Suggestion: better drag&drop

ZoNi011 · Post by **ZoNi011** » 2004 Jul 14, 10:39

I would like to see this option:
- normal (left-click) drag&drop = copy
- CTRL+drag&drop = move

(or vice versa - that should be user defined!)

Is that possible in one of next versions?

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2004 Jul 14, 10:52

???
But you already have the standard windows drag&drop modifiers:
Shift+d&d = move file
Alt+d&d = copy file
(the latter overrides case where std d&d = copy a shortcut to the executable).

vserghi · Post by **vserghi** » 2004 Jul 14, 10:58

This is already possible.

Select a file whilst holding the left button down, you should see a small box with + insideoverlayed on the file/folder, this is as you know a copy operation. If you hold down shift and left mouse button, this turns into a move operation (no overlay) and if you hold down the Alt and the left button, you can create a shortcut (shortcut overlay).

You may not know, but if you right click on a file and at the same time drag across to the another pane you get a context menu with four options:

"Copy"
"Move"
"Create a shortcut"
"Cancel"

Edit: I see fgagnon beat me to it.

ZoNi011 · Post by **ZoNi011** » 2004 Jul 14, 11:35

fgagnon wrote:???
But you already have the standard windows drag&drop modifiers:
Shift+d&d = move file
Alt+d&d = copy file
(the latter overrides case where std d&d = copy a shortcut to the executable).

oops... sorry, I haven't know that

anyway, that is good enogh!

thanks to you and vserghi (btw, I know that with right click)

ChopperCharles · Post by **ChopperCharles** » 2004 Aug 09, 19:51

Still, I think it'd be great to have a user-defined move/copy mode.

Mode 1, it works just like Microsoft exporer.
Mode 2, drag and drop ALWAYS moves. You must hold down ctrl to make it copy.
Mode 3, drag and drop ALWAYS copies. You must hold down shift to make it move.

Right-clicking would still work as normal.

I have a ton of drives and removable media devices, and it's really annoying when files are copied when I want them moved and vice-versa. Moving on the same drive and copying to a new drive has been something that annoyed me about Windows all the way back to Win95. It'd be *GREAT* if xplorer2 had a user-selectable mode.

Charles.

ZoNi011 · Post by **ZoNi011** » 2004 Aug 10, 10:09

I agree with Charles!

nealeh · Post by **nealeh** » 2004 Oct 13, 09:38

There is one drag & drop difference between Explorer and xplorer2 where I prefer the microsoft version.

With explorer, if you drag a file or folder from the desktop to a branch in the tree, then the target branch becomes highlighted. In xplorer2 this does not happen - you have to trust to your mousing precision to make the move/copy.

xplorer2 *only* highlights the tree branch if you are dragging a file or folder within the xplorer interface. i.e. no highlights if dragging from desktop or windows explorer.

Post by **nikos** » 2004 Oct 13, 16:16

on my PC, the tree hilights the target no matter where you're dragging from

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2004 Oct 13, 22:37

ditto for me.
Folder destination is hilited in tree when mouseover for d&d from all sources i tried, including:
roxio CD creator, mozilla Firefox, IE, outlook, desktop, ACDSee, winExplorer ...
This on XP2.
...
later checked on w98 & got same proper behaviour.

nealeh · Post by **nealeh** » 2004 Oct 14, 07:38

OK. I now know why. Windows Explorer / xplorer2 react differently to the display setting 'Show window contents while dragging'. Windows Explorer still triggers the highlight, xplorer2 doesn't (but it would be nice if it could in the next release

).

Menu path to change the setting is: Start> Control Panel> Display> Appearance> Effects> Show window contents while dragging.

JRz · Post by **JRz** » 2004 Oct 14, 08:53

nealeh wrote:OK. I now know why. Windows Explorer / xplorer2 react differently to the display setting 'Show window contents while dragging'. Windows Explorer still triggers the highlight, xplorer2 doesn't (but it would be nice if it could in the next release ).

Menu path to change the setting is: Start> Control Panel> Display> Appearance> Effects> Show window contents while dragging.

Since you already found the cause, can you please provide the only piece of information you left out: is X² not highlighting when 'Show window contents while dragging' is OFF or ON

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2004 Oct 14, 11:59

checking out the situation in win XP ,,,

winExplorer highlights the destination whether or not the switch is ON
The only difference between ON & OFF in winExplorer is whether the contents are shown being dragged along as:
* {ON} an image-like shadow with names included, or
* {OFF} as an outline-like shadow of a frame without names.
It is quite like what the switch name says -- not as X² treats the switch.

X² does not highlight the destination for items being carried in from outside apps, when 'Show window contents while dragging' is OFF; and does not carry along the outline shadow for items selected from its active pane.

While not a functional issue, this omission by X2 makes it difficult to determine the target destination for drops from outside - especially for multiple selections which are carried in with their outline shadow.
Of course, this is only an issue for folks who have this switch turned OFF in windows.

Post by **nikos** » 2004 Oct 14, 17:55

and the question is why would anyone want to disable it?
(i didn't even knew it existed as an option!)

JRz · Post by **JRz** » 2004 Oct 14, 21:20

nikos wrote:and the question is why would anyone want to disable it?
(i didn't even knew it existed as an option!)

That's quite simple: performance!!

Turning the switch off on a fairly slow system will improve performance a lot (but you could argue that is not going to be a problem with excellerated graphic cards nowadays).

vserghi · Post by **vserghi** » 2004 Oct 15, 07:44

I've always had this option turned off for precisly the reason that JRz gave.

Why do I need to see the contents of the frame when I'm moving it around.

The outline is good enough to see where it is going. In times of bloat-whare, anything that can improve performance is a good thing.