item hilighting

[nikos]

taking cue from this thread some people would like to color-mark files and folders.

I am thinking of a simple 'hiliter' tool that will add an icon overlay to marked files and folders, with the meaning 'do something with this later'. It won't last for long, once you change folder all these marks are gone. Is that going to be of any use to anybody?

on this 'marking for later' subject, you can also use one or more scrap windows as it is...

[IneedHelp]

Here's how I see this best implemented in xplorer2:

1. First of all, there should be a container residing in xplorer2's installation folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\zabkat\xplorer2\foldericons). The purpose of this container would be to store all icons ever requested/used by an user. For starters, xplorer2 could come with a couple or more icons- maybe a standard set of Red, Green and Blue.


2. Folder marking options should work in the same fashion User Commands does. The user should be able to create a new folder marking, being requested the icon to use and a label (maybe even keyboard shortcuts option). [there could also be an option asking the user if he wants the icon to be copied to the destination folder or just create a reference to the icon residing in the source folder]


3. When the user has one (or more!!) folders selected, he can invoke folder marking either by using the Folder Marking sub-menu (that should be under the Customize menu) or by using a keyboard shortcut if set or (most important) by clicking a button on a tool-bar. If there's no folder selected, folder marking shouldn't be available (buttons and menu grayed out).


4. Next, based on user preferences set for the selected folder marking option, the icon is copied (or not if just referenced) to the selected folder(s), a desktop.ini file should be created if one does not exist, or edit the existing one. The .ico file and desktop.ini should be hidden system files and the folder containing them should be marked as read only (you already know all these, but just for the sake of completeness). Also, in case it is copied, the .ico file's name should start with desktop (or something with "d", or even better- an user defined prefix when the folder marking is created) so it gets paired with desktop.ini


5. In regard to file marking, a similar system should be implemented, with either adding an overlay or changing the file's icon. To be honest, I am not interested that much in flagging individual files, but maybe other users are.

I don't have a clue about how much work is involved implementing this, but this is how I see folder/file marking fitting xplorer2 the best. And it would be indeed a feature worthy of a file manager.

EDIT: also, forgot to mention about the folder/file marking reset command. There should be one by default in case the user decides to get rid of multiple folder/file markings (as a convenient alternative to manually editing/deleting .ini and .ico files).

This is how folder marking options currently looks on my toolbar. Those are just user commands running a script file with parameters. If this gets implemented, those won't be user commands anymore, but an entity of their own :D (the joy!)

<<<<<<< Click there.

[nikos]

the idea is to provide a generic marking (not just for folders) and not a permanent one (not an icon change). How long do you keep your folders in the 'marked' state?

[IneedHelp]

How long do you keep your folders in the 'marked' state?

I'm not marking all the folders, but those that I mark, are marked forever. The markings are variable and they change over time (depending on what I'm doing with the contents of the folder), but once I mark a folder, I rarely delete the marker.

As I stated in some other topics, for me folder marking (mainly coloring) is very important (since I'm a multimedia editor and work on a dozen projects at the same time, with audio, video and photo files). I use RGB and Grey the most for marking folders, each having a different meanings, and I'm interested in easily accessing the commands.

If you're going for a generic marking, I guess that will do for most users. I will be using it too if I see fit. I'm not that desperate now that I have that script working and it goes just fine with user commands, but it would've been good to have it implemented directly in xplorer2.

Either way, it's a step forward, leaving room for improvement over time. Thanks.

[longfellow]

I am thinking of a simple 'hiliter' tool that will add an icon overlay to marked files and folders, with the meaning 'do something with this later'. It won't last for long, once you change folder all these marks are gone. Is that going to be of any use to anybody?

Depends on how it is implemented.

For it to be useful to me, I would want the icon overlays to be persistent. If I mark a number of files and/or folders, and don't finish all the marked tasks within a session, I don't want to have to set the icon overlays up again next time I start. Also, I don't want to lose all the overlays by accidentally navigating away from a folder.

[nikos]

then the problem is where do you save all this 'hilite state', custom files? I wouldn't want that

[longfellow]

Can this data not go into desktop.ini?

But I hear you about the potential for this feature to be troublesome to implement.

[RightPaddock]

taking cue from this thread some people would like to color-mark files and folders.

I am thinking of a simple 'hiliter' tool that will add an icon overlay to marked files and folders, with the meaning 'do something with this later'. It won't last for long, once you change folder all these marks are gone. Is that going to be of any use to anybody?

on this 'marking for later' subject, you can also use one or more scrap windows as it is...

nikos, I might use this for folders, but it would have to be easier than what I do now via Shelltoys Folder Colour which I have in the top level context menu, which I access via the keyboard.  And I'd want the ability to remove the highlight explicitly - I often only need them for a few minutes.

I foresee a potential problem with icon overlays: what happens if an item already has one, will it still be apparent when the "temporary" one is applied, and will it still be there when the "temporary" one disappears.  As far as I can tell only one icon overlay can be shown at any one time.

An advantage of folder coloring is that it's visible on all folder items - real, junction and symlink, whilst retaining junction and folder symlink icon overlays.  But its only available on folders, not on files.

My usual view style is Details, occasionally I use List, but I almost never use Thumbs or Icons.  x2 has the ability to colour the text & background based on file type.  Perhaps this could be extended to show "highlighted" items as bold, underlined or italicized text.

where to save this "hilite-state" custom files? I wouldn't want that

I suggest in the item itself, via an ADS named "[X2] HighlightedItem". WinFS is dead & buried so we should use the features we've got in NTFS.  I know ADS's won't work on FAT32, but nor do my analogue mobile or pulse dial fixed line phones work any more.

X2's Comment feature puts the Comment into an ADS for some file types, e.g. zips; whether it's done directly by X2 or via some external library really doesn't matter.  All NTFS file system items can have ADS's, and X2 already recognizes them to some extent via its Actions->ADS sub menu.

On detecting the presence of the "[X2] HighlightedItem" stream, x2 can take the desired action - show an icon overlay, paint the folder or change the items text style.  IMO the latter is best, because it works for both folders and files, it doesn't disturb the icon overlays already in use, and it doesn't conflict with X2's existing file type coloring scheme.  

And those who colour their folders with other products like ShellToys or Shedko Folderico can continue to do so.

RP