Author Topic: Suggested enhancement for 'select folder' dialogs  (Read 5537 times)

Offline MikeA

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Suggested enhancement for 'select folder' dialogs
« on: May 26, 2008, 05:24:00 PM »
An enhancement that I hope could be added at some point to the program: the standard select-folder dialog can become extremely tedious if you have to use it a lot. That's due to the need to locate the mouse pointer over relatively small targets and then click and click and click to move through hierarchies of subdirectories (it's easier, but still time-consuming, if it is done entirely via keyboard). I hope it could be possible to add an editable text field within all such dialog boxes, so that a path that has been copied to the clipboard can be pasted into the text field. There are a number of applications that have that kind of enhancement in their select-folder dialogs, and I really appreciate it when they do.

In Windows it's easily possible to copy paths of both files and folders by installing the free shell extension "Copy Path to Cliboard," which is readily available on shareware/freeware sites. It's also very easy for users of the command shell 4NT to do this (via echos %_cwd>CLIP:). Selecting a subdirectory by pasting its fully qualified path into a text field is an order of magnitude faster than doing the click/click/click "thing" in the standard select-folder dialog.
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Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Suggested enhancement for 'select folder' dialogs
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2008, 05:47:46 PM »
Mike,

An enhancement that I hope could be added at some point to the program: the standard select-folder dialog can become extremely tedious if you have to use it a lot. That's due to the need to locate the mouse pointer over relatively small targets and then click and click and click to move through hierarchies of subdirectories (it's easier, but still time-consuming, if it is done entirely via keyboard). I hope it could be possible to add an editable text field within all such dialog boxes, so that a path that has been copied to the clipboard can be pasted into the text field. There are a number of applications that have that kind of enhancement in their select-folder dialogs, and I really appreciate it when they do.

The dialog you describe is Apple's or Microsoft's dialog.  It is possible to only slightly customize the open/save dialogs.

That said, version 4.6 will have several options to make your life easier when choosing where and how to save your files.

-Kirk

« Last Edit: May 26, 2008, 06:01:13 PM by Kirk Baker »

Offline MikeA

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Re: Suggested enhancement for 'select folder' dialogs
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2008, 06:03:27 PM »
The dialog you describe is Apple's dialog.  It is possible to only slightly customize the open/save dialogs.

Hi,

I have seen this enhancement in a number of Windows programs, though. About one-third of apps I've used that provide "select folder" dialogs have the editable text field. I don't know how much coding was required to produce that kind of dialog. If it's not a standard API call or the equivalent in .NET, I would think that at least the editable text field and the tree-control themselves are standard controls.

Quote
That said, version 4.6 will have several options to make your life easier when choosing where and how to save your files.

Good to know. Thanks,

Mike
“The wonderful thing about standards is that you can invent as many of ’em as you want.”
– Anonymous cynic

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Suggested enhancement for 'select folder' dialogs
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2008, 06:44:42 PM »
Mike,

The dialog you describe is Apple's dialog.  It is possible to only slightly customize the open/save dialogs.

I have seen this enhancement in a number of Windows programs, though. About one-third of apps I've used that provide "select folder" dialogs have the editable text field. I don't know how much coding was required to produce that kind of dialog. If it's not a standard API call or the equivalent in .NET, I would think that at least the editable text field and the tree-control themselves are standard controls.

Quote
That said, version 4.6 will have several options to make your life easier when choosing where and how to save your files.

Good to know. Thanks,

We don't use .NET in Photo Mechanic.  Please take a look at the options in version 4.6 when a beta becomes available.

-Kirk