XYplorer Beta Club

The Mouse Up on Folder Icons is an interesting feature. It works well in the Details and List views for example where the majority of the clickable area is typically the filename and this feature is only triggered by the small file icon. Conversely in Thumbnails view, the area to trigger this becomes much larger as the folder icon is now thumbnail-sized. The problem I find is that it interferes with double-clicking, and the bigger the thumbnail is set to, the more of an issue it becomes. Technically, nothing is wrong here, but maybe from a user experience perspective, something could be improved.

I could make a conscious effort to only click on file names when in Thumbnails view and the "problem" would be solved, but typically when I (and I imagine others) see a big icon, it's what I want to double-click. This is not something I need to think about in Details view since the vast majority of the time, the area one clicks is the filename as it's the larger area, and it's not typical to think we must launch the folder by clicking the file icon (thus this feature doesn't typically get triggered accidentally).

All of this to say, in Thumbnails view when this feature is enabled, an improvement could be so that folders would show a folder file icon overly, just like images do for example. If this were the case, Mouse Up on Folder Icons could be limited to this 16x16 icon overlay instead of interfering with double-clicking the large icon thumbnail.

Something to consider.

Thanks.

XYplorer 22.60.0007
Windows 11 Pro (21H2 build 22000.348)

Yes, I can relate to that experience. But I'm not sure I like the solution. (I'd rather just make it not work on thumbnails.) And I'd like to hear (read) what others think.

Well, given that the feature is called "Configuration | Preview | Mouse Down Blow Up | Mouse Up on Folder Icons", I think it is okay to go for my solution and just don't do it on folder thumbnails.

admin wrote: ↑14 Dec 2021 15:49 Well, given that the feature is called "Configuration | Preview | Mouse Down Blow Up | Mouse Up on Folder Icons", I think it is okay to go for my solution and just don't do it on folder thumbnails.

I would personally be fine with this as I don't typically use Thumbnails view for navigating folders and file hierarchy inspection. This feature, for me at least, only gets any use in Details/List view.

An alternate solution could be to use something similar to Hover Box's "Select Context". In general, I really like this ability to specify the context where something does and doesn't work, but for this feature, maybe it would be over-engineering.

admin wrote: ↑14 Dec 2021 15:49 Well, given that the feature is called "Configuration | Preview | Mouse Down Blow Up | Mouse Up on Folder Icons", I think it is okay to go for my solution and just don't do it on folder thumbnails.

I'm not sure if everyone would necessarily like that. Many of us have a picture or photo assigned to the folder via folder.jpg or desktop.ini so we obviously don't want to see an icon on the thumbnail. If all the users who don't have show icon on thumbnail checked (which is probably the majority), they would no longer have the Mouse-Up feature on the folder thumbnail. Well, I could live without it but I'm not sure it's right.

Undefiler, why not use Mouse-Up feature with the right mouse button instead of left. You'll have the context menu on right click of a folder name and MUBU on right click of the folder icon or in the case of a thumbnail view, the right click MUBU on thumbnail. That would also eliminate your normal left double click issue.

Don, how do you internally associate the running or displaying a photo via the MUBU feature (i.e., MUBU on a folder that contains images and scan down the BU list to open one of the images)? I'm getting an error that ImageEye can't open the folder as opposed to the image selected.

EDIT: Don, to clarify my last comment, when I MUBU on a thumbnailed folder, then scroll down the list to open an image, I receive an error stating, ImageEye can not open the "folder" (message has the folder name) instead of the actual image filename I selected. So apparently it looks like through XYplorer / ImageEye is being led to open the folder instead of the file I selected in the folder.

Does XYplorer simply use whatever the user has setup in CFAs or via Windows if no CFA? My text files also don't open for the same reason it points to the folder not the file. This could be an issue with my CFAs using ImageEye for images and AkelPad for text files. Other files like pdf open fine from MUBU.

1) I'll make it smooth for upgraders. Later it will be an option.

2) Works fine here (with other apps; I don't have ImageEye).

klownboy wrote: ↑14 Dec 2021 16:22 Undefiler, why not use Mouse-Up feature with the right mouse button instead of left. You'll have the context menu on right click of a folder name and MUBU on right click of the folder icon or in the case of a thumbnail view, the right click MUBU on thumbnail. That would also eliminate your normal left double click issue.

I've tried variations of how it should be set up for my liking and I generally don't want anything interfering with my ability to quickly left or right-click an item (I'm using "item" conceptually, i.e. a filename in Details view, or a thumbnail in Thumbnails view, as these are the things one intuitively clicks). If I could, I'd set "Mouse Up on Folder Icons" to the middle mouse button, it'd help, but only for my use case as I'm not often duplicating tabs via middle clicking items.

Having looked at this feature some more, there seems to be an issue with "Mouse Down on Thumbnails and Icons" when set to right-click: for file icons that cannot show a preview, e.g. folders, *.db files, etc, right-click does nothing on such a file icon. Not as much of an issue in Details view, but in Thumbnails view, right-clicking a folder thumbnail means nothing happens (a large clickable area now without use).

admin wrote: ↑14 Dec 2021 16:46 Works fine here (with other apps; I don't have ImageEye).

Yeah I wouldn't have brought it up, but images open fine (in ImageEye) when I double click on them and text files open fine (in AkelPad) also when double-clicked, but they don't from MUBU lists. I'll have to investigate further and look at their CFAs. It seems strange though that both programs are trying to open the folder instead of the file in MUBU.

undefiler wrote: ↑14 Dec 2021 17:15 but in Thumbnails view, right-clicking a folder thumbnail means nothing happens (a large clickable area now without use).

Yes, but obviously that depends on your configuration. When (1) show folder thumbnails is checked, (2) you have right mouse down on thumbnails and icons checked in MDBU Configuration and (3) you have any image in that folder or you have a specific image assigned to represent the folder, the image will be blown up just like an image file when you right click on the folder thumbnail.

It depends on the configuration as you say, but for files that cannot make use of "Mouse Down on Thumbnails and Icons" (nothing to preview, e.g. an *.exe), why disable the ability to right-click and display a context menu? All it is really is that an exception has not been coded for non-previewable files/folders to continue behaving as before (i.e. without the feature enabled).

I see your point though I'd never be right clicking a thumbnail of an exec file. I'm accustomed to right clicking file names or folders. I don't have exec files or similar in any folders where I use thumbnails views. I use thumbnail views for folders containing only images, pdfs and video etc. no general use or download folders. Honestly, I dislike looking at folders in a thumbnail view that contain non-images like for example a download folder that may contain many images. I don't want to view them in thumbnail view when there are just as many files that are non-images. I'll move them to an image folder and until then use MDBU on the icon.

MDBU is designed for quick image viewing. My concern is too many exceptions (e.g., showing a context menu when right clicking certain file types) may tend to slow down XYplorer's pride and joy - MDBU in thumbnail view. Chalk it up to differences in how people use XYplorer.

It's true, everyone uses their file manager a bit differently so making changes has to account for that. Speed is always a concern to me too, but I think XYplorer is already checking the file types to some degree, else it'd show garbled info when previewing an *.exe for example: it doesn't attempt to do so, so maybe any additional checks would be negligible. To me, the intuitive expectation is to be able to right-click an item anywhere, and the related configuration settings shouldn't rule this out from being possible in my opinion.