System tray & Save panes

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kike_ast
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System tray & Save panes

Post by kike_ast »

2x Explorer fans,

I have two proposals, which I think it could give to the application more efficiency:

- Possibility to minimaze to system tray.
- Save the open directories in each pane at any time into a a configuration option or file. For example: I have now open pane left with directory T:\TEMP\DIRDOS\TTT\USERS\, and right pane with W:\INCLUDE\OPTION\DIRNT\DELETION\TTT\USERS.
Both paths are long, and it contais similar information which have to be compared. One option is save that paths into the Dirkey application as bookmarks, or using the bookmars of 2xplorer

But I think that a faster option for this case is save both paths in an other kind of bookmark, which it contains the path that has to be open in each pane. In the above example, I could save that both paths cofiguration with the name "TTT users", so, when selecting that entity (special bookmark, external configuration file), autmatically I'll get the desired paths in each pane. This is faster (I think) that selecting in each pane the path in dirkey or current bookmarks.
I am using now dirkey to get this.

Many thanks in advance.
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nikos
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Post by nikos »

such dual bookmarks have been recommended in the past. Although personally I can't see the advantage (you need ~N² bookmarks in the extreme to cover all combinations of N folders in pairs), it is in the list of things to do for xplorer²
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mimeryme
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Post by mimeryme »

kike_ast, have you looked into having different shortcuts w/ predefined folders for both panes? I realize it's not as instant as your suggestion would be, but there it is.
kike_ast
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Post by kike_ast »

nikos wrote:Although personally I can't see the advantage (you need ~N² bookmarks in the extreme to cover all combinations of N folders in pairs), it is in the list of things to do for xplorer²
Nikos, many thanks for your prompt answer, and your feedback.
Regarding the advantage of this feature, I dont think is as complicate as it seems to looks to you. Maybe I have not described well my proposal. It has not to be a list of bookmarks, what I would like is saving the two current paths that I have open right now one in front of other in xplorer, with a name (say "TTT users"), so I can move to other paths freely in both panes by other proposals, and when I want to back to that both paths together, just select the saved name "TTT users".

More than bookmarks, I prefer to think in "projects". If you use Ultraedit editor, is something similar to what they call Projects, where you can save various files together into a project with whatever name, so when you open the project later, all the files into the project it will be open together.

- In the other hand, how about minimazing 2xplorer (or xplorer2 right now) to the system tray?

Many thanks
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vserghi
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Post by vserghi »

Have you ivestigated the scrap panes feature in x2 yet? It may be what your after. You can have "projects" of files or folders in a scrap pane and save them as ida files for future use.
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Post by nikos »

minimizing to the tray is awkward, especially if you think that a single process may have tons of open windows
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Post by kike_ast »

vserghi wrote:Have you ivestigated the scrap panes feature in x2 yet? It may be what your after. You can have "projects" of files or folders in a scrap pane and save them as ida files for future use.
Vserghi, thanks for the information, and... sorry a lot for my ignorance, but... how can find information about the scrap and ida files ? I have search in the alpha.txt and in the 2xexplorer help, and I dont find too much information.
Opening a scrap window, I dont know how to get what you suggest.

Nikos, regarding minimazing to the system tray. You are right about sometimes minimaze the window with many tasks running is not good. That is the reason I ask you by an option to either select or not that feature, to the taste of the user.

Normally, I would find userful, because, due to the many file movements I perform daily, I have the explorer application open most of the time. If once I perform the file operation in xplorer, the aplication is close, I have to open and close it many times. If the application is minimaze to the taskbar, I will have a long and annoying icon in the taskbar that many times I am not using. Having it in the system tray, the xplorer it will open faster, and will not occupy space in the taskbar. It could be something similar to the Quick Launch of Netscape, that is, keeping 2xplorer in memory to improve startup performance.
Of course, to avoid problems as you mention, it should be optional.

Thanks for your patience in read my proposals.
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vserghi
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Post by vserghi »

Scrap panes are an x2 only phenomena.

Basically, these are temporary information collecting window panes. When you do search using Ctrl+F for instance, a scrap pane open up with the results (hopefully). You can copy instances of folders or files that have similar content that you want to keep togther in a scrap pane and save the data for later retrieval. If you want to see all the files in a file structure without the folder hierarchy involved, you can flatten a path in a scrap pane. I use them for the most part, as a bookmark keeper until one is made available by Nikos.

The uses of scrap panes are only limited by your own imagination. To open up a blank scrap pane, go to "Window" -> "Scrap Pane" in x2. Look again in the alpha text and look for 0.0.0.9 and 0.0.0.27 versions particularly, to see examples of what the scrap panes can do. There are more examples in there.

The ida file is the extension given to these saves scrap panes. You can associate the ida files with x2 by opening up Explorer, go to "Tools" -> "Folder Options" -> "File Types" tab -> and then create a new file type called "ida file". In the actions box, select "New", then in the "Action:" field enter "Open", then put the path to x2 in the second filed below with a /F:1 at the end. Look in the alpha text for an explanation of command line arguments. Press "Ok" thrice and all is done.
Vas
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