Strange sorting order in Document Seletor

General questions about using TextPad

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brian.cockburn
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:39 am

Strange sorting order in Document Seletor

Post by brian.cockburn »

Hi,

The files listed in my Document selector always used to be in alphabetical order, however I was recently upgraded from XP to W7 Enterprise (Core2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz, 4 Gig RAM, 32-bit OS) and 5.3.1, and now they are almost in order, but not quite. This makes files hard to find because files in the same directory aren't all bunched together. Any suggestions?

This is my first post so I'm not sure what else I might provide and where I could put it. I could make a screen snapshot if that would help.

Thanks, Brian.
drussell6
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 2:01 pm

RE: Strange sorting order in Document Seletor

Post by drussell6 »

Please send a screen shot. Make the Document Selector as big as possible to include as many entries as possible. Also, change the list display to Detailed.
brian.cockburn
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:39 am

Post by brian.cockburn »

Hi,

With the selection of files I have loaded at the moment the issues is not in evidence - Grrr. I will send a screen shot as soon as I notice the problem again.

By "change the list display to Detailed" I assume you mean Preferences => View => Full path names on document selector and tabs.

Thanks for taking an interest, Brian.
drussell6
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 2:01 pm

RE: Strange sorting order in Document Seletor

Post by drussell6 »

Maybe I misunderstood your question. Are you talking about the tabs for each open file that runs across the top or bottom of the window? If so, I totally misunderstood your question. I assume that you have tried changing the 'Create tabs from left to right' checkbox in Preferences->View->Tabbed Document Selector. The default (not selected) is to arrange files with most recently opened at the left to least recently opened at the right. Selecting it is supposed to arrange them alphabetically.
brian.cockburn
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:39 am

Post by brian.cockburn »

Hi,

I'm using and talking about the Document Selector pane to the left of the normal viewing pane (the one with tabs at the top). This pane has a single line for each open document's full file name and a vertical scroll bar so I can see them all (I have 150 to 200 files open at a time).

Cheers, Brian.
drussell6
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 2:01 pm

Post by drussell6 »

I was totally out in left field. I don't use the document selector pane. I seldom have more than 5-6 files open at a time. My largest project only has 160 files. Sorry, I don't have a solution for you. Have you tried treating this as a bug and asking the authors to fix it?

David
brian.cockburn
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:39 am

Post by brian.cockburn »

Hi David,

When I can get a screen shot of the issue I'll report it as a bug. I'm now starting to worry about my sanity, and whether I saw the problem at all. :-)

Cheers, Brian.
brian.cockburn
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:39 am

Post by brian.cockburn »

Hi David,

OK, I think I've replicated the bug, and I've got a picture as well as more info. I created a new document, added some text, and then saved it (changing the type from PC to Unix). It then appeared at the top of the files associated with that drive rather than correctly inserted in the list.

How can I send you the picture?

Cheers, Brian.
paleolith
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:25 pm
Contact:

Post by paleolith »

Unless it contains private information, upload it to a free hosting service and link to it.

Edward
twa_priv
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:47 pm

Post by twa_priv »

As the original poster I also switched from XP to Windows 7 (64-bit).

I, too, noticed that new files created do not get placed in the correct order in the Document Selector.

For example:

I have the following files open and displayed in the Document Selector:

A
C
E

Next I open a new document (Ctrl + N). Now the following files are listed:

A
C
Document1
E

Then I save the new document as X and end up with files listed as follows:

A
C
X
E

Note that the new file X wasn't moved to the correct position.

Renaming files shows exactly the same annoying behaviour (especially since I usually have many files open in my workspaces).
twa_priv
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:47 pm

Post by twa_priv »

Am I really the only one having this issue and has anyone any ideas how to revert to the XP behaviour where new or renamed entries get placed in the correct order in the document selector?

Thanks
Thomas
paleolith
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:25 pm
Contact:

Post by paleolith »

Thomas,

Two points. First, are you sure it's XP vs 7 (or Vista), or is it the newer version of TP that you had to move to when you changed OS? The reason I ask is that the problem appears to be that TP isn't resorting the document selector in these situations. When it sorts, it appears to be OK. This looks to me like an error in the application, not an issue with the OS. (Note that the OP never gave enough details to be sure that his problem was the same as yours, though it seems likely to be the same.)

Second, as to why more people aren't complaining, I'd say 1) very few users come to this forum, even less for TP than for applications in general, and 2) many of us don't even use the document selector, or have few enough documents open most of the time that the order isn't important--I only posted to this thread because I happened to be browsing the forum. I can duplicate your problem (TP 5.3.1, Win Vista 64) easily, but normally I don't even have the document selector open.

History says the problem will likely be fixed in a future TP release, but that Helios will not deign to give us any idea when that will happen.

I found two ways to correct the order. Both require additional user action, so they impede work flow pretty significantly. The first is to close the newly saved document and then reopen it (ctrl F4 alt F 1 enter). The other is to close and reopen the document selector (alt V D alt V D). Perhaps those will help someone, though they are rather obnoxious as workarounds.

Edward
twa_priv
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:47 pm

Post by twa_priv »

Hi Ed,

Thanks for your reply.

I didn't upgrade Textpad. I was/am using 5.3.1 on both XP 32-bit and Win7 64-bit.

The workaround I'm currently using is to reload the workspace - but that's also cumbersome...especially if you create new files quite often as I do.

I was thinking about uninstalling and reinstalling TextPad - but now that I know you can reproduce the issue on 64 bit Vista (and it doesn't seem to be specific to my environment) I don't think it's worth my time.

If anyone from Helios is reading this thread - please fix it in the next version (even though I doubt there will ever will be one).

Thanks
Thomas
Zhiroc
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:40 pm

Post by Zhiroc »

I see this exact same behavior with 5.3.1 on Win7/64.

After saving a new file (which is initially correctly sorted as "DocumentN"), the name is not resorted after it is renamed.

A fairly easy workaround is to tap F11 twice (which closes the Doc selector then reopens it).
paleolith
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:25 pm
Contact:

Post by paleolith »

Zhiroc wrote:A fairly easy workaround is to tap F11 twice (which closes the Doc selector then reopens it).
Must be a configuration difference here, because this does not work for me. On my setup, F11 only invokes the document selector or returns to the document, and does not open and close it. This is the documented behavior. And it does not re-sort the document list. Perhaps you have modified the F11 key to open/close the document selector?

Edward
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