File selector "arrange files" new function

mpniel · Post by **mpniel** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 3:00 pm

It would be great to have a new function in the file selector window, to arrange the files by name (ascending,descending), or by directory (ascending,descending).
Could be by expand/collapse the displayed file list per directory/type.

ramonsky · Post by **ramonsky** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 3:34 pm

There have been a number of requests for similar enhancements, including your own "View document tabs for selected documents only" thread. It might be cool to consolidate all these various ideas into one single thread, because some ideas may conflict with others, and poor Helios cannot possibly do everything.

I often have many, many documents open at once. Way too many to use tabs, and way too many to use the Window menu, so I have to use the document selector pane. This shows the full pathname of each file, and since a pathname is often quite long, this means I have to have the document selector pane sized very widely in order to see the significant part, which is usually just the filename.

Various solutions have been proposed for dealing with this and similar problems. These include: (a) right-justifying the document selector pane; (b) replacing the middle of the pathname with "..."; (c) having a full, exandable/collapsable tree view; and your own (d) choose your own tabs. I think someone also suggested (e) make the document selector pane undockable and standalone, but it's possible I just imagined that one.

Any or all of these would work, and, in the interim, I can live with just keeping a wide document selector pane. I think you're suggestion amounts to a tree view, in which case it's definitely been suggested before, and lots of people think it's a good idea. But obviously, it's a lot more work to implement than, say, solution (a).

mpniel · Post by **mpniel** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 3:48 pm

Solution(f): Add the " auto hide " display attribute to the file selector window.

CrimsonSoul · Post by **CrimsonSoul** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 10:49 pm

This is something I would be very keen on as an enhancement.

I like the idea of creating sub-folders within the document selector window and organising my files within them (very much like MS Visual Studio projects).

I do a lot of work on websites and it would be good to organise the files in the workspace by type i.e. php, inc, html, includes.

Other than that, a most excellent product!

mpniel · Post by **mpniel** » Mon Dec 22, 2003 10:12 am

agreed.

quickling · Post by **quickling** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 5:00 pm

I was going to come in and suggest some other sort-modes for the document selector. Now it seems I must echo other people's sentiments. When I work on a large project with a bunch of html, php, css, js etc. files, I would really prefer to localize the files by type.

I really like the suggestion of adding tree-like listing in the selector. This would handle my sorting needs plus and lot more, and would make Textpad much more friendly to complex or hierarchical projects, like DevStudio, as suggested above.

May the gods of Textpad hear our plea.

mpniel · Post by **mpniel** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:05 pm

Agreed.
Waiting for Textpad development staff to speed up .........

mgoetz · Post by **mgoetz** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:53 pm

'me too'

Specifically, I'd like to be able to sort documents by full path WITHOUT displaying the full path. Also, if the by-directory groupings of files were collapsible, that would be really really cool.

lionelb · Post by **lionelb** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 8:38 am

I think this could all probably be subsumed under the "Treeview in Document Selector" request. Vote here:

http://www.textpad.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4216