Best way to mark files ?

Randall · Post by **Randall** » 2009 Jan 07, 00:17

I would like to mark some files, ie movies, - comments doesn't work on these files. Something like a star would be perfect - just a quick visual scan tells you which ones you have watched, not watched etc..

is there an easy way to do this ?

thanks

Post by **nikos** » 2009 Jan 07, 06:30

there are many ways to do such "marking". You could rename the files adding a * or whatever to their name (beginning is best) or you can place them in a different folder "movies already watched"

Randall · Post by **Randall** » 2009 Jan 07, 21:54

Nikos
I would hope suggest anyone who uses xplorer2 would know these banal suggestions !!! don't want to sound rude here but was hoping there was something I was missing...comments doesn't work for video files ??? not sure why...

I wonder if a shortcut key to add a star (in a designated column), perhaps a few different colours would have any merit for anyone else...???

For me, if I could select a file and just hit a shortcut key to star it, that would be fantastic..

anyway, thanks...

Post by **nikos** » 2009 Jan 08, 03:40

comments don't work for AVIs i think, another instance of half-measures by MS. I don't know if there is an ID3 equivalent for videos, in which case you use one of the fields to mark then have a coloring rule on it. If you are on vista the rating column could also be used (0=unseen, other ratings=seen)

advanced users know that x2 doesn't do magic, they just use their heads

BRX · Post by **BRX** » 2009 Jan 08, 13:53

There are quite a few possibilities to do what you want. It's a matter of taste.

I probably would use the batch-assistant with something like

ren "$B-watched.$E"

which stays as first suggestion if you don't use the assistant in the meantime so you just have to hit Ctrl-B and Enter to do the renaming.

If you prefer a column you could use the attribut column (with the attribut A, the one indicating backuped) in a similar way with the DOS command in the batch assistant.

Randall · Post by **Randall** » 2009 Jan 08, 23:10

thanks for the response
turned on the attribute - not sure how that is going to help me other than putting an A on everything...

looking for quick and easy solution..but there never is one it seems

anyway, searching on google there seems to be some programs, tag2file I think was one...looking for explorer integration though..

thanks

BRX · Post by **BRX** » 2009 Jan 09, 12:51

I'm not sure I follow you or you try to follow me.

Why is an A in the attrib column different for your intended use than a star in another column. You just turn the A off with attrib -a "$F" with the batch assistent and you have your visual marker (=no A) for watched videos.

But if you find a simpler and more effective method let us know.

jbhq2 · Post by **jbhq2** » 2009 Feb 02, 17:44

i'm looking at using scrap folders for this e.g.
"to watch"
"archive"
etc
all pointing to the movies folder

The big advantage over renaming is that you are avoiding re-backing up say a whole film.

using archive bit is quite interesting - i'll give this a try

BRX · Post by **BRX** » 2009 Feb 03, 10:05

FYI, I use another approach for organizing videos or other media.

You must have all the media in question on one partition (though with today's size of harddisks no particular problem).

Usually I have 3 folders, one with all the media, one "to_watch" and one "to_burn".

I simply hardlink the media I still have to watch and/or burn into the respective folders and delete them from there if done.

Hardlinks are really easy with x2's Ctrl-C/Ctr-alt-H Combo.

jbhq2 · Post by **jbhq2** » 2009 Feb 04, 02:19

struggling to work out hard linking
seems to just copy the file and show a link count in link column
(is it actually saving the space - but just lying about it?)

You'd indeed need dedicated folders for this? - otherwise would be confusing as it doesn't stand out in any way - unlike a shortcut.

xp/1 ntfs partition[/i]

Post by **nikos** » 2009 Feb 04, 05:07

checkout wikipidia about this, also i think i have blogged about links

akimich · Post by **akimich** » 2009 Feb 21, 21:44

I am use userinfotip from akslab dot com ... may be that will be useful for you ...

raptor|3D · Post by **raptor|3D** » 2009 Feb 24, 20:15

I have to say, the ability to flag certain files could be useful. Not only for knowing which video to watch but also for knowing which file is already backed up (when doing manual off-site backup of certain important files - which is my case).

Anyway the simple solution could be creating a .txt file in the desired folder. The text file would contain the list of the file names residing in the folder. Then you could add notes to these file names.

Or like already suggested the Mini Scrap / scrap could be used for this.

AKAJohnDoe · Post by **AKAJohnDoe** » 2009 Feb 25, 00:53

Personally, I would probably use something like ListPro or SmartListToGo for this. The actual files are just data; what you are talking about is metadata. It is an easy matter to create a link to the actual file from the better list management packages. Also, they bring the ability to have custom fields and forms. I suppose if one had masochistic tendancies, even Access could be used.

Use the right tool for the job!