Support for descript.ion (and Fileprobe comparison)

[viking]

Hi,
Over the years, I have tested more than 30 different windows explorer replacements but never come across anything better than my current filemanager, Fileprobe. Unfortunately, it's development stopped several years ago, and it is not supported by WinXP (and it is the only reason why I am keeping WIN2k - it is that good !).

Anyway, I have started to look again, but so far not found anything as powerful as Fileprobe. The main dissadvantage with Fileprobe is that it does not support descript.ion. I have several thousands of files with descriptions stored in descript.ion files, so I need this feature rather than another implementation (and I am constantly generating more descript.ion files with other programs).

Some filemanagers, e.g. Magellan Explorer and Total Commander support descript.ion (but they are otherwise inferior to Fileprobe). Does Xplorer2 support descript.ion, or is there a way to add support? Note that with support I also expect that descript.ion files are updated when files are moved.

TIA!

[nikos]

i don't know what these description files are and thus neither does xplorer2

[Robert2]

Hi,
I have several thousands of files with descriptions stored in descript.ion files, so I need this feature rather than another implementation (and I am constantly generating more descript.ion files with other programs).

Some filemanagers, e.g. Magellan Explorer and Total Commander support descript.ion (but they are otherwise inferior to Fileprobe). Does Xplorer2 support descript.ion, or is there a way to add support? Note that with support I also expect that descript.ion files are updated when files are moved.
TIA!

Greetings--
If you right-click any file name in xplorer² (or in Windows Explorer for that matter), then select Properties, you can add a custom “description” about the file, including

Title
Subject
Author
Category
Keywords
Comments

Also you might want to have a look at http://www.rbahr.de/4dos.htm#english

Here is an extract:
"DescExt is an extension to the Windows 9x/ME or Windows NT 4/2000 explorer to show 4DOS descriptions. It hooks into the context menu and the property sheet of any file or folder of any explorer window. You can edit the description in the Description tab of the property sheet. If there is a description available, DescExt shows it in quotation marks in the context menu. If there is no description available DescExt only shows the text "*no description*" without quotation marks. DescExt, like 4DOS, stores the descriptions in a file named DESCRIPT.ION in the same folder as the file or folder you want to describe. If DescExt creates a file named DESCRIPT.ION it will be visible. DescExt preserves the mode (hidden or not) of DESCRIPT.ION if it writes a description of a file.

DescExp is a compagnon to DescExt, that shows the description of each file directly in a new column of each Explorer window. This version of DescExp does work with Windows 2000 but the setup is still a little clumbsy..."
Cheers
Robert

[viking]

Hi Robert,
The problem with DescExt is that it does not hook into copy move etc, so the descript.ion and the descriptions become messed up quickly.

I am using several programs that generate and manipulate the descript.ion file: e.g. Newsbin pro (www.newsbin.com) for downloading binaries, ACDSee (http://www.acdsystems.com/English/Produ ... /index.htm) for images and Magellan Explorer (http://www.enriva.com/) or Total Commander (http://www.ghisler.com/) as file managers (don't like these otherwise - looking for something better; maybe Xplorer2 ).

Thus, I need a filemanager that supports the descript.ion file.


Nikos,
the descript.ion file is a simple text file that contains descriptions for the files in a particular directory. Moving/copying files modifies the descript.ion file.

Here is an example of the content of a descript.ion file in a directory with two files, Big car.jpg and Red flower.jpg:

"Big car.jpg" this is my volvo
"Red flower.jpg" I like this rose

[nikos]

it does not hook into copy move etc, so the descript.ion and the descriptions become messed up quickly

and this is exactly why i don't like these kind of file comments
even if x2 supported the "protocol" it would tie you down since if you "erred" once copying/moving a descripted file with, say explorer, the comment would be lost

whereas the comments supported by x2 are integrated with the file so no such worries exist

of course you need NTFS and you must take heed of the relevant FAQs


ps note that the solution recommended by robert may be much better than you already have; ok it may lose comments on moving, but it will integrate with x2's column searching algorithms, so you can search for your files using comment text as criteria. Naturally you can do that with the "native" xplorer2 comments, too

[Robert2]

ok it may lose comments on moving, but it will integrate with x2's column searching algorithms, so you can search for your files using comment text as criteria. Naturally you can do that with the "native" xplorer2 comments, too

Greetings--
I have just checked this. The descriptions attached to individual files in xplorer² (or Windows Explorer) with the F12 dialog remain associated with the files even when these are copied or moved.
Cheers
Robert