3 panel browsing like the finder?

my left hand · Post by **my left hand** » 2004 Jun 22, 21:16

this is a great program

is there any way i can make it behave more like my powerbooks 'Finder'?
where the panels refer to the left of them?

Post by **nikos** » 2004 Jun 23, 06:02

i am not aware of this program

MKairys · Post by **MKairys** » 2004 Jun 23, 11:27

Nikos, Finder is the MacOS equivalent of Explorer. my left hand, you will have to describe in more detail the appearance you are after. I poked around on www.apple.com/macosx looking for finder screenshots but only found rather ordinary single-pane views.

my left hand · Post by **my left hand** » 2004 Jun 24, 02:21

Sorry about that MKairys!

okay, lets say i'm looking at my photos in this directory;
c:/archive/photos/friends/

the Finder would be split up to 4 panes (looks like 3, but you can scroll to see the rest of the panes, this can also be resized so you see all 4 panes at once)
it would look like this;

c:/ folder | archive folder | photos folder | friends folder |

so unlike xplorer, (it basically looks the same) but the behaviour is based on the pane to the left of the current pane. so none of the panes are fully independent. the number of panes = number of layers deep the folder you're looking at is. [this excludes the permanent pane on the left which is the directory tree view]

if say im looking at c:/archive/
there will be only 2 panes.

c:/ folder | archive folder |

MKairys · Post by **MKairys** » 2004 Jun 24, 12:23

Ah, I see. Well, our xplorer² is at most two-pane as you know (three counting the tree). The only thing I might mention is that you may backtrack along the path of a folder pane by clicking in its titlebar, but I realize that's not what you are asking for.

Some future version of xplorer² may be able to show more than two folder panes, but I suspect it would not have the behavior of automatically opening a pane for each folder in a path; this behavior would be quite unfamiliar to most Windows users, and I for one would find it disconcerting, given that my paths are often rather long...

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2004 Jun 24, 12:38

Could you tell us a practical example of how that feature is used?

my left hand · Post by **my left hand** » 2004 Jun 24, 20:47

MKairys wrote:Some future version of xplorer² may be able to show more than two folder panes, but I suspect it would not have the behavior of automatically opening a pane for each folder in a path; this behavior would be quite unfamiliar to most Windows users, and I for one would find it disconcerting, given that my paths are often rather long...

HA! i know exactly what you mean there

before i got my mac laptop, i used my windows desktop exclusively, and although i got the laptop so i could more easily 'connect' to the uni network (all macs, i'm in digital compositing, 3d anim, etc) i found this feature EXACTLY like you described, it irritated me to no end. so i disabled it and for a while it behave just like window's normal icon view.

but my mates sort of looked at me and recommended i give it another shot.
so i did, it took a while, but once i got used to it, i loved it

YES, "my paths are often rather long" that happens on my mac as well, and you'd be surprised, but it doesn't look as messy as i thought it would.
you get a single horizontal scrollbar at the bottom, and you just drag to the point you want. they've managed to keep it quite neat (as in organized, not "cool") here.

also, theres another very nice feature that comes with that; the final pane on the right (if you've selected a file rather than folder) will give you a preview of the image/video, and the file size, name, properties, etc.
no biggie, i know, but very tasty.

narayan wrote:Could you tell us a practical example of how that feature is used?

um, i'll give it a shot because i think this can be subjective. honestly though, i think it may not be too useful for xplorer users. now i say this (but i hope it isn't the case) because i think most xplorer users are power users. with two fully independent panes, you can do much much more especially with all the tools available with the program.

i like to think im a bit of a power user, but i'll be honest, i'm not.
this feature is purely for navigation, its just a different way of navigating you're harddisk. its really grown on me, and im hoping that if you guys gave it a chance like i think you might like it too

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2004 Jun 25, 05:22

The purpose of my asking was to help you with an equivalent feature in x2...

Your feature seems to have two limitations:

1. If a folder has many subfolders (which have subfolders of their own), the panes will get out of control: you can't control what to show and what not to.

2. As soon as you move a little at top level, the number of panes AND their contents will change. This kaleidoscopic display may be tiring for the eyes/brain and disorienting.

The scrap containers in the x2 PRO version have solved this by flattening the entire top level folder. You can browse this static list very easily. The path column (in details style) keeps you aware of where you are.
** If you want to browse branch-by-branch, sort all items on path.
** If you like to know where you are in the folder tree, press CTRL+Enter on any item. (Keep your folder synchronized with the folder pane.)

my left hand · Post by **my left hand** » 2004 Jun 25, 07:23

narayan wrote:The purpose of my asking was to help you with an equivalent feature in x2...

Your feature seems to have two limitations:

1. If a folder has many subfolders (which have subfolders of their own), the panes will get out of control: you can't control what to show and what not to.

2. As soon as you move a little at top level, the number of panes AND their contents will change. This kaleidoscopic display may be tiring for the eyes/brain and disorienting.

i was worried it might be confusing, there was a learning curve when i first adapted to the system

im not too sure if its confusing as you've described though. i found this link to a mac emulation website where they tried to emulate the Finder.

[screenshot] http://www.osx-e.com/downloads/uploads/screen_86.jpg
[download] http://www.osx-e.com/modules.php?modid= ... show&id=86

check it out. the main reason im not using that is because xplorer seems to be much much more powerful once i get my head around the program.
but i would love it if xplorer could somehow be configured to behave like that.

narayan wrote:The scrap containers in the x2 PRO version have solved this by flattening the entire top level folder. You can browse this static list very easily. The path column (in details style) keeps you aware of where you are.
** If you want to browse branch-by-branch, sort all items on path.
** If you like to know where you are in the folder tree, press CTRL+Enter on any item. (Keep your folder synchronized with the folder pane.)

i haven;t yet checked out the PRO version. i'll give it a go!

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2004 Jun 25, 08:38

It's my turn to suggest some screenshots

You could see how it works in the user Manual, which is common for PRO and Lite versions.

Darren · Post by **Darren** » 2004 Jul 03, 09:30

Maybe there's a reason for it, but I've wondered for a while why file managers can't use a tabbed system similar to browsers (IE excepted).
Rather than be restricted to 'x' number of panes, you could have a virtually unlimited number of browser/explorer windows open at the same time, and simply switch between them by selecting the appropriate tab. These tabs could be either full screen, dual pane, tripple pane, tiled or cascaded etc.
The IE shell I use for browsing http://www.myie2.com/ can currently do all of this when browsing the hard drive, but obviously it has limitations when trying to use it as a file manager. However some of it's other features in a file manager would be awesome. For instance being able to give tabs nicknames, so that a folder buried deep in the file system can be bookmarked with a user friendly name which shows on the tab. There's also the ability it has to save tabs as groups. Imagine a file manager that could automatically open as many tabs as you wished to their predetermined locations by selecting a single bookmark.
The only attempt at a tabbed file manager I have seen is a program called Folder Box. But it's not a standalone program, rather it intergrates into Windows Explorer, and because of this I find it a bit clunky to use.
Currently when I want to have half a dozen folders open, I need to run three instances of Xplorer2 and try to set them up so that the panes are arranged logically, so that as I want to move files between them I can find the appropriate pane easily. Every time I do this I think to myself, 'why can't I do this all within one window?'
Darren

Post by **nikos** » 2004 Jul 03, 09:46

i don't fancy tabs myself;
multiple windows and the taskbar is all the tabs i need

however, tabs are going to arrive in x2 sometime this year

Darren · Post by **Darren** » 2004 Jul 03, 17:57

nikos wrote:i don't fancy tabs myself;
multiple windows and the taskbar is all the tabs i need

however, tabs are going to arrive in x2 sometime this year

AWESOME!
I've got to admit though nikos, I find it hard to understand why anyone would not fancy tabs. In almost any program where multiple instances or multiple files can be opened for that matter.
Just out of curiosity, do you use a tabbed browser? To me, browsing your hard drive with a file manager should be as simple as browsing the internet, and once you've used a tabbed browser you'd never go back. Especially if the browser you're using has a lot of features (some of the IE shells are really good, Netscape and Opera haven't go that part quite right yet).
Could the tabs be independent of the two panes? I have this vision of browsing through folders, finding one I need to get back to and middle clicking on it. xplorer2 could then open that folder in a new tab in the background while I continue working in the current pane. That way, it would be possible to set up several tabs, and use them to switch locations in whichever pain is active. Like temporary bookmarks in the form of tabs I suppose.
I'm getting excited thinking about it

Darren

Post by **nikos** » 2004 Jul 03, 18:24

just hold on to your horses

this isn't coming before september-october

(and no, i don't use tabbed browsers either, just IE5.5)

Darren · Post by **Darren** » 2004 Jul 03, 18:46

nikos wrote:just hold on to your horses
this isn't coming before september-october

(and no, i don't use tabbed browsers either, just IE5.5)

If it's because you've never tried a good one, please do yourself this favour. http://www.myie2.com/
It takes a bit of setting up, and some getting used to, but once you do.....
MyIE is to IE what xplorer2 is to Windows Explorer (if xplorer2 had tabs)

Thanks again for a great program,
Darren
PS And I'm just about to hop on over to the MyIE forum and give xplorer2 a big plug in the thread about alternate file managers.

zabkat support forum

3 panel browsing like the finder?

3 panel browsing like the finder?

Tabbed Explorer?