New autofilter behavior when selecting multiple files

[wasker]

So, I'm in this folder, trying to select a bunch of files with the keyboard: Ctrl-Down, Ctrl-Space, Ctrl-Down, Ctrl-Space, Ctrl-Down, Ctrl-Space, Ctrl-Down, Ctrl-Space, Ctrl-Down, Ctrl-Space, Ctrl-Down, Ctrl-Space (the sequence must be pressed very fast) - my cursor jumps to the autofilter input line, filled with four spaces. Definitely not what I intended.

[Kilmatead]

As noted previously, though the usual lack of Nikos harrumphing in the background suggests "it's just one of those things". Surprising (to me, at least) there appears to be a whole subsection of humanity which dabbles in this type of selecting rhythm, so you are not alone. (Shunned and feared for being "the weird long-haired neighbours the children of the village are supposed to stay away from", no doubt, but not alone. )

[nikos]

instead of ctrl+space/ctrl+down, try pressing INS key

[wasker]

The keyword is "pressed very fast": releasing Ctrl in order to safely press Ins defeats the purpose, no?

[wasker]

Now that I think more about the autofilter - it's a great little feature until the autologic gets in the way unexpectedly

I'd rather have one more option for it - no auto, but a hotkey that would get me in the field (Ctrl-E in Explorer) with the condition that Tab, Enter or Up/Down get me back to the active panel. BTW, these apply to a current implementation as well: the choice of where to search should really drop down on Ctrl-Down, as it less useful in this situation.

[Kilmatead]

I'd rather have one more option for it - no auto, but a hotkey that would get me in the field [...] with the condition that Tab [...] get me back to the active panel.

Disable the "auto" feature by setting Tools -> Advanced Options -> Layout Settings -> Incremental Search Auto Filter to zero.

Set a hotkey to the filterbar via Customise -> Keyboard -> Miscellaneous -> 33250

And <Tab> already does return you to the active pane.

...the choice of where to search should really drop down on Ctrl-Down, as it less useful in this situation.

When in the filterbar, simply pressing <Down> will already drop the options (if that's what you're referring to) . Unless, perhaps, you have an addiction to the <Ctrl> key as evidenced above? There's a pill or two you can take for that...

[wasker]

Thanks for the pointers!

...the choice of where to search should really drop down on Ctrl-Down, as it less useful in this situation.

When in the filterbar, simply pressing <Down> will already drop the options (if that's what you're referring to) . Unless, perhaps, you have an addiction to the <Ctrl> key as evidenced above? There's a pill or two you can take for that...

My instinct whenever autofilter does it job (and steals focus) is to press down to select the file I want. Now I'm getting the drop down, which I'd rather not to.

[Kilmatead]

My instinct whenever autofilter does it job (and steals focus) is to press down to select the file I want.

Ah, gotcha. <Tab> is your only saviour there. If I had a cure for every human instinct that went wrong, I'd have started an Agony-Aunt blog years ago. (Of course, virtually all of my suggestions would involve violently exercising the Greek Oedipus thing in one form or another, so finding a liberal publisher willing to have blood on his hands has proven difficult thus far: they all seem to favour a more cautious approach when dealing with the psychologically fragile, endlessly poo-pooing my more reasonable approach of just "pushing them all over the edge" and taking bets on which ones go splash, splat or crunch. )

There have been discussions about how to more intuitively deal with the focus-switching malarkey, but no single idea has caught the passion of the united-nations just yet (and we know how slow they are to deal with things), and so we just muddle-on like the humble pack-horses we are.

[wasker]

BTW, Nikos, the field "Press new shortcut key" in Customize keyboard dialog should be white (or whatever the default normal window color is), not gray. Currently it looks disabled (gray in stock Windows color schema).

[nikos]

what I meant with INS key is that you can use it instead of your ctrl+space/ctrl+down, it does the same job quicker

[Kilmatead]

...it does the same job quicker

As long as all the files you want to select are perfectly contiguous, yeah. And you're not too particular about where and how you start the selection block, as actually selecting the initial focused item isn't easy... its behaviour feels a wee too unpredictable (to me) for serious use or recommendation.

Seems more logical to just fix the (obviously) undesirable behaviour of the focus stealing, as it's not the first time it's been reasonably mentioned, and it won't be the last. A big bad programmer like yourself can't trap and filter out a lousy little <Ctrl+Space> keystroke which obviously shouldn't be considered a filter-initiating character in the first place?

[nikos]

I will start working on an update soon and this will be fixed but anyway the INS solution is better any day of the week

[Kilmatead]

...but anyway the INS solution is better any day of the week

Like any deviant inhuman behaviour which develops amongst primates in the wild, I imagine the users who have adopted <Ctrl+Down+Space...> as a stylised form of attracting a mate have been doing it since their ancestors were clubbing each other over the head with rocks. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that they would agreeably acquiesce with your blanket assessment of <Ins> and change their practices accordingly.



This is why you (as a benevolent overlord) need to remember to programme for those who like Vanilla ice-cream as well as those who like Chocolate. That said, those who like Strawberry (or other pseudo-flavoured) nonsense are the kind of user-primates who will go to Italy for a week's holiday and come back speaking like Pavarotti, so <Ins> may work for them - and so you may safely exclude them from your daily over-lord duties.

[Kilmatead]

Oh, and he's right - the "msctls_hotkey32" entry-box (which no doubt was named by its alcoholic mother) looks like it has the wrong style applied. (I imagine you just "made-up" 0x50810000 because you liked the sound of it.)

[Kilmatead]

I imagine you just "made-up" 0x50810000 because you liked the sound of it.

Huh, trust me to find something weird enough to stumble over when going to the loo in the middle of the night. I owe Nikos an apology - it's not a matter of setting a style per ce, apparently the offspring of alcoholic mothers require a separate style call to specifically disable the UserPaint flag of that control upon creation (to pass the WM_PAINT message directly to the native Window control, thus not allowing the msctls_hotkey32 to paint itself) so it doesn't inherit the "bad stuff" from the EditControl (it's own drug-addicted father) which is what makes it appear to be disabled by default.

And considering the form in question is packaged as a resource, targeting one silly control specifically to flip the flag would be a bit weird. I suspect Nikos would cackle like the hyena before bothering to mess with this.

Forms really are a spooky world of madness all their own.