clicking and dragging to select files

[thu]

I'm trying out xplorer2 Professional after using XYplorerFree for the last few months. So far I'm really liking it. It is much faster than XYplorerFree.

There is one little thing though that is driving me crazy. There are so many options and menus that I hope I'm just missing one little setting.

I'm using dual panes with the Details view in each one. The problem is the icons in each pane are right up again the edge of the pane and there is no room for me to click and drag to select files. And I can't click ond drag in the empty space to the right of the file names because clicking anywhere in the window selects the file in that row.

So every time I go to click and drag anywhere in the pane, I'm just selecting one file and moving it around instead of selecting multiple items.

Is there a way to add a little space to the left of the Name column for clicking and dragging?

I thought maybe I could add the "#" column on the left side to give me space to click and drag like in XYplorer, but there seems to be a bug or something messing it up. The custom column never displays correctly. It just mirrors the Name column or just shows the icons by itself. It does that no matter what column I try to add.

So not sure what to do now. I've got to be able to click and drag in the Details view, but I can't figure out how to add an empty column on the left to let me do that.

Hope all that made sense. Here are a couple of screenshots to help show what is happening.

[Kilmatead]

A simple solution is just to disable full-row selection, which will allow you to left-click on any column other than Name to begin your "drag" (Lasso/Field selection) without interfering side-effects. With full row disabled, you can only select items via the 'Name' column, so you would drag towards and over said column to capture your hapless victims.

Uncheck Tools -> Options -> Window (tab) -> Full Row Selection (at the top)

[thu]

Thanks Kilmatead! That was exactly what I was looking for.

I knew I had to be missing something. I went through the menus and options a few times and didn't see anything obvious. Thought I had it with adding the column until I saw the added column was always messed up.

That is going to save me from having to go back to XYplorer.

[EMathews3]

What is a non-simple solution? How can I keep full-row selection enabled, and also avoid the intermittent unexpected Lasso effect which selects multiple files?

The action I want to do is click+drag one file. Oftentimes, this works as expected. But also often the Lasso appears by surprise. I have not figured out how to reliably trigger one behavior or the other on purpose. Modifier keys <Ctrl>, <Shft>, seem to have no effect. Even pre-selecting with Shift+Arrow keys does not help; the click+drag continues to capture more files into the selection. Even right-click+drag keeps on Lasso-ing. Switching to a different folder does not help. Exiting and restarting XP2 does not help. Clicking around in different folders and files eventually hits the expected behavior but when I then go to use it for real, it barfs back to multiselect again. Arg.

My usual work-around is Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V for Copy/Paste but changing gears like that is an annoyance.

[Kilmatead]

Edit: Proper solution provided below.

[nikos]

if you want to select things for dragging etc, make sure you are clicking on the NAME or icon, not to any empty space

[EMathews3]

Wow, that is the trick right there! For dragging a single file, click the actual filename text and not the trailing blank area in the "Name" column.

With View / 'Pane style' set to 'Details' and Tools / Options / Window / 'Full row selection' checked 'On':

Outside any columns / in the empty column without a header,
- Click-dragging triggers the multiselect lasso; this makes sense bc we're not really clicking on a file.

Within columns other than Name,
- Click-dragging triggers the drag-n-drop; this makes sense bc we are yes clicking on a file.

Within the Name column,
- Click-dragging on empty space triggers the multiselect lasso.
- Click-dragging on the actual filename text triggers the drag-n-drop.

(In case 'Full row' is turned off, the only clickability that changes is the columns with headers other than 'Name'.)

So to select and Copy/Move one file via drag, you have to click the actual name, and not just anywhere in the "Name" column of that row. The different click targets within different rows have different widths based on different lengths of the filenames, which is confusing. A subtle usabililty feature with low discoverability, but respectable usefulness. Now I know that I can multi-select via drag without holding down a modifier key - that's a useful thing. This behavior makes more sense after seeing how selection works with full-row turned off.

My confusion comes from the name of the feature "Full row selection". The name led me to believe that 'clicking anywhere in the row will select the row' (and then proceed with that selection, in the case of drag). Even page 385 of the user manual says "... to select the row by clicking anywhere in the row." When adding/subtracting to/from a selection with Shft+Click and Ctrl+Click, it does not matter where in the "Name" column the click happens. Only when you Click+Drag (with or without modifier keys) does it make a difference where the click was. This is a confusing but useful extension of UI in multi-select listbox controls.

In reality, there are clickable regions within the row that do something other than 'select the row': the blank area beside the actual filename begins the lasso. A more accurate description of "Full row selection" would be "Full row selection, except for whitespace within the Name column and non-column space". This is the type of documentation that would be useful as a tooltop in the Tools/Options dialog (named "Program Options [Default]"). (I see the little '?' Help icon, but clicking on it and then clicking on a control of interest does nothing. A separate issue. Pressing F1 does yes launch x2Docs.PDF.)

So, a very simple solution. Regardless of "Full row selection", click the actual filename text to single-select it for dragging. The usability trouble is the mismatch between the visual feedback of highlighting the "full row" so that it *looks* selected because of clicking on it, when in reality the action of selection might be only begun instead of completed, based on which clickable regions in the row that unexpectedly behave differently from how "Full row selection" is documented. There is yes immediate feedback about which selection mode is happening - single or multiple.

Maybe have an optional special column dedicated to selection? Is there a feature for selecting rows with a checkbox in each row?

Thanks again for an awesome product and a great supporting community! Would 10/10 yes buy again.

[Kilmatead]

A little searching reminds me that this is the result of an absurd change back in version 3.3.0.0:

* Easier to access background menu (right click "nowhere" in a folder view) and do lasso (marquee) selection if you click the mouse on the empty space to the right of a filename. Works even in detailed view mode with full row selection enabled.

PROPER SOLUTION:

To disable this travesty and thus make full-row-selection behave as God bloody-well intended it to, you have to use the awkward CLVOPT_NOEASYBGMENU fix (see the 'Registry.txt' file in your installation folder). As I did this a year ago (and forgot about it), that explains why I couldn't recreate your experience.

As this still hasn't been made into a settings editor option, the manual approach is the only way to go, which means editing the registry (or your INI file), and adding 1048576 to the values found in the binMiscOptions entries under both HKCU\Software\ZabaraKatranemia Plc\xplorer2_UC\Left pane settings and Right pane settings.

Remember, this needs to be added to both values separately, so take the existing value and use a calculator to add 1048576 to it.

Please backup your settings before editing the registry manually. x2 must not be running when modifying the settings (use <Alt+X> to close it completely). If you use an INI to store your settings, the same caveats apply, just find both values in your INI file and change them in a text editor.

And yes, Nikos really is stuck in 1998.