NOTE: The following post is in response to the posts by JohnFredC in the Xplorer^2 thread.Not to get in a pissing match, but since my post has been impugned, I'll respond with a couple of challenges to any other file manager (not just xplorer2).
The challenge:
Rename a set (ie. more than one) of image files (*.jpg, for instance) to include the dimensions of the image file in the filename.
To wit:
Original filename: MyFile.jpg
Output: MyFile.640x480.jpg
Stipulation: No spaces may be included in the resulting file name.
This is a prima facia example of the integration of metadata into TC. The rename template for the filename portion in TC would be: [N].[=imgsize.x]x[=imgsize.y]
Where:
[N] ...denotes the original filename
[=imgsize. ...denotes a specific (free) TC content plugin implemented by a user
.x] ...denotes one of the plugins calculated metadata values (the x dimension of the image)
.y] ...denotes the other dimension.
Extra credit:
Sort the file display ascending by the Y dimension.
-JohnFredC
Ok, after reading your posts in the Xplorer^2 thread it's hard not to see it as anything
but a pissing contest but ok, I'll take your challenge. After all, who am I to judge?
I give you the Directory Opus way:
Renaming the files to include the X & Y resolution:
(You don't need to use th regex method, but it's my prefered method so...)
Sorting ascending by Y dimension (height):
(I can also save this format for this folder, this and all subfolders, all folders in general and more. Notice how there is a ton+1 different fields available...and that's just in this category. Extra point to Dopus for not forcing me to install a single plugin to do this, something that TC does)
Second challenge:
For folders only (ie the column should be blank for files), show a column in the file display named "Folders/Files" that shows the number of subfolders and "subfiles" in each folder, separated by a slash.
To wit:
12/77
Extra credit:
In the file list, automatically highlight each folder that has > 300 subfiles in red.
-JohnFredC
Display subfolder and file count for folders, leaving the column empty for filenames:
No, it doesn't separate it with a slash, and doesn't colourize them but other than that I can do it. The slash thing is just nitpicking, while the colourize thing being the only thing I can see any use for. Anyway, to make a point in that I have many other options in Dopus, I added two different ways of displaying the subfolder count; one of them displays the subfolders 1 level deep, and the other displays the total number of subfolders, no matter how deep down they are.
Here's an example that matters if you work in thumbnails mode:
In xplorer2, display thumbnails. Now sort them by date. To do that, you must either select View>Arrange By>Date or press a 3-key short cut. Either way, that's three clicks. Further, there is no obvious way in xplorer2 to make a tool button to perform the sort.
In TC you click once on the column header for date.
I'm not singling xplorer2 out, here. No other file manager I know of displays the column headers in thumbnail mode. And this is a really big deal if you need to sort your thumbs by a custom column not accounted for by the menu.
For instance, in xplorer2, how would one sort image thumbs by image dimensions? Or by age in days? Or by an EXIF value? One can do these things, of course (switch to detail mode, sort, switch back to thumbs), but extra steps are involved.
When one file manager takes three steps for another file manager's one step, and the activity represented by those steps is performed repetitively day after day, month after month, year after year, that "two step" difference really begins to add up.
-JohnFredC
In Dopus you can just create a toolbar button for the sort methods you want available, no matter what display mode you're in or if it is something not displayed in the usual "sort by" menus. More importantly, with Directory Opus you can save display modes, including sort method, for individual folders and this will automatically get applied as soon as you enter said folder. This for me is a much more intuitive method. That, and the fact that I can use folder content auto detection so that I don't even have to bother clicking anything to get the display modes I want.
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All that said, I still really like TC (and own a license for it and use it regularly) but it is not the "alpha & omega" of file management. It all depends on what you need and like.
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I absolutely loved those games back in the day, so I might just check out this as well. No matter how it turns out, it's free...so why not.
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