I'm a retired programmer but a noob to DO. I LOVE it, so much that I want to love the Filter Bar too.
The activation key (*). First, it doesn't work until the lister has focus. So if I don't want any file selected or sort order or scroll affected, I'm looking for a dead spot on a scrollbar to click on, while thinking better way.
Second, I often want a filter like *fred*. How do you type that? **fred* My brain resists
Yes there's "automatically type *" in preferences, but next time I'll want fred*.jpg ... back to clumsy.
I wish for, but can't solve, how to make a toggle button (like Viewer Pane: show or hide) such that
ON: display the FB, focus the edit control. OFF(=escape): clear the edit control, hide the FB.
Alternatively, maybe a {fbt} code for the status bar? (Filter Bar Toggle) that behaves similar enough.
The Folder menu has "filter by name" but it's not a toggle, wonder why? Most of the other sub-menu items are (grid lines, etc).
None of the Filter Bar Display settings are quite right for me:
"always" - wastes valuable screen real estate most of the time.
"only when editing a filter" - touch any file, the filter bar disappears but is still in effect. Never want that.
"whenever a filter is set" - ok until you use temp disable or clear filter, now escape doesn't dismiss it, but touching a random irrelevant file does.
If you give the Folder > Filter By Name menu item a hotkey, it will work even when the file display does not have focus (unlike the default * key which only works in the context of a file display and not when e.g. the folder tree has focus).
Does that solve a lot of the friction with how it works?
Not a fan of hotkeys, I'd rather make a copy of that function as a small toolbar button (just the filter icon). Now I have the button I wish for but not much improvement really.
Scenario:
"whenever a filter is set" display setting
folder tree has focus
click my shiny new button
filter bar displays, focus edit control (better)
type just exactly my filter *fred* (better)
touch files in the lister or don't, doesn't matter
a) escape - does my toggle off function, perfect. But
b) click "temporarily disable filter" twice
now hit escape to close - nothing
try focus edit control and escape - nothing
try "clear filter" and escape - nothing
try "clear filter", focus edit control and escape - THERE!
ugh
True, "clear filter" and touch a file in the lister also works, but I think the filter bar should be dismissable without making any unwanted file selections.
Aside, is it even possible, I didn't find it, to make a user-defined button act and look like a toggle? (look pushed when on, popped when off, like Folder > Grid Lines)
Another idea for you. You're not busy, right?
Yes. Some do automatically. Others may need slight tweeks or an @modifier to make it explicit what they are representing (e.g. if the first line in the button isn't the toggle command). In some cases it might need a variable to be created which the button then toggles.
Exact details will depend on the commands involved.
So, do we agree that Filter Bar dismissal is at least a little bit broken? Might I use this forum to formally request a fix?
I would suggest first that Folder > Filter By Name be elevated to a toggle, like most of its neighbors under Folder. Toggle off would clear any FB filtering as it hides the bar.
I think its enhanced usefulness would merit a more prominent one-click location, but I'm happy to move it myself to save others disruption.
Alternatively/additionally, ESCAPE could work after touching the disable and clear buttons on the bar, same as it does before touching. Recognizing that if I move the focus to the viewer or metadata pane or somewhere, the escape key might be otherwise obliged.
Maybe the toolbar can also have its own "close" button, if you can avoid confusion with the "x" button already there.
Nothing is broken here; it works as it is designed to work, and the existing options/modes seem to work well for most people.
Can you explain more why you want to toggle the filter bar on and off, when not actually filtering? What use is seeing the filter bar when it is not being used to filter things? (Granted, that is what the "always display" mode does as well, but that's for people who don't like it appearing and disappearing.)
Please link your account to make feature requests.
Sorry, it was when you answered my aside and not the thrust of the previous post that I imagined I had found a defect. That and the word friction you used earlier.
No, what I want is to toggle it on to use it, then off when I'm done. It's the off part that I find awkward and unintuitive. See the word "ugh" in the previous post. As a long time software developer myself, I see a filter ON under the Folder menu with no corresponding OFF. When most of the Folder items are toggles, why not this one? Ugh solved.
Maybe what I need is to understand what most people do when they're done filtering and want the bar to go away? The escape key is undependable.
Click X next to the filter's edit box, or push Esc when focus is on the file display (or Esc twice if focus is currently in the filter's edit box) to clear the filter, and it will then close.
The command Set QUICKFILTERCLEAR can also be used to clear the filter.
You could also make a button which runs this, which might do everything you want:
@if:Set QUICKFILTER
Set QUICKFILTERCLEAR
@if:else
Set QUICKFILTER
If no filter is currently set, that will show the filter bar and let you start typing into it.
If a filter is currently set, it will clear the filter, and in turn hide the filter bar (if it is set to auto-hide when not in use).
Click X next to the filter's edit box - does not hide the bar for me and nullifies the escape key ("nothing" number 3 in my ugh scenario).
Using the "whenever a filter is set" display setting, I think it's
a) A single escape works just fine, or
b) If the last thing you touched was either the disable or clear button on the bar, no amount of escapes will work, you must click in the edit box and escape once or twice, depending...
Using "only when editing a filter", it's different again. Not that I would use that setting but others might.
I really want to use the existing options/modes working as designed, as you say, and so I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but does this answer the question what do most people do?
The filter bar won't hide if it has the focus, since you are (potentially) typing a new filter into it.
Otherwise, if the filter is cleared and the focus goes to something else, the filter bar will hide. (When "whenever a filter is set" is the mode.)
The way it works is pretty simple. I'm confused why this thread has become so complex, and not really sure where the issue is. I may be missing something.
You could add Set FOCUS=source following the Set QUICKFILTERCLEAR command to automatically take the focus away from the filter and give it to the file display.
It's still a mystery to me the resistance to making Folder > Filter By Name a toggle, that behaves exactly this way, but I have now a simple reliable way to dismiss the filter bar that doesn't depend on context, setting, who has the focus, anything else than "filter bar, go away now".
We can close now. I just wasn't persuasive I guess.
Thanks @BobL for bringing this up as it's a question I meant to ask on more than one occasion but never got round to, and thanks @Jon for a simple solution.
Esc cancels any changes you've just typed into the filter (clearing it, if it was clear before you started typing) and returns focus to the file display.
If the filter is cleared, and the filter bar does not have focus, and the mode to auto-hide the filter bar when it is not in use is selected, then the filter bar will of course be hidden in this situation.
i.e. If you pushed Esc, you cancelled the edit and (presumably) cleared the filter, while sending focus back to the file display. The filter was then clear, the filter bar didn't have focus, so the auto-hide kicked in.
If you want to keep the changes you've typed into the filter bar and return focus to the file display, push Return rather than Esc. (Or click the file display with the mouse.)
Esc generally cancels things, while Return confirms them.
Thanks for the explanation. I misunderstood the point you were making.
I can't imagine wanting a filtered list of files with a hidden filter bar so you can't see what filter is in effect or readily change it, but if there's demand, as a developer you accomodate. That's fine. I can opt out.
And I was ok with relying on Esc to cancel filtering and hide the bar until it stops working when you touch the bar outside the edit box (where there are things designed to be touched).
That's where, as a user, if I raised the bar using a menu item (Folder>Filter), I expect I can hide it the same way. Especially when most of the items under Folder behave as toggles, it's unexpected that this one doesn't. As a user that seems intuitive to me, and wearing my developer hat, I try to anticipate user intuition.
Dopus is still an A+ piece of work, don't get me wrong. There's too much awesomeness here to lower the grade for this. But A++ is so close
