I saved this file view, notice "Eastside Heating" folder is displayed at the very top of the bottom tree and the branch is opened. I saved the layout to "Eastside".
When I open the saved layout the position of the tree has changed and now the "Eastside Heating" folder is in the closed position and all the way to the bottom of the Tree. This is a little annoying because I now have to scroll to the bottom of the Tree and re-expand the branch.
The options under Preferences / Folder Tree / Options may help with ensuring the branch is expanded and in-view. (You can have the selected branch expanded and scrolled to the middle, at least.)
Hi Leo, I posted this a while ago and it is still a nuisance. Is there any script, command, setting that is able to keep the tree location the same position as I saved the lister in? It seems like I spend hours every week scrolling my mouse wheel.
Directory Opus seems to have every possible command for everything. Can a checkbox be added in save listers that would maintain the position of the folders in the tree when the lister was saved? This would be a God Sent... Please....
Can you give some specifics on what you need that the options don't do?
Keep in mind that literally "remembering the tree position" (as in how many pixels or folders it has been scrolled down) wouldn't work long term because things in the tree inherently move up and down on the screen as folders are created above that place in the tree. (Or below that place, if it's near the bottom of the tree.)
We give options for centering the selection in the tree and expanding the current folder, which should take care of most needs.
It seems to me this shouldn't be a major programming task. DO already has the, "Position selected item in the middle of the tree" option which does do this and it figures out how to position it correctly regardless of the tree folders being added or removed. It also positions it correctly if I move the tree split bar up or down and save the lister.
So it seems that there could be an additional option tied into the middle of tree option which states, "Position selected item in the TOP of the tree"? I think this option would make more sense to me and most users than the middle of tree option? I would assume that the program just uses a percentage such as 50% of vertical screen area to position the selected folder? What would even be better is allow the user to adjust the percentage to their liking? How cool would that be, then you could satisfy everyone's requirements. What would also be cooler yet, have the percentage entry be tied to the saved listers so it could be different for each saved lister instead of a program wide percentage. The lister position would override the global setting when it was opened and then revert back to to the global setting for further tree directories. This would be the best of both worlds.
I would bet the option I have proposed would be a thumbs up for all users because I would think the majority of users would prefer to see all the folders the screen height can display under the selected folder without having to waste time with endless mouse wheel scrolling.
I am not sure how the middle of the tree option was even considered as the only option to have instead of position at the top of the tree were it would certainly make the most sense to me and I think to most other users. What do you think about this change? I also feel the tree should reposition the selected folder at all times when any tree folder was selected. This would certainly make all the move folder operations etc. much better than scrolling through endless folders to copy, paste, move etc. from the right side to left tree side. That would make all these operations much easier to get to the correct folder rather than trying to get and miss a folder in the middle of the tree. Which happens to me all the time. Think about this, it reduces the users chances by 50% of selecting the correct folder because the only drag option is the folders below the selected folder instead of the way it is now with a folder above and below the selected tree folder.
Sure would be nice if it was an option - I think I would prefer to have it on all the time? But I am not sure how it would work in the real world being on all the time, but I would like to try it for a while. At the very least I would want it to remember the position it was saved at in the Lister when I created the Lister.
The adjustable percentage of the viewable vertical space in the Tree's selected Branch sure seems like it would make navigating through Tree Branches much easier to follow because the user would come to anticipate were the open branch is going to be located when selected and expanded.
As it is now, the Tree position always changes, typically up, as you select lower branches. The issue is I always seem to be working at the very bottom of the Tree view, when I would certainly prefer to work at the top of the Tree down, rather than bottom of Tree up. So my mouse wheel is always spinning to reposition the selected and expanded branches to the top of the Tree.
In my opinion, I would greatly appreciate the selected branches to always slide to the top of the viewable Tree. This allows me to see as many of the sub-folders as possible for any selected branch without scrolling the mouse wheel constantly.
Seems a shame to me, you have not mastered Tree usage yet. Productivity would clearly increase if you did, but may be you work by the hour and that is the reason for your statement, "most" or "all" other users who simply don't care? Seems to be the common truth in society today, "simply don't care".
Without caring, self improvement and society great advancements and discoveries would never have come to life. I feel so sad for you and anyone else who, "Just doesn't care". The suicide hot line is full of callers, "Who simply don't care".
"Doctor to stage 4 cancer patient, "I simply don't care", the words every terminal cancer patient feels at some point, I truly have experience in this area because I am, and have been, fighting for life going on 6 years now....
The way the "in the middle" option works currently is it affects how the tree scrolls if you navigate via something other than the tree (e.g. double-clicking a folder in the file display). Maybe that's the underlying issue here?
I'm not sure it makes sense to start scrolling the tree around while people are clicking on it. I guess it might work but it seems like something that could also cause surprises/problems (like accidental drag & drops of folders into other folders, which can be very painful).
Forcing the selected folder right at the top after any click (even if you manually scrolled things differently before clicking) would be bad because you often want to go to a sibling or parent folder that's above the current folder in the tree. But having a configurable percentage could work, if 50% isn't working for you. (I think the code which does the "in the middle" option can take a percentage.)
Folder trees are inherently fiddly things, IME/IMO. You can try to optimise them for one particular action but doing so can easily make them worse for another. Microsoft seem to have given up and more or less turned their tree in File Explorer into a favorites panel that doesn't follow the current folder at all anymore, although I think they've gone too far there. I tend to navigate via the file display myself, but it's a personal preference for sure, and there are situations where the tree makes things much easier.
I think if the Center at Middle works, which it does, then if the user could change the position with a percentage (0-100) it seems that would work and maybe there are (3) percentages (1) for the Main Tree - (1) for the sub-folders opened by the Main Tree, and Lastly remembering the percentage of the Tree in a saved Lister?
This would be a setting that defaulted to "OFF" so the user would be aware and have to find the setting to actually make a change to the default operation.
I think most users would like this except those who don't use the tree... and "Don't Care"
I played with Tree for a few minutes and I feel I am correct in moving the Branches to the top of the Tree when selected. This would reduce mouse scrolling and movements considerably. The Tree moves in it's current operational state, but without scrolling the mouse, your are inherently navigated to the bottom of the Tree continuously, which is not the most viewer friendly with the larger monitors in use today.
If the suggestions I made were implemented, the Tree would always be placed in the users optimal line of sight which the individual user could adjust to their personal preferences. How awesome that would be.
I really don't feel the accidental directory moves would increase, because the Tree already moves around and users are accustom to this situation in normal use, and I feel they would actually decrease because the selected branch would always maintain a consistent location. The movement of the Tree would have to be stationary if highlighted during a file drop and drag process, but I think that is more of a highlight process rather than a selection process?
I agree, I too would really like to see the Folder Tree preference added "Position selected item at the Top of the tree", or some option that would achieve that result.
