that won't happen as one of XY's basic rules is to not affect the Registry...so IF we wish to do so ourselves, then XY itself can't be blamed for any issues that occur...

spamalam wrote:FTP is a pretty basic and old protocol, and is supported by a lot of explorers/file managers (it is the file transfer protocol ). ... saves having to switch to filezilla for something that is essentially a file management operation.

I use Core FTP Lite for this function as I need SFTP and most of the FTP pgms I found don't support that...plus I see it as a separate function that should be handled outside of a file manager...and extra bloat that XY doesn't really need at this time...

spamalam wrote:I'm not sure what vista's breadcrum style is, I find it much quicker and more accurate to jump to the right place using this method and the popup is much more clumbersome.

There have been a few threads on this subject, and one of the main issues (I think) was how to handle a looooooooooooong path/name on a narrow tab where all the path doesn't show...

Glad to see that you decided to give XY your "financial approval"! It's a great product and you'll see that we have a very active forum here where even minor design issues get discussed and thus provide immediate feedback to Don for his consideration.

lukescammell · Post by **lukescammell** » 25 Jun 2007 11:53

I know FTP isn't liked, but it really would get my vote - I would love to be able to drop the other FTP programs that I use. It would be completely amazing to just stay within the XY interface because I find it far superior to to everything else out there - it simply is the best way to manage your files.

In my eyes, FTP is simply managing your files on your webserver.

I like the idea of packaging up the total system integration into a simple "Activate/deactivate" button for your toolbar. You could even put a warning window up the first time you activate it for instance - but it would make life better for people who DO want to integrate it completely into their system and not have to worry about WE popping up unexpectedly. Just to clarify, I am not asking for this to be a default behaviour, I personally LIKE XY being 100% portable and not touching the multiple systems I use it on, but it would be NICE to be able to have this behaviour on my home system at the click of a button.

Post by **admin** » 25 Jun 2007 12:11

lukescammell wrote:I like the idea of packaging up the total system integration into a simple "Activate/deactivate" button for your toolbar. You could even put a warning window up the first time you activate it for instance - but it would make life better for people who DO want to integrate it completely into their system and not have to worry about WE popping up unexpectedly. Just to clarify, I am not asking for this to be a default behaviour, I personally LIKE XY being 100% portable and not touching the multiple systems I use it on, but it would be NICE to be able to have this behaviour on my home system at the click of a button.

I would have done it months ago if it weren't for some problems with some name space extensions like "control panel". XY is a "file" manager in the classic sense, where file and folder is something not as virtual as those things that behave as if they were folders but aren't.
I simply hesitate to provide a push-button solution that does not work 100% as expected.

Post by **admin** » 25 Jun 2007 12:14

lukescammell wrote:I know FTP isn't liked, but it really would get my vote - I would love to be able to drop the other FTP programs that I use. It would be completely amazing to just stay within the XY interface because I find it far superior to to everything else out there - it simply is the best way to manage your files.

In my eyes, FTP is simply managing your files on your webserver.

"Simply" ... I would say it looks like simple file management if everything works out nicely. However, the technology behind it is totally different from local file management, and the possible issues are a can of worms that I'm just happy to leave to specified FTP apps.

That said, I'd love to do my FTP from XY as well!

lukescammell · Post by **lukescammell** » 25 Jun 2007 12:33

I'm sure you're right that it's completely different underlying technology - but that's not how it feels to the end user, hence all the requests for it

I also understand your reluctance to start supporting it.

Having said this, what about a half-way house? Would it be possible to integrate an existing program into XY? Or would this be completely and utterly against your vision for XY?

This way the FTP program (just for the sake of argument FileZilla) would handle all the behind the scenes work, but we still get all the XY goodness from the front end? I realise this still isn't a simple piece of work, but wonder if it would be workable without killing you?

Post by **admin** » 25 Jun 2007 12:40

lukescammell wrote:Having said this, what about a half-way house?

I'm doing this already now: drag my files from XY to server in smart-ftp.

lukescammell · Post by **lukescammell** » 27 Jun 2007 09:28

Heh, I can do that too, but that's not quite what meant.

In SmartFTP I miss all the little touches that make XY great:

Hit F2 and only have the filename (not the extension) selected.
Then press the DOWN arrow and be at the end of the filename/beginning of the extension.
Use Ctrl+A to select the whole name (ext and all).
Visually filter things out (or in)
auto size the columns
Smart renaming options

You get the idea, but basically all the little things add up to one big difference.

zridling · Post by **zridling** » 05 Oct 2007 10:22

lukescammell makes a good point about features. Anyone else notice that the new ACDSee 10 incorporated one of XYplorer's features? (popup view)

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 13 Dec 2007 13:28

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but this topic best describes my dilemma.

Some thoughts:

1. I really like XYplorer!
2. I also really like Directory Opus.
3. The Catalog in XY is brilliant.
4. I'd like breadcrumbs to be more visual in XY - DO has an address bar that implements breadcrumbs very nicely and gives Vista functionality to us XP users.
5. DO has tabbed browsing - XY is not alone in this regard. Plus, the tabs in DO appear in each of the dual panes, and they can be renamed.
6. Customization in XY is more straightforward, and doesn't require a class in VBScript to make even simple changes. DO, however, wins the "customize till you drop" prize.
7. Saving custom configurations and layouts is more straightforward in DO, and you can access those layouts from more places and in more ways than XY. DO takes the convenience award.
8. DO wins the feature bloat prize, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I like having one app to manage not just files, but file-related tasks like FTP, ZIP and Sync. Just keep in mind that there is no free lunch.

Number 8 is a nice segue to my final point. Cost and licensing. DOpus costs at least twice what XY costs, and if you have multiple computers in your house (my family has six), the licensing costs become a significant consideration. It will cost me $240 to license DO, and only $50 to license XY, for all of the computers in my home. Not only that, but XY is a lifetime license while DO's license is for one version only.

So is DO's current capability (which, overall, is more complete than XY's) good enough to last into the forseeable future? Or should I go with XY in the hope that it will fill more of my personal operational needs as time goes by and more features are added?

This is a tough call for me, because I've been burned by PowerDesk and ExplorerPlus (which was the forerunner of PD). Novatix, Ontrack and VCom all stopped development of PD, which left me high and dry when Vista showed up on the family's newest computers. I also ended up paying a lot of money for the various versions in the vain hope that development would continue.

I don't want to make that same mistake again. I need to pick the winning product *now*.

Thanks for reading,
-Jeff

Post by **admin** » 13 Dec 2007 14:24

Hi, and welcome to the Club!

Jeff Bellune wrote:I need to pick the winning product *now*.

Your dilemma is not solvable. Each product can at best be perfect for one person, and in case of XYplorer that person is me.

I have always avoided to add features based on polls. If I had done that XYplorer would just be another file manager clone with Dual Pane, FTP, Zip, and Duplicate Finder.

I'm ready to be inspired by users 24/7, and there has been a lot of inspiration in the last years due to the excellence of the club members here, which must be one of the best software discussion forums in the world.

XYplorer is evolving fast and continually, but neither DO nor any other software is relevant to the course of development.

Which is the best product for you? Depends on your tasks, your workstyle. You have 30 days to find out...

BTW:

Jeff Bellune wrote:...only $50 to license XY, for all of the computers in my home.

That's true if you are the only person using that computers. Else you need a license for each family member using the program.

Jeff Bellune · Post by **Jeff Bellune** » 13 Dec 2007 14:46

Thanks for the welcome and for the considered reply.

My concern is that, as an individual developer, you will get "burned out" on XY development.

(My concern with a larger company is that the file manager product will be dropped if revenue falls.)

I'm sorry if I misinterpreted the license agreement. Here's the text from the web site:

As an individual person, you need a license to use XYplorer. This license grants you a non-exclusive and non-transferable right to use XYplorer on any number and kind of devices. As an employer, you need a license for each employee using XYplorer.

My interpretation was this: Since I am not an employer, I must be an individual person. I administer 6 family computers (the "devices"). Nowhere in the license description does it say that I must be the only one using those devices. However, after your clarification, I can now see the correct interpretation of the license agreement.

Perhaps a different or more complete wording of the license is in order?

EDIT: Ironically, with their volume license discounts, Directory Opus is now a better deal financially for me than XYplorer.

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Help me be convert from DirectoryOpus

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