Tips & Tricks #2 - Address bar: More than meets the eye

Post by **nikos** » 2002 Jun 21, 13:13

What's in an address bar? Just a plain combo box where one enters paths and fiters, right? Well, not quite. In fact I believe that what makes 2xExplorer the success it is in the file management arena is its multifunctional address bar. Allow me to demonstrate some of its less familiar uses.

It is a drop target. If you drag-drop any file or folder to the address bar 2xExplorer will go to the container folder and select the item automatically. That's useful for coordination with other programs, e.g. standard File Open/Save boxes, the desktop, explorer windows etc. It's like you typed the full pathname of the item, only you don't need to touch the keyboard. BTW, you can also type filenames as well as folder names at any time.

It supports autocompletion. Well, not autocompletion like in IE5.x but very useful nevertheless. If you've been into a folder before, say C:\Documents and Settings\umeca74\My Documents\cpp\kenny and you want to get back to it, you don't have to type the whole thing again or open the drop-down portion of the combo box. Just type a few characters, say kenny, and hit the up-arrow button. The address box will search its history list and bring up the first matching string. If that's not what you wanted, hit up-arrow again for the next match and so on. Note that this kind of autocompletion works in all combo boxes scattered throughout the program.

You can execute commands. There are occasions where double-clicking is not enough to launch a program. For instance, to compare two files you need two arguments and there's no way you can do this with a mouse. Your address bar helps you here too. Not only will it run programs (just type the special command prompt character > or $ followed by the command), it can also paste filenames from the active view using the special shortcut Ctrl+Enter. This will copy the focused item name directly in the address bar (it only works if you are already typing in there). Not only that, you can move the focus about using the special Ctrl+arrow shortcuts, so you can pick more than one names without leaving the address bar. Finally, while composing commands to execute you may use these special symbols, which are automatically substituted for you (similar to batch templates):
$L - The full path of the left (top) pane
$R - The full path of the right (bottom) pane
$N - The name of the focused item
The advantage of these special characters is that you can reuse commands through the command history (see the Tools menu) or the quick repeat Alt+F10 command. My favourite has got to be > windiff "$N" "$R" to compare a file in the left pane with its namesake in the right pane.

If all this has wetted your appetite, you can find more details for all these options - and so much more - reading keyboard.txt your #1 source for obscure yet killer features of 2xExplorer.

Edited By nikos on June 21 2002 at 09:17

dft1 · Post by **dft1** » 2002 Jul 30, 14:26

I have been using 2xExplorer for a while now - I love it! One thing I'm hoping you can add (or tell me a better way to do) is an easy way to get the full path to a highlighted file to the clipboard. (I find I often need this to document something I did to a particular file.) Currently, I sh-tab to the the address bar, ^C to copy, alt-tab to my email program, ^V to paste, alt-tab back to 2x, F2 then ^C to get the file name, alt-tab back to my email, back space to get rid of the *, then ^V to finish. Whew.

Thanks!

rir3760 · Post by **rir3760** » 2002 Jul 30, 15:28

There are several 3rd party tools that work OK with Windows Explorer and 2xExplorer, one of them is PathCopy. This tool allow you to copy short/long name/path to the clipboard.

Its homepage is here

Hope this helps

Post by **nikos** » 2002 Jul 30, 15:31

there's a shorter workaround that involves just the one visit to the address bar. Hilight your item and once you [Shift+Tab] to get in the address bar, press [Ctrl+Enter] to paste the selected item's name directly -- this is explained in this very tips'n'tricks artikel! :) Then you can just select and copy the whole thing (path+filename) in one swift stroke

for an even shorter solution grab the new omega beta described in an adjacent topic and press [Alt+C] without any to-ing and fro-ing with the address bar.

dft1 · Post by **dft1** » 2002 Jul 30, 18:13

Thanks for the replies. I tried the [shift-tab] and [control-enter] but I just get the file name (w/ no path). So, I figure I can do this instead: [shift-tab], end, backspace, then [control-enter], [shift-home], [control-c]. But the [alt-c] thing is really what I wanted (now I have good reason to try the beta!).

Also the Path Copy add-on looks interesting - I like the options for long and short names plus UNC names. UNC is much better for documenting where a file REALLY is.