Is it possible to view only selected folders in flatview or is there maybe some other method that does a similar job?
Not exactly, unless you get into fairly complex use of the Select command and filters, which I wouldn't recommend, or use the filter bar to filter out the folders you do/don't want (but you have to be careful it doesn't also take out files you want to see).
You can get something very similar by using the Find panel, as long as you're OK with a snapshot of how things look and don't need a live view. That's the most straightforward way.
What about adding the folders you would like to see "flat" to a filecollection and then using flat view on this one?
I did not try that, it just came up my brain.. might not work. o)
Does not work, sorry!
I now remember having tried similar in the past. Flat view is unavailable for file collections. Why is that actually?
File collections is something I tried earlier with no succes. I think because file collections are just links to paths same as search results.
I also tried to hide some folders with Select NOPATTERN HIDEUNSEL and then do the flatview but that will still show the content of the hidden folders.
A feature like viewing selected folders in flatview would come in handy escpecially when some folders are too large to view in flatview quickly (in terms of cluttering the file display as well as calculating the flat view).
+1 from me for a command along the lines of
Set Flatview=On,MixedNoFolders,SelectedFolders
that would display only the files in the selected folders (defaulting to "all folders" if none are selected).
Flatview is brilliant, and I am using it more and more. Of course sorting on a new "location" column is a workaround (and one can then even select the files from wanted directories and hide the rest), but having a command would be much less clumsy and very useful.
What about following approach by ktbcrash?
@disablenosel
Find RECURSE NAME=* IN {allfilepath$}
set COLUMNS=path(2)
Thanks very much, abr, and ktbcrash. I had searched back a year to find this thread, and I didn't go on searching before that. The button works very well, and solves the recent problems that prompted my post. I've added it to my configuration, and to my already large why-didn't-I-think-of-that file.
Two advantages that a "selected folders" addition to the flatview command would have, however:
- It could include selected files in the top directory as well as files in the selected subdirectories.
- It would be a directory, not a search folder. For example, after using this button, neither the Windows Search nor the DOpus search is available for the displayed files, so searching on the contents of files is tricky.
There is a thread here where I pointed to some commandline utilities, that can create windows libraries and add files/folders to them.
A library can be switched into flatview, just as a regular folder. Setting this up requires a bit of effort though and unfortunately, I didn't find the time to do that yet. Maybe you give it a go? o)
Since when there is "Copy INCLUDEINLIBRARY" actually? Just found it in the docs.
So, all you need is probably already there to create a temporary library, add folders (and files?) and switch that to flatview.
Thanks, tbone. It's an interesting approach that does the job required, and it's easy to implement:
Copy IncludeInLibrary NoRead:$New
Incorporating "Selected folders" into FlatView still seems worth considering in some future uppate because that would be quicker and far more natural to users.
I played around with "Copy INCLUDEINLIBRARY" as well, I'm not so familiar with windows libraries, but wondered if there is a way to add the folder itself to the library instead of it's content. So when selecting 10 folders and adding them to the library, I see 10 folders in the library.
Currently the top level of the flatview would not show the folders you initially selected, maybe you have noticed that as well and have an idea how to solve that?
Maybe creating a temporary folder with softlinks to the other folders would work better if you want them like that.
(Just be careful when deleting the links/parent, not to delete the targets as well.)
I did notice that, tbone, but I ignored it because all I want is the files — subsequent pressing of my normal FlatView button eliminates the folders anyway. Another odd behaviour is that if I select say two files and two folders, then the files from all the folders go into the library, whereas if I just select the two folders, only the files from those two folders go into the library.
Leo, I reckon that for the purposes I wanted (one of which was finding and then working on all *.url files in several directories on D: drive, another involved searching file contents) the most straightforward approaches are tbone's library solution, or flatviewing the whole of D: drive and then sorting first on location and then on extension or whatever is relevant. The odd behaviours with search folders and libraries are presumably occurring because we are using the tools for tasks they were not originally intended for.