I've been working quite a bit with the new rename dialog and want to pass along some opinions/requests/ideas.
Apply Button - There is the new Apply button but no way to undo the rename from within the dialog if the results are not what was anticipated. If I have to rename some files and hit Apply, and then notice that some of the changes are not what I expected (i.e., wrong), then I have to hit OK or Cancel to exit the rename dialog, and then click Undo from a lister to undo the previous rename. Then I have to relaunch the Rename dialog and continue with the original rename work. It would be easier if I could hit Apply and if the rename didn't work as expected, click on Undo without losing workflow focus. Yes, the Preview area makes this mistake (end-user) less likely but it still happens.
Highlighting - If I select 50 files to rename but based on the rename that I've specified in the Mode section, the resulting rename change only applies to a small subset of the 50, it is not easily identifiable which files are being renamed. If the rename is a small subtle change, it takes me quite awhile to determine which files are affected. It would be nice if the rows/files that apply to the rename are highlighted better. Currently, the file text changes from grey to black and there is no pref to change this. Personally, I'd like to maintain a color to highlight the entire row(s) in the preview pane for each file that is affected.
Presets - I had been waiting for a better way to manage and view my presets. I have 46 presets but the presets lists only shows 18 at a time... and a scrollbar, which I don't like to see within dialog windows. I suspect others have even more presets.
-- Would it be possible to pin the preset list so that it's open all the time? For me, I'd like the presets on the left as its own panel. It would take up the entire vertical dimension that the rename dialog was set to. The Scripts edit button opens up a panel on the right and the Edit button changes to Hide... I'm thinking of the same thing but on the left for the presets list... and in my case, it's so valuable that I'd like it viewable all the time.
-- Does it make sense to create groupings for presets so that they have a expand/collapse feature (similar to how all of the pages in the Prefs dialog are grouped such as Display, Favorites and Recent, etc.)? This would make it easier to navigate a longer list of presets.
Icons - The file icons show up in the Current Name field of the preview panel but not in the New Name column. The New Name column has a pencil icon. Why the difference? I thought it was influenced by the Ignore Extension parameter but that's not the case. At first, it worries me that the extension is being lost because the file's icon is being changed to a generic one.
Right Justified - If I double click on the pencil icon, the file names in the New Name column become right justified. Is this a feature?
Macro Builder - Love it. I've struggled with regex for far too damn long.
Dialog Buttons - The order of the three buttons at the bottom are Apply-OK-Cancel but the order for the Prefs dialog window (only window I could find in DOpus that had all three options) is OK-Cancel-Apply. Which is more correct? I looked at a few other Windows apps and they use the OK-Cancel-Apply order but, FWIW, I prefer OK/Apply to be on the far right since I interpret right as 'let's confirm and move forward with this workflow' and left as 'i need to cancel and backup because this isn't correct'. Either way, which order is correct or should they not be the same.?.?
Modify Capitalization - If I specify a valid Old/New rename, the file(s) in my list is correctly previewed with the new name change. But if I select the Modify Capitalization option, all files are changed to all caps and the Old/New definition is ignored. This doesn't seem correct.
Sequential Numbering - Same thing. If I activate this parameter, it applies to all files regardless of the Old/New specification. With DO11, didn't it only apply to the files that met the Old/New specification?
I can answer a few (I'm not sure 9 questions in a single post are going to produce a very readable thread, but let's see):
The pencil helps to indicate that you can edit those fields directly, and also indicates whether they are left or right aligned (which isn't always easy to see otherwise).
Yes, it is part of the macro builder. Compare what happens if you have two filenames:
A-Short-Name
Much-Longer-Name
If you select "Name" in the first file while right aligned:
The same while left aligned:
You can push Home and End when already at the start or end of the string to switch alignment using the keyboard.
That's my fault. It was originally OK, Cancel, Apply. But I was so used to clicking the rightmost button in the Rename dialog to cancel, and kept finding it applied and messed up my filenames. After finding I could not get used to it even after several weeks, we figured I wouldn't be the only one and changed the order.
Good idea, we'll look at adding a way to trigger an Undo direct from the dialog
Do you mean you'd like to be able to change the text colours in the preview list? We can look at making those configurable - or did you have something else in mind?
A way to pin the preset list open isn't a bad idea.
8 & 9. I can't immediately reproduce this - it seems to behave as expected. Could you provide a little more info (maybe a screenshot) on how you're setting up the rename and what results you get?
Yes, pinned preset list is good! For me, it would feel better if that preset list does not overlay the other dialog elements in "pinned" mode.
So it gets full part of the dialog as before.
3a.
Grouping or some kind of indicator for "script" vs. "regular" preset in the list is something I would appreciate.
I'd like an option or possibility to select all the renamed items in the file display after "Apply" or "OK" has been hit. At first the initial selection has to be cleared of course (manually or autom. by that imaginated "Select renamed items" option), but after the renaming session is over, a selection would be ready for moving renamed items away from a location where you host items to be renamed (an "incoming" folder or something). Due to the fact, that you can now choose which items will be renamed, not all of them will, so after the rename dialog closes, you don't know which items left unaffected and which are done and are ready to be moved out of the way.
It seems you cannot manually fix single names in the rename dialog without the macro-engine kickin in and changing other entries as well, even though you disabled the "Macro" checkbox. I think it would be very useful to fix single names right there without the macro-engine interfering. In cases where a script does not fix all items or fixed them "bad", you could step in and repair them quickly. Much quicker than fixing the script, which is impossible at times for heavier things using massive number of regex expressions.
Nice implementation for mass-item work! I see how you apply a script to only those items currently visible, very clever and very effective. Just tested some 8000 items in there and it worked like a charme! No more waiting for the script to run through all items each time, good one! o)
I just tried 12.03 and the Undo feature looks good.
Yes, I think there should be some way to adjust the appearance of the preview list so that it is more easily recognizable that the rule I've defined has worked on the files I've selected. As it is, the turning of the filename from light grey to black isn't very noticeable. I don't see why we couldn't adjust the font in any other way... but for me personally, being able to shade the background of the file name (i.e., the row) would be more noticeable. Similar to the [Always highlight full row] option in details mode.
8-9. I'm on 12.03 and it's behaving differently. First off, this rename isn't correctly renaming the 4th file.
But when I activate the Modify Caps feature, all files are affected and it's ignoring the rule I came up with. It's not the capitalization that's an issue, it's that it's influencing the selection of the files.
[quote="tbone"]
3.
Yes, pinned preset list is good! For me, it would feel better if that preset list does not overlay the other dialog elements in "pinned" mode.
So it gets full part of the dialog as before.[/quote]
[quote="Sasa"]As already mentioned the preset-window should be part of the rename-window.
It's nice, but doesn't meet the DO-design* and it is not useful, because you just need one more click to access.
*DO design means " ..." next to Reset-Button[/quote]
I agree with this, I don't like how the rename preset menu is overlaid over other controls when expanded.
I do like the idea and innovation in DO12 though: I like the ability to show/hide just not liking the way it becomes overlay.
However, there is no Simple Rename dialog anymore it seems, so the current rename dialog has to hide the extra advanced stuff somehow to reduce clutter. Like it was mentioned, pinning the preset list open (without it overlaying the other controls) seems like a good solution to me.
+1.
I realize that as an alternative the Rename PRESET=!list lets you see presets quickly, and that's terrific -- but that's a different purpose because these presets are applied immediately. In contrast, when you click on a preset within the rename dialog, you have a chance to edit it. Like others I'd be happy to see the Preset List upon entering the Rename dialog in order to save a click.
Speaking of Rename PRESET=!list, finding that it's working wonderfully as the single item of a submenu within a pulldown. Nice work!
I also wish an option to pin the preset list so that it's open all the time, or better to see the list all the time like in version 11. The buttons like LOAD and SAVE can be hidden behind a button. Those are used less frequently.
In the new situation I have to click to many time to use a preset. I even have to double click instead of just clicking once like in version 11. So now I have to click 3 times instead of 1.
Presets should be directly accessible so one can quick make a choice.
A wider list is als preferable. The names of my presets don't fit in the list. Please don't add a horizontal scroll bar because that means more interaction before I can select the right preset.
Please a column with the new name in the same font as the current name, without separating the base and extension. This makes comparing the old en new version much easier. With a monospace font it often looks if the new name has to many spaces. In general, it is difficult to compare things with each other when they don't look the same.
To keep the current new name columns with the monospace font they can be renamed to new base name and new extension.
Of course it can be made a setting so one can choose the colums they like to see.
The new name column is monospaced because of the new macro editing feature, which would be very hard to use if the characters on each line did not line up.
Yes, the monospace font is good for that macro editing, but I must agree, it is harder to use when not macro-editing names, and it also eats up much more screen space while not always necessary. While editing scripted rename presets e.g., I continously move the divider between renamer and script because of that, which is not so optimal (window already maximized on 1920x1200 display). We already talked about the script appearing on the right, I still prefer to have it below, since it would also help working with long names and editing the script at the same time.
Maybe you can switch to monospace on demand or whenever macro editing is activated. It would also be nice if the monospace font to be used could be user defined. I'm used to New Courier/9 for decaded when it's about monospaced editing, the "modern" font used currently is not very clear to read. Both fonts eat same amount of horiziontal space, I checked.
With the script panel open it also looks and feels a bit weird with 3 fonts in use at the same time. Printing names in the output section of the script editor while debugging/extending a rename script is what I did recently, and here as well it's harder to compare the debug output to what is shown in the "New Name" column, since fonts don't match.
Even though the monospaced font takes up more space if used, it would be good to be able to switch the "Old Name" column to monospace as well if desired in some usecases to make it more easy to identify differences.
Wrapping this post up:
script panel below
monospace font to be used should be selectable
option to use monospace font in the new name column
option to use monospace font in the current name/ext column
I know this is a late reply, but since it fits part of this topic (and there supposedly will be updates to Opus 12) I thought it is better if I add it here:
Regarding 2. Highlighting:
I think this was not implemented yet, or was it?
I would like it the best if the exact characters which are added or changed by the rename action are highlighted with a noticeable background color. If there "spots" in the string where chars where deleted only then these "spots" of where those chars used to be could be highlighted with a big fat pipe.
Maybe this could be done additionally to the original suggestion by "nate_dawg".
It was originally OK, Cancel, Apply. But I was so used to clicking the rightmost button in the Rename dialog to cancel, and kept finding it applied and messed up my filenames. After finding I could not get used to it even after several weeks, we figured I wouldn't be the only one and changed the order.
