Missing "Always show folders" button

[jdmarch]

I too miss the ability to see all folders without seeing all files, though the absence of this ability has not been enough to send me back to BC2.

[Tim]

Thanks everyone, for your opinions. I'm planning some changes for build 454 (the next one after today's release) that I think will make everyone happy.

[norrisg]

Thanks everyone, for your opinions. I'm planning some changes for build 454 (the next one after today's release) that I think will make everyone happy.

Thanks for listening: I'm looking forward to it!

[Michael Bulgrien]

What is the difference between the "Minimal" and "Standard" Folder Display modes?

[Erik]

"Minimal Folder Display" will only show folders if they contain items to be shown.

if you have checked the "Compare folder structure" rule, "Standard Folder Display" will also show folders that match the display filter. For example, orphan folders will be shown if your display filter includes orphans even if the folder contains no visible items.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Thanks for the explanation.

Here's an interesting observation. If I am using the "Minimal Folder Display" option, I will only see the files in the root folder. All (unexpanded) subfolders and files are hidden. If I click the Expand All button on the toolbar, then all the sub-folders and files appear (so far so good).

If I click the Collapse All button on the toolbar, the collapsed sub-folders remain visible. Is this intentional? Or should they return to their hidden state as they were before they were first expanded?

[Zoë]

The behavior you're seeing is a bug. When "Compare folder displayis checked, "Minimal folder display" will display the folders as if it's unchecked, that is the filtering will be based on whether the folders contain any files that should be displayed. If "Compare folder structure" is unchecked, there's no difference between "Minimal folder display" and "Standard folder display".

So the folders should have been visible the entire time.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Hmmm. I thought it was pretty cool that I could hide the subfolders. Oh well, I can see why you would consider it a bug. Some people would find it quite confusing.

P.S. I do have "Compare folder structure" enabled in my Session Settings.

[norrisg]

Now we've got "Always Show Folders" back, why was it decided that it cannot be put it on the toolbar as a button?

[jdmarch]

How would you put a 4-way choice on a single button?

[Erik]

Actually, "Always Show Folders" is always available on the toolbar (as well as "Ignore Folder Structure", etc). They are included in the dropdown button to the right of the display filters. You just pick "Always Show Folders" from the dropdown to turn it on.

[norrisg]

How would you put a 4-way choice on a single button?

Actually, "Always Show Folders" is always available on the toolbar (as well as "Ignore Folder Structure", etc). They are included in the dropdown button to the right of the display filters. You just pick "Always Show Folders" from the dropdown to turn it on.

Well, a 4-way requires twice as many clicks as we used to have doesn't it? There may be reasons to double the effort required to do something, but this is what ultimately leads to a user interface where most of it is useless to most users.

I would simply like a toggle, but it's obvious I'm not going to get it.

[Tim]

We have four states that are mutually exclusive, not a simple toggle. The alternative would be to have 4 buttons that would take up around 3 times the space on an already crowded toolbar.

How about if you assign keyboard shortcuts to your two favorite states?

[jdmarch]

I would simply like a toggle, but it's obvious I'm not going to get it.

Which 2 of the 4 states do you think the button should toggle between?

I was trying to think whether there is a user-friendly way to do it with 2 buttons (2 states squared = 4 states) but the 4 states don't seem to break down into an obvious matrix.

[norrisg]

Which 2 of the 4 states do you think the button should toggle between?

Whatever other one is currently selected and "Always Show Folders". Of course, that would require the previous state to be saved so it could be restored.

Personally, I doubt I'd ever toggle between anything other than "Compare Files and Folder Structure" and "Always Show Folders". The other two ("Only Compare Files" and "Ignore Folder Structure") are rather different types of comparison, and if I was designing this I would probably have had a three-way for (abbreviated) CFaFS, OCF and IFS, with ASF a separate button, most likely disabled for IFS.