Requests re: dialog enhancements

[MikeA]

I've done this one before but I gotta do it again. :-)

In more and more applications that use tree-controls for selecting folders, I've been seeing Select Folder dialogs containing editable text fields into which you can paste a path that's been copied to the clipboard. Getting a path into the clipboard is easy in Win XP with any of several free shell extensions that can be downloaded from the web, and it's built into Win 7 and Server (and possibly also Vista, for all I know). And it's a complete breeze to do at the command line in either cmd.exe or 4NT/Take Command console windows.

Pasting a path from the clipboard, rather than having to click/click/click/click through a tree-control, can save a whole lot of time (and in a long day when the mouse has been used constantly, every feature that reduces unnecessary mouse moves and clicks sure helps cut down on "mouse fatigue").

Another dialog enhancement I'd love to see has to do with Snapshots -- a "Manage..." menu item giving you a dialog for deleting or renaming individual Snapshots. I know this can be done by holding down Shift as you click a specific Snapshot item. But it's not an easily "discoverable" feature. Or, if you prefer to retain the shift-key approach, how about having a "Manage..." selection that appears (instead of "Save...") when the shift key is pressed and the Snapshot icon is selected?

[Kirk Baker]

Mike,

I've done this one before but I gotta do it again. :-)

In more and more applications that use tree-controls for selecting folders, I've been seeing Select Folder dialogs containing editable text fields into which you can paste a path that's been copied to the clipboard. Getting a path into the clipboard is easy in Win XP with any of several free shell extensions that can be downloaded from the web, and it's built into Win 7 and Server (and possibly also Vista, for all I know). And it's a complete breeze to do at the command line in either cmd.exe or 4NT/Take Command console windows.

Pasting a path from the clipboard, rather than having to click/click/click/click through a tree-control, can save a whole lot of time (and in a long day when the mouse has been used constantly, every feature that reduces unnecessary mouse moves and clicks sure helps cut down on "mouse fatigue").

OK, but specifically which dialogs in Photo Mechanic are you referring to?

Another dialog enhancement I'd love to see has to do with Snapshots -- a "Manage..." menu item giving you a dialog for deleting or renaming individual Snapshots. I know this can be done by holding down Shift as you click a specific Snapshot item. But it's not an easily "discoverable" feature. Or, if you prefer to retain the shift-key approach, how about having a "Manage..." selection that appears (instead of "Save...") when the shift key is pressed and the Snapshot icon is selected?

I suppose that would be fine.

-Kirk

[MikeA]

> specifically which dialogs in Photo Mechanic are you referring to?

Here's an example: right-click the Favorites pane; select New Favorite. A tree-control dialog box appears. That's the situation I had in mind: selecting a folder for input of some kind. Another example would be in Edit>Preferences>Files> Location of Exporter Templates, and other similar kinds of 'select folder' routines.

I'd also love to see this in 'select folder' dialogs for output routines as well. Now I'm thinking of the short conversation we had here about it some months back. You noted that w.r.t. 'save' routines, addition of the editable text field would mean that the user-entered output data would have to be carefully checked/validated. As in: does the path pasted into the editable text field contain characters that are not legal in file or directory names? Does the pasted-in path already exist...if so, what if it's one of those directories Windows doesn't want just any old application writing to? And so forth. True enough -- it'd be more involved to get that one right. If it's more than you'd want to get into for now, still having it in the other situation would be cool.

(The tree-control API is strange. This isn't specific to Photo Mechanic -- I've seen it in all applications that use the tree-control: when the dialog box appears, by default the focus is always on the Ok button. It takes a couple of presses of the Tab key to shift the focus to the tree-control itself. I wonder why they designed it that way.)

[Kirk Baker]

> specifically which dialogs in Photo Mechanic are you referring to?

Here's an example: right-click the Favorites pane; select New Favorite. A tree-control dialog box appears. That's the situation I had in mind: selecting a folder for input of some kind. Another example would be in Edit>Preferences>Files> Location of Exporter Templates, and other similar kinds of 'select folder' routines.

I'd also love to see this in 'select folder' dialogs for output routines as well. Now I'm thinking of the short conversation we had here about it some months back. You noted that w.r.t. 'save' routines, addition of the editable text field would mean that the user-entered output data would have to be carefully checked/validated. As in: does the path pasted into the editable text field contain characters that are not legal in file or directory names? Does the pasted-in path already exist...if so, what if it's one of those directories Windows doesn't want just any old application writing to? And so forth. True enough -- it'd be more involved to get that one right. If it's more than you'd want to get into for now, still having it in the other situation would be cool.

(The tree-control API is strange. This isn't specific to Photo Mechanic -- I've seen it in all applications that use the tree-control: when the dialog box appears, by default the focus is always on the Ok button. It takes a couple of presses of the Tab key to shift the focus to the tree-control itself. I wonder why they designed it that way.)

Yes, I don't know why it doesn't default to having the tree view be the focused control.

Thanks for reminding me about this issue.  I researched it again and found that there is a flag in the API that will cause a path control to be added to the folder browse dialog.  I added this new flag and the results are pretty good.  I think you'll like it.  It supports cut/copy/paste and is interactive, offering a popup menu showing the subfolder names as you type in a path.

Care to test a beta?

-Kirk

[MikeA]

Yes, I don't know why it doesn't default to having the tree view be the focused control.

Just a 'tab order' flaw or some such thing in the design of the API, I guess. Wonder if the 'consumer' of the API can work around that. It's not a huge deal, though -- just a minor irritation.

Thanks for reminding me about this issue.  I researched it again and found that there is a flag in the API that will cause a path control to be added to the folder browse dialog.  I added this new flag and the results are pretty good.  I think you'll like it.  It supports cut/copy/paste and is interactive, offering a popup menu showing the subfolder names as you type in a path.

Care to test a beta?

Well, that's cool -- and I'd be right happy to test it.

(Geez, this reminds me. I didn't yet take your suggestion to call Tech Support and figure out how to remove all traces of earlier [now-uninstalled] versions from 'Add/Remove Programs'. I'll get to it eventually -- it doesn't appear to be getting in the way of anything.)