"Affect visible files" (plus crash report)

[BillT]

Aargh! I had forgotten why I stuck w/BC2 and never upgraded to BC3: the lack of the "Affect only visible files" functionality that is lacking in BC3 (and
now BC4).

There are a lot of use cases for BC, and one of mine has been using BC
to keep whole drives in sync, whether it be laptop/desktop, work/home, primary/backup or whatever. This means very long directory/file lists, and one way to keep things organized is to go through these long lists and collapse the few directories that shouldn't be part of that particular sync operation.

I've attached a screenshot that illustrates my predicament. In this you can see two directories (abcperf & appia) at the top of the list. For a number of reasons, I don't want to sync them to the destination at this time, but with this version of BC there's no straight-forward way to do that:

- I can exclude the directories, but that's relatively permanent -- I'm going to want to sync them at some point, just not yet. (I do exclude directories that I *never* want to sync, and that's handy, but this is a different use case).

- I can select the individual directories one-by-one, but that becomes unworkable for a large number of directories.

With BC2 this is really simple: just click "Synchronize to right" and select "Affect only visible files". (I've attached that screenshot as well for comparison, with BC2 running with Wine).

Choosing "Session/Sync Base Folders" is even worse, as (yet another) attached screenshot illustrates: I want to sync a couple of dozen files, not 88,000!

I'm stumped! Is there any way to approach the clean and simple way that BC2 synced directories?

If the answer is "no", as I suspect, then I'm begging you to bring back the "Affect only visible files" flag.

FWIW, there are a lot of people who are strongly visually oriented (like me, but also graphic artists and other "creative" types) who are going to be much happier with a visual solution to the problem of syncing files (vs. filters etc. that are "invisible").

P.S. BTW, the "Sync Base Folders" command doesn't appear to honor the filters of the "parent" Directory Compare.

P.P.S. Also attaching a crash report that was generated while I was working w/BC4. IT didn't appear to affect anything -- BC4 kept running and was responsive to input.

[Chris]

We removed the "Only affect visible files" check box that was in BC2 when BC3 was released because many users found it confusing.

You can achieve equivalent functionality in BC3 and in BC4 Mac alpha by using selection in the Folder Compare. Expand the folders you want included in the sync (as you would in BC2), then "Edit > Select All Files". Then use one of the "Actions > Synchronize" commands. In the Synchronize confirmation dialog, make sure "Just selection" is checked.

So the only extra step relative to BC2 is the use of the "Select All Files" command.

In BC3 "Select All Files" is mapped to the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+A. In BC4 Mac it isn't assigned a default keyboard shortcut. To assign a shortcut on Mac, select "Beyond Compare > Preferences" from the menu, then go to the "Commands > Folder Compare" section and search for "Select All Files".

[Chris]

P.S. BTW, the "Sync Base Folders" command doesn't appear to honor the filters of the "parent" Directory Compare.

I've done some testing with BC4 Mac, but when I setup filters in the Folder Compare, then launch the "Sync Base Folders" command, the filters always appear to function correctly in the sync session.

Can you provide a set of screenshots showing the filter problem?

[Chris]

Regarding the crash report, it looks like it was related to the program options dialog. Is this a repeatable crash for you, or did it only happen once?

[BillT]

Regarding the crash report, it looks like it was related to the program options dialog. Is this a repeatable crash for you, or did it only happen once?

It actually happened a couple (2-3?) times, but I only got the one crash report. I haven't seen it since.

[BillT]

After re-testing, you're right. It appears that I hadn't set the filters right.

[BillT]

It actually happened a couple (2-3?) times, but I only got the one crash report. I haven't seen it since.

Oops - just happened again. Still only the one crash report.

[BillT]

We removed the "Only affect visible files" check box that was in BC2 when BC3 was released because many users found it confusing.

You can achieve equivalent functionality in BC3 and in BC4 Mac alpha by using selection in the Folder Compare. Expand the folders you want included in the sync (as you would in BC2), then "Edit > Select All Files". Then use one of the "Actions > Synchronize" commands. In the Synchronize confirmation dialog, make sure "Just selection" is checked.

So the only extra step relative to BC2 is the use of the "Select All Files" command.

In BC3 "Select All Files" is mapped to the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+A. In BC4 Mac it isn't assigned a default keyboard shortcut. To assign a shortcut on Mac, select "Beyond Compare > Preferences" from the menu, then go to the "Commands > Folder Compare" section and search for "Select All Files".

I'm delighted to hear that there's a way to continue working the way I'm used to, even if it takes an extra keystroke, but I'm not sure why "Just visible" is more confusing than "Just selected"?

[BillT]

I'm delighted to hear that there's a way to continue working the way I'm used to, even if it takes an extra keystroke, but I'm not sure why "Just visible" is more confusing than "Just selected"?

One more thing ... I understand that menu items are supposed to be modal, but a lot of times the Actions and Edit menu are all grayed out, and I have to click somewhere (anywhere?) just to get the menu items enabled again.

[BillT]

Oops - just happened again. Still only the one crash report.

Here we go, addl crash reports (it helps to press the "Save" button ;-) and a screen shot following the crash (which isn't really a crash -- I can just select "General" and the window repaints).

[Chris]

One more thing ... I understand that menu items are supposed to be modal, but a lot of times the Actions and Edit menu are all grayed out, and I have to click somewhere (anywhere?) just to get the menu items enabled again.

In the current 15899 build of the Mac version, if a path edit has focus, then commands are disabled, if focus is in the left or right pane then the commands are enabled. This is part of following Mac application design guidelines, but this part of the design guideline can also be confusing, so we might remove this behavior before the final release.

Edit: Word from our lead developer is there are technical reasons this behavior is unlikely to change.

[BillT]

I'm delighted to hear that there's a way to continue working the way I'm used to, even if it takes an extra keystroke, but I'm not sure why "Just visible" is more confusing than "Just selected"?

Don't mean to be a pest, but would you consider adding a "Just visible" checkbox similar to the "Just Selected"? Perhaps indented to help make things even clearer (assuming that only visible files can be selected)?

x Just Visible?

x Just Selected?

On a related note, I looked at the scripting feature to see if that could be used to customize behavior (e.g., creating a script to "select all files" before "update right/left"). That would work if scripts could be assigned to menu items, buttons, etc. but at this point it looks like scripts can only be run from the command line -- is that correct?

My apologies if it sounds like I'm nit-picking. I am, but with good intentions -- I do believe (selfishly I admit) that I think what I'm suggesting would make BC an even better product :-)

Last but not least, I had been using BC2 on Win to sync with my macbook, but have gradually moved to using BC4 on Mac for the same purpose, and (with the exception of the various crashes on the properties that I already reported), everything seems to be working well!

[Chris]

Sorry for the late response to your question.

Our developers removed the "visible files" behavior as a design decision, it is unlikely to change. However, we will keep track of how many customers request the behavior and revisit it if we have enough requests.

Scripting is only supported from the command line. It isn't possible to script GUI actions or bind scripts to buttons.

[BillT]

Sorry for the late response to your question.

Our developers removed the "visible files" behavior as a design decision, it is unlikely to change. However, we will keep track of how many customers request the behavior and revisit it if we have enough requests.

Scripting is only supported from the command line. It isn't possible to script GUI actions or bind scripts to buttons.

I really hope you'll reconsider. Yesterday I remembered why I never upgraded to BC3 when I forgot the extra step of "Select All Files" and overwrote an entire directory of source code with older versions.

Luckily I had another copy of the affected files, but the fact is that the lack of this feature makes BC downright dangerous.

[Chris]

Beyond Compare does display a preview listing the files and folders to be synced, so you do have some warning about what it will do.

Also, if there are specific files or folders you don't want synced, you can filter them out to make sure they aren't included in a sync. The quickest way to filter out files or folders is to select them, then right click and use the Exclude command.