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Wishlist


ZTreeWin Wishlist


New users should consider asking questions in the ZTreeWin Forum(external link). Some of the wishes below are already possible, or it is possible to achieve the desired result in a different way.


For a history of granted wishes, please read the Wishesgranted page.

New users should consider asking questions in the ZTreeWin Forum(external link). Some of the wishes below are already possible, or it is possible to achieve the desired result in a different way.


3. Tagging directories

added by Laurent, Feb 15, 2007
comment added by Peter Shute, Feb 19, 2007
- If this is implemented, I'd like control+Batch to be able to work with these tags, and for the values displayed by alt+K to be available to it.

comment added by Tom Foote, 2007-03-07 12-25-57 PM
- And, I would like to be able to tag, and operate on multiple noncontiguous directories -i.e., copy, move, delete, clone/mirror, and synchronize them. (As I suggested earlier, below.)- and, perform any other reasonable operations on them that users might think of in the future.

4. Full junction points support

added by Laurent, Feb 15, 2007
Free space on disks accessed solely through a junction points cannot be detected. Graft from these junction points to the current disk does not work (Ztree believes it's a directory on the same disk and tries internally to rename it while it should in fact move it).

5. True mirroring of directories

added by Tom Foote, Feb 16, 2007
True mirroring of directories (or, multiple noncontiguous, tagged directories), partitions, and whole drives. (And ability to also synchronize same).

6. "Live" refresh of the ZTree file window while it is being changed by other programs

added by Tom Foote, Apr 21, 2007
PowerDesk Pro, Firehand Ember, and (most of?all?) my other GUI file management programs can refresh their file windows automatically and "live" in real timeright before your very eyesas they are being changed (e.g., as files are being added to them by other programslike from a downloading). I cannot get ZTree's "Automatically Refresh Directories" setting--or any other ZTree configuration setting, to produce this same, "live" behavior. Is this possible in ZTree? If so, what might I be missing?

7. Options for file collisions

[+]

8. Tighter integration of graphics viewer

added by Tom Foote, Feb 16, 2007
Tighter integration of graphics viewer like rpVT; e.g., from ZTree, point to a jpg file, hit Gor whatever, and it displays as a graphic within an integrated (or detachable) graphics panel; hit F7or whatever, and then scroll your filenames, to see them each display graphically in succession. See discussion that Slo and I had about this on the Forum at:
http://www.ztw3.com/archive/022/archive.cgi?read=84970(external link)

9. Swappable panels

added by Tom Foote, Feb 16, 2007
Swappable tree+branch/file panels displayed (four subwindows total)either vertically or horizontallyalong with the (detachable) image viewer panel. (In PowerDesk Pro, I actually use the Horizontal split more than the Vertical one, because I can see so many more columns about each of the files.)

See thread beginning here:
http://www.ztw3.com/archive/022/archive.cgi?read=84965(external link)

where Slo suggests this:
Now that we have the UI, it would be nice to add the recent pane Swap and
orientation ZEPs right under Shift+F8. For example:
-------------------------
Split Mode: Statistics:..None..Current......Both.(Current)
.................Geometry:..Swap..Horizontal..Vertical..(Vertical)


10. More colorization

added by Tom Foote, Feb 16, 2007
User-color-able directories/branches/volume labels, other? (e.g., like the files color code file allows).
added by Tom Foote, Feb 17, 2007
To see how GUI file manager, Powerdesk Pro, has implemented some of the above, go here:
http://footeworks.us/comptips.htm#How_Do_PowerDesk(external link)

13. UNC Support

added by Ben Kent, Feb 16, 2007
So that network paths can be logged without having to map a drive first. The ability to log to any directory and not just shares or drive roots would be good so that attention could be focused on the job at hand.
There would need to be a number of changes to support this.
- The contents of %2 would need to change, and so anything that used it would need to change.
- The order that logged trees were cycled through would have to be defined.
- Ctrl-Log would need to be changed to allow logged UNC's to be picked from a list.

14. Directory Sorting

added by Peter Shute, Feb 19, 2007
I'm particularly thinking of sorting by branch size or count, as displayed by alt+K. Sorting by creation or modification date may be useful too.

15. Attribute Sorting

added by Laurent, Feb 19, 2007
More than once, when housekeeping my hard disk, I would have like to sort files by attributes. Files mask is nice but not necessarily always the most productive way to select files based on attributes.

16. Better Utilisation of Display

added by Ian, 19 Feb 2007
I would like enhancements to make better use of the width of the display screen.
  • Additional CO2N Initial file display mode
    Name, Size, Date
  • Better use of Column space
    I am continually frustrated, that I cannot see all of a file name when there are at least 3 spaces between +extension and size. 
    e.g. Random2K_Stuffed.v2i   1,143,079K.a.. 2006-05-27 16:01:53

    The new ))Shift-F8(( to set the display of Statistics to Current steals 2 of these spaces (plus time) for the additional columns.
    I would quite happily give these 2 spaces up in favour of file name, in Split mode at least, if not Normal.
    I have no files larger than 10GB, and I suspect few others do either. For these a display like 11,143M would be adequate.
added by Ben Kent, July 21, 2007
Alt-File display redesign proposal see http://www.ztw3.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=58373(external link)

17. Empower Numeric Keypad Arrow Keys Too


added by Tom Foote, 19 Feb 2007
To resize width of filename column, the currently hidden command, Shift Right or Left, only works on my keyboard, with the dedicated arrow keys only. Because I am used to navigating with the arrow keys on my numeric keypad, it would sure be nice if those worked also--and, indeed, for any other ZTree situation for which, currently, only the dedicated arrow keys work. (Curiously, to resize ZTree's Tree/File Window Display separator, both the dedicated, and, the keypad, arrow keys work.)

(The following was added by Tom Foote, 2007-03-07 12-16-06 PM)

Kim Henkel reminds me of the problem with the above wish about arrow keys:
You are overlooking the fact that Shift-Numpad keys already have a function in the FW.

"Shift-Numpad-# ~ Where # is 1 to 9, use this with NumLock off to move the highlight to the 10% to 90% point in the file list."

With Numlock on, holding the Shift key cancels the shift state, so you end up with normal navigation keys.

(Thank you, Kim.)

18. Un-hide More of The Currently Hidden Commands

added by Tom Foote, 19 Feb 2007
Un-hide more of the currently hidden commands (e.g., "Resize Width of Filename Column," "Turn On File Stats with F8 Split," etc.) The issue of displaying more commands has been discussed on the Forum, with several posts and ideas about where to get the needed screen area; One idea was to allow user expansion vertically of the bottom margin Commands list--just like the user is now able to resize ZTree's Tree/File Window Displays by vertically moving the separator, (That is, to raise or lower ZTree's Tree/File Window Display separator, the user can now hold down Alt, then use the Up or Down arrows on either the Numeric Pad, or the corresponding dedicated arrows.

20. Option to Include Creation Date in Ctrl+Batch output

added by Ian, 8 Mar 2007

21. Option to Sort by Creation Date

added by Ian, 8 Mar 2007
This facility would be handy to track down which applications created the files.
If Directory Sorting is implemented Sort by Creation Date should also be included.


23. Hotkey to swaP viewer Search strings

added by bill23, April 12, 2007
Hotkey (P) to instantly toggle / swap between two Search strings, so the highlighted string alternates in the file viewer. The space bar returns the search to the primary search string, if necessary, as it continues the search.

added by Hartmut, Aug 17, 2007
I strongly wish this function. It would make the Viewer's unique string highlighting feature even
more powerful.
Since P is occupied for 'Previous file' in (Ctrl-)View-tagged-files mode, I'd suggest to use Ctrl-S, which is borrowed from Ctrl-F 'Toggle Filespec'.
Ctrl-S is currently occupied, but can be changed IMO: it performs a 'Search forward from current location' within View or Ctrl-View. Since this is the same as 'S', it is changeable.

added by Bill23, Feb 19, 2008
Please see alternate sugggestion #69, below.... named:
"Please add provision for Search Highlight Bars of two colors, for primary and secondary search strings"

28. Tab Completion when typing in directory or filenames manually

added by dlegate, May 14, 2007
Just as in Linux or DOS, we can begin typing something like "C:\Docu[tab]" and it will fill in "ments and Settings" for us. Would be nice to get that functionality in Ztree.

31. Change Folder\File Ownership and Permissions

Sometimes I can't access a file on My PC. I then need to take a crash course on XP Ownership\Permissions which has such an obtuse GUI I hate it.
Especially when compared to chmod/chown simplicity. I have written a Zam for it, but I don't trust it. Please Kim, solve this for us.
"added by johnrw, Jun 2, 2007"

32. Search for NTFS Streams

All files have an unnamed stream.
This unnamed stream's attributes are what you see with the MS Explorer.
MS Explorer is incapable of displaying any the file's streams.
A file can have a 100 megabyte stream and you won't even know it.

I would like Ztree to set a Filespec to only scan for files that have streams.
It would have to be a special filespec option. I would start off using *.*:*
The commandline option /API rejects this outright, regulary a period is appended to form *.*:*.
Saving them to an ordinary file, would be nice too.

To create a stream:
Enter: dir > my_stream.txt:a
Enter: dir /w > my_stream.txt:b
Since my_stream.txt does not exist, a zero byte file will be created.

To view a stream:
Enter: more < my_stream.txt:a (OR b)

MS Explorer: Is incapable of displaying any of the file's streams(my_stream.txt:a OR my_stream.txt:b)
Explorer only shows our my_stream.txt file's size as 0 bytes

I would have thrown these 2 in the forum, but I cannot get a posting code. I've filled the request out nothing comes back.
added by johnrw, Jun 2, 2007

33. Support Archive destination on Other pane in Split mode

added by Hartmut, Jun 4, 2007
Very often I want to create an archive of tagged or single file/s in the Other Pane of a split window.
ZEP: if in Split mode, extend ZTree's Archive TAB cycle by filling the destination entry line by this:
- other pane's path
- current file on same pane (or similar, e.g. path only if Ctrl-F5)

34. ZTSet enhancement

added by johnrw, Jun 5, 2007
I would like for ZTSet to check if the variable is set already in the environment, and skip setting if it already exists.
Even if I reassign a var with an explicit set statement, ZTSet overrides this. Maybe it could be called ZTIFUnset.

35. Conditional Logic In F12 Macros

added by dlegate, Jun 7, 2007
Would love to see logic such that If %VolumeName% == "ThisDrive", then do this, else do that.
Or If %FileExists(ThisPathAndFile)% then do this, else do that.
Or If %VolumeName% CONTAINS "TextToMatch", then do this, else do that.

37. AND/OR/NOT logic for Ctrl-S (multi-file) or F9 (single file) Searching w/grouping and quoting

added by dlegate, Jun 9, 2007
Ability to search files for multiple strings in one search command. i.e. ("Kim " OR Henkel) and ZTree

38. Add option to overwrite/append when printing to file

added by Neil Clough, June 27 2007
At the moment, ZTree appends to the file. I would even like the default to be overwrite.

39. Add shortcut keys for F9 menu items (and macros)

added by Martijn Coppoolse, July 15 2007
At the moment, the only way (reliable) to quickly access a menu item is to write a macro that opens up the F9 menu, folds it up, and then proceeds to unfold the relevant branches, and select the wished-for item by way of the first letter or ordinal position. The macro can then be assigned a quick key in the F12 history list. This is all rather laborious, and also error-prone (e.g. when new menu-items are inserted, or a description changed).
See also post #91891 on the forum archive(external link) for suggestions on implementation.

edit by Ben Kent Aug, 14 2007
A possible addition to this is for menu items to have ID's that are set by a directive, then you could jump to the item with that ID, also there could be jump to ID and execute ID directives.

41. History for #ZTSet menu items

added by Ben Kent, July 21, 2007

When using menu items that prompt for strings, I find it inconsistent that there is no history feature, which causes the data to be entered every time even if it is the same as a previous run.

I propose that History lists be added to the #ZTSet prompt, so that old data can be recalled. The best way I can think of is to have a seperate history list for each variable name, that way the data can be shared between menu items by using the same variable name.

The data could be stored in the history file like this

mv=VariableName=Value

The #ZTSetQ directive cannot have a history as it would defeat the point of it obscuring the entered text.

42. Searching menu items

added by Ben Kent, July 21, 2007
A means to search the current menu file for text, giving a menu of menu paths to jump to Needs to handle multiple pages of results, I have large menu files and have a search function would make getting to an item of interest quicker.
A toggle to restrict the search to the current tree might be helpful
I currently use a script to do this, but it can only list the matching items and not jump to them.


46. Stats to include the number of directories logged

added by Ben Kent, Aug 14, 2007

Other than the ordinal display and that requires that the all the directories are expanded (F5/F6) there is nowhere that I could find in ZTree that lets you know how many directories are logged, I looked in Statistics Panel, the ? command and Print, Catalog.

48. Renaming Files & Directories/Folders: Still More Options?

added by Tom Foote, Aug 21, 2007

While ZTree offers a wealth of powerful renaming options, other programs (e.g., FlexibleRenamer) offer additional options (e.g., Regular-Expressions, and batch recursive renaming of Files and Folders/Directories--with batch preview and undo). Please see this link for ideas and possible prioritization of additional rename features:
http://footeworks.us/comptips.htm#Rename_Files(external link)

49. Request "Alt-." be available for current path (".")

"added by R.O., Aug 22, 2007"

I usually do not want a path added to the history, so I use "." most of the time.
Please allow the very intuitive "Alt-." to be used as a shortcut for the path "." - either by allowing its assignment in the history or by hard coding that as an option without being in the history.

53. Search and Replace text in current file and tagged files.

added by Michael Kahn, Sep 14, 2007

The source code to sr.exe [(S)tring (R)eplace v2.1c, Copywrite 1996] has been donated to Kim by its author Paul D. Polena, a long time XTree and ZTree user. I wish that its functionality be integrated into ZTreeWin. Below is a copy of the description from the embedded help of this command-line utility:

"Sr reads the input file(s), searches for the target string and replaces it with the specified string. The strings may include embedded blanks if delimited by double quotes. Hex values may also be used. The file specification may include "wildcard" characters such as "*" and "?". Multiple filespecs may be entered. The screen report of SR's results may be redirected (>) to a file. String Replace uses temporary files for a measure of safety. After successful completion of string replacement for a given file, the original input file is deleted and the temporary file containing the string replacements is renamed to that of the original input file. For extra safety use the -b option, which creates a backup file. The -n option, will do (n)othing but report what the results will be. A key sequence discontinues processing of the current input file leaving it un-modified...."

sr can be downloaded from http://home.pacbell.net/mikahn/sr_21c.zip(external link)

54. Offer "Partial Copy Split To Second Target" after "Error: Insufficient Disk Space" on Mirror (and other Copy--or Move commands?).

added by Tom Foote Sep 30, 2007--and, edited, Oct 6, 2007
I attempted to do a ZTree Mirror of a directory and subdirectories that I knew would not completely fit on my target. My intent was to only copy that much of the source that would fit on the first targetthen, copy the rest on a second (and perhaps, additional) target(s). But the above error stopped me in my tracks with no alternative but to abort the entire Mirror operation. It sure would be nice if a second option were offered, e.g., something like "Continue Copy With Split to Second And Additional Targets"like second (and, additional) targets are now with ZTree's other copy commands. No? See Forum discussion thread about this starting here: http://www.ztw3.com/archive/024/archive.cgi?read=93744external(external link)

57. Small file window size setting

added by Donald70 Nov 3, 2007
It would be useful to preset "small file window" size (with Alt-F10 configuration tool).
When ztree is maximized, I always reduce small window size with Alt-arrow since I want to see a bigger portion of the tree and I don't need a bigger preview of file names in the current directory.
Now it seems that "small file window" is resized according to Ztree size, in percentage. I suggest to give the choice to set that percentage and also a fixed row size in configuration and/or as a command line option.

58. Lucida Console font friendly setting

added by Donald70 Nov 3, 2007
Some not easy font installation is needed to achieve the best Ztree viewing experience but it's now always possibile to install font and dig the registry on someone else's computer (servers, friends, collegues... if you use ztree on a usb key as a file system swiss-army knife) just to tune-up your console-mode-weird-looking favourite tool.
Lucida Console is available everywhere and a good choice for Ztree, except for tag char and arrows. So I propose to give the choice to change those chars with something else or enable a command line switch in order to use more compatible chars, maybe < > v and "carat" (cannot type it, in this wiki has a special meaning and I don't know how escape it) to be used for arrows and * or + for tagging) or make something specific for lucida console (if you inspect Lucida Console font characters with Character Map Windows tool, you will find all the special charcters used by Ztree, just with another code, at the bottom of the table)

edit by Ben Kent 29 Jul 2008
Implemented v2.0.60, because ZTree is now unicode probably, but there as Asian characters that are not in Lucida Console, need to find a font that has the complete unicode character set and is Console capable (see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q247815)(external link)

59. CTRL+S QuickToggle in internal Viewer

added by Hartmut Dec 17, 2007
Quite often I use the internal Viewer to show all occurings of a string. This feature is missing on most of the other viewers and editors I know.
Even more handy were the possibilitiy to toggle between the two most recent strings in Viewer History, just like the well-known CTRL+F to toggle between the most recent Filespecs.
I would find it handy to have the shortcut Ctrl+S for this function. Note that Ctrl+S is still free in internal viewer. (in DW and FWs it's defined already).

60. For sorting files, allow users to specify a precise column range

added by Tom Foote Dec 21, 2007

For sorting files, allow users to specify a precise column range (or ranges, e.g., 6-10, 14-16) to sort on, within the file name.

This excerpt from ZTree's F1 Help, suggests that no such option exists. No?
 Alt-Sort       - Choose one of the following sort commands to sort the file
                  list.  Press the highlighted letter of the command to sort
                  immediately (the Enter key is not required).  The files
                  will not be re-sorted if no changes have been made in the
                  current File Window.  (Press Enter to force a re-sort even
                  if no such changes have been made).  The current sort order
                  is shown in parenthesis on the left of the middle menu line.
                  Press F12 to reset sort options to default settings.
                  (All other data being equal, drive and path are used as the
                  final sort level in the Branch, Showall and Global File
                  Windows).
                    Name     - File name (then extension).
                    Ext      - File extension (then name).
                    Date     - File last-write date (then time, name, ext).
                    Time     - File last-write time (then date, name, ext).
                    Length   - File name+ext length (then name, extension).
                    Alpha    - Leading alphanumeric characters, ignoring
                               leading punctuation and special characters.
                    nuMber   - Numeric digits (regardless of length) which
                               start in same character positions of filename.
                    Size     - File size (then name, extension).
                    Unsorted - Sequence as written in the disk directory,
                               regardless of any sort options (below).
                    Value    - Numeric digits (regardless of length) ignoring
                               all non-numerics at the start of filename. . .


61. Regular Expression Searching, Filtering and Renaming

added by John Gruener Dec 24, 2007

Add Regular Expressions capability to ZTree not only for Rename (as described in #48) but also for searching, filtering and any other purpose where they may be useful on an input line.

For a full description see Jeff Roberson's article:
http://www.jmrware.com/articles/2007/ZTreeRegularExpressions.html(external link)
and subsequent forum discussion:
http://www.ztw3.com/archive/024/archive.cgi?read=95790(external link)

62. Automatic logging option for Make, Prune, (and other similar commands, if any?) rather than just "Error: Directory not logged."

added by Tom Foote Jan 6, 2008

See Forum discussion:
http://www.ztw3.com/archive/024/archive.cgi?read=95901external(external link)

Wherein, at one point, you'll see this--and, more:

> IMO auto-logging is the second major factor in explorer's sluggishness,
> next to the icon display. I would certainly _not_ want ZTree to follow
> such bad example.

> Just my 2c,
> Liviu

------

Liviu,

But why not at least give the ZTree user the freedom to make decisions over performance issues?; e.g., a check-off option to set auto-logging on--especially in the "Make Directory"-like cases when ZTree is going to check, then tell you to log the directory manually, anyway? Or, a check-off option to set live refresh on when files are going to be automatically downloaded or written to a given directory?

I have this auto-refresh in PowerDesk, Firehand Ember (and surely other programs), and I like it very much.

Best,

Tom

64. Alt-Log Levels 1-9 Range ability

added by Dan LeGate Jan 19, 2008

Alt-Log (1-9) levels. Can we make it so it will log a RANGE of levels. For example, say I don't want levels 1-2 because I know they have a bunch of junk files in them, but I do want to log levels 3-5.

(I see now that this would be difficult since Ztree can't know what the deeper level subdirectories are without logging the higher level ones first. You would have to first log the parent directories and then release their files from view after the operation is over, which defeats the purpose for me, which was to speed up the logging process by skipping parent directories that contain a ton of files)

65. After a launch of the renaming of tagged files, please report back the results. Also allow updating of dates and times.

added by Tom Foote Jan 19, 2008

After a launch of the renaming of tagged files, please report back the results--e.g., number of files, words, and characters changed (or offer such reporting as an option).

Also, please provide the option, for all changed filenames, to update their dates and times to today's date and time.

67. In Alt-F5 mode (viewing archive) also show the compressed size of archived files.

added by Dan LeGate, Feb 1, 2008
Would like to be able to see the compressed size of files, and — the real reason I want this functionality — in the statistics window, show a total of the compressed size of tagged files.

68: Active Autoview

edited by Bill23, Apr 24, 2008

To provide the important View Commands menu, while using F7 Autoview — without forever holding the Shift key down — please add an Alt-A command switch to the Autoview Commands menu — where Alt-A is a 'Shift key on/off toggle'.




Keystroke combination Alt-A is definitely preferred — otherwise, one preferred option is, Ctrl-".


The following is preserved for historical reference:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Need on-off toggle Key (F2) to "hold down" Shift Key:
added by Bill23, Feb 19, 2008
edited by Bill23, Mar 5, 2008
edited by John Gruener, Mar 6, 2008

A Shift key toggle is needed when using Autoview (F7) for extended durations (e.g., 10 - 60 minutes), where the Shift key must be CONTINUOUSLY held down while entering keystrokes for scrolling, page up/down/end/home, search, gather, etc. — and where forgetting to hold down the Shift key continuously can cause a disruptive "loss of place". (For example, try Autoview + page-down and page-up, first with — and then without — holding down the Shift key.)

"Escape" used to exit Autoview will reset the Shift key to default (off) if/when that is necessary.

An alternative method using Shift-F7 has been suggested in a ZEP posted here:
http://www.ztw3.com/archive/024/archive.cgi?read=97536(external link)

69. Dual-Search with Highlights of two different colors for primary & secondary search strings:

added by Bill23, Feb 19, 2008
edited by Bill23, Mar 5, 2008

Suggestion: When beginning to search a viewed file, just before entering the Search string, immediately selecting F6 (for example) will prompt for the primary string entry, and then Enter prompts for the secondary string entry, and a final Enter begins the dual search.

During the search, hitting the Space-bar will initially seek only the "primary" search string (primary highlight color), jumping to its next occurrence.

Then, using F2 (for example) toggles the "active" search string to (or from) the alternate-colored-highlight search string.

Primary and secondary search-string highlight colors will be selected in F10/F4 Configuration, using either the currently-available (default) secondary highlight color — or perhaps by means of dual customizable highlight colors (this option is not currently available).

71. Working with Multiple Zip Files All At Once

added by Dan LeGate, March 6, 2008

I would love to see the ability to extract certain files out of multiple zip files all at once.

Scenario: I have multiple zipped log files (each zip file contains multiple files inside) among which I'd like to extract maybe three of those files (out of each zip file) all at once.

Let's say I have zippedlogs1.zip, zippedlogs2.zip and zippedlogs3.zip (and so on up to many more), and inside those files there is an access_log, email.log and an error_log log file (among many other zipped logs as well).

I'd love for Ztree to be able to look inside all those zippedlogs*.* files as if it were a Branch of subdirectories (simulate one subdirectory for each zip in the current directory), and able to tag all the access_log, email.log and an error_log log files in each zip file and extract them all at once. Too far-fetched? Maybe... but I'd love to see it nonetheless. :-)

72. In F8 Split mode, while in Alt-F5 (open archive) mode, allow Tab to other side of split

added by Dan LeGate, June 4, 2008

While I have an archive file open in one side of an F8 Split window, I would love to be able to hit TAB to get to the other side and compare files against the files in the archive, or even open another archive on the other side of the split and visually compare the contents of both of those archives.

74. Provide more complete support for wildcards in ZLS files

added by Jürgen Hestermann, July 21, 2008

In the (very short) documentation in the ZLIST file it says that wildcards as * and ? are supported. But L=X:\data\*\Notes\Data does not work. So it seems that they are not 'fully' supported. But that's something I would like very much.

76. Drive Letter Colorization

added by Ryan, July 22, 2008

Image

See also, Wish 10 above, on "More colorization."
--Tom Foote, July 25, 2008

77. Removal of file size limitation in the file viewer

added by Marcel, July 26, 2008

Lift the current file size limit in the file viewer/editor and allow viewing files larger than 4GB.
This could be using file mapping regions.

78. Add support for Shift-F3 in ZLS

added by Ben Kent, July 29, 2008

I often need to do a Shift-F3 refresh on a number of directories, if Ctrl-Zlist supported it I could automate it.
Also a command to escape to the Directory window would allow ZLS files to be written that need to Release directories but might be run from a file window.

80. Add to batch file Rename command, ability to specify "Filename" or "Extension" lengths directly with "Length" then "Cut, Pad, or Both" from "Right, or Left" options.

added by Tom Foote, Sunday, November 16, 2008

(Inspired by feature in Metamorphose renaming program that Laurent recently shared on the Forum.)

"Filename" or "Extension" option specifies the target string whose length you want to increase or decrease.
"Length" specifies the desired final length of that entity (e.g., change length to 64 characters)
"Cut, Pad, or Both" mean:
"Cut" Only if current length exceeds desired length, cut to desired length.
"Pad" Only if current length is shorter than desired length, pad to desired length.
"Both" Cut or Pad depending on the length of the existing file.
From "Right, or Left" means start cutting, or padding, from the far right, or left end of the specified target string.

81. For users of wide-screen monitors, provide a settings option to fill the 30-40% blank ZTree commands space with more commands--e.g., selected "Hidden Commands?"

added by Tom Foote, Thursday, February 19, 2009

For users of wide-screen monitors, please consider providing a settings option to fill the 30-40% blank ZTree commands space with more commands--e.g., selected "Hidden Commands?"

See the the 30-40% blank ZTree commands space here:

Image

And please see my Wish List #18 about un-hiding more of the currently hidden commands, here:

http://www.ztwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Wishlist#18_Un_hide_More_of_The_Currently_Hidden_Commands(external link)

Tom, this is plainly a variation of #18. If you want to add more detail (eg a small screen-shot, why not just integrate with #18? It would make no sense to consider or discuss these two proposals separately.

82. Ctrl-F7 Mega view to read graphic size and colour depth info

added by Ben Kent, Thursday, March 26, 2009
EXIF info could be displayed as well for file formats that support it.

83. Four (not three) extension characters

added by Piotr Fusik, Friday, March 27, 2009

Four-letter extensions are now common, e.g. html, java, docx, aspx. Only one filename display mode shows them, the other three modes display just two characters. I think all modes should display four extension characters.

Ben Kent Edit Use Shift-Left to increase the extension size.

Piotr Fusik Edit It's great, thanks!

84. Release USB drive

added by Piotr Fusik, Friday, March 27, 2009

A command to unmount an USB drive so it can be safely unplugged.

Ben Kent Edit the following F9 application menu will do it
:: Requires: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html(external link)
USBDeview.exe /stop_by_drive %2:

but I do agree that if Alt-Release had a F? toggle to unmount as well as release, it would be usefull.

85. F8 Split doesn't work in archive mode

added by Piotr Fusik, Friday, March 27, 2009

It's often useful to browse the disk while browsing the archive. However a second pane cannot be enabled while in archive mode.


86. Scrollbars appear in maximized window after unlocking Windows

added by Piotr Fusik, Friday, March 27, 2009

How to reproduce under Windows XP:
  • Alt+F7 - maximize ZTree
  • Win+L - lock the computer
  • Ctrl+Alt+Del - unlock
  • the ZTree window has scrollbars

Ben Kent Edit Run ZTree with CO-2A=MAX:-2 and CO-2B=MAX:-1, or the equivalent command line /MAX=-1:-2, and it will behave see FAQ.TXT Q2.


87. F toggle to control which datestamps are copied

added by Ben Kent, April 14, 2009
see http://www.ztw3.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=75272(external link)

88. Add Viewer Hit Counts

added by John Gruener July 18, 2009

http://www.ztw3.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=107049(external link)

It would often be quite useful to know how many viewer search hits are found, as well as the current hit position.

I propose displaying these counts in the viewer border (hit#/total#) like the ordinal counts in the FW and DW.

Currently the line number in Line mode is in the upper border, but it would be more consistent with the FW/DW to place this in the lower border, and include the total-lines number as well (line#/total#). The conflict with using the lower border is the double line relative position and size indicator. But I think this could easily be recalculated to occupy only the remaining border line when in the Line mode.

Then place the new hit counts in the upper border.

89. New Default Path Mode Option

added by John Gruener July 18, 2009

http://www.ztw3.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=107050(external link)

I propose a new smarter CO-5X option that would default the path mode to the option most likely desired by the user. It would work as follows:

- If the current source directory name (not the entire path) matches the target directory name, default to "Relative".

- If the target directory is the root of the drive, default to "Full".

- If neither of the above conditions is true, default to "Current".

Of course that just chooses the default. The user will still be able to change the choice with P, F, C or R.

The option could be called something like "Depends on directories", with an explanation in Help of what that means.

If CO-5Y is "Yes" it should still override this default after an Alt-Compare.

90. Add Disk Volume Variable to Rename Mask

added by Dan LeGate July 18, 2009

I'm often copying files from two "load balanced" servers to a single directory in another location, but before I do I manually prepend the server names.

I'd love a way to include the "Volume" of the drive the file is on, that would save me a lot of time.

Something along the lines of:

Copy (or rename/move) file/s as: <$volume$_>*.*

And it would prepend the disk volume of the source files so that matching files from different disks could be unique in a single destination directory.

Yes, I know I can do this with some amazing script work (Thanks Michael & John!), but I would think it would be a simple thing (ha! all changes are 'simple' to end users, right?) to add since the variable does exist.

91. Total line count of all tagged files

added by Dan LeGate July 18, 2009

I'm often coding projects with many files in many directories, and am often asked "how many lines of code have you written here?". It would be SO nice to be able to tag the files and have Ztree count the line numbers of all tagged files. Yes, I'm sure binary files would throw a wrench into the works. I'd be happy if Ztree auto-skippped binaries that I may have mistakenly left tagged before running the command. I only need counts of text files.

Even nicer would be for it to show the counts in each individual file like in an Alt-K type of display but in the file window. But that's an "extra" for sure. Again, I can probably accomplish this using Ctrl-Batch and other utilities, but there's nothing like a built-in Ztree feature. :-)

92. Replicate Parent Directory Attributes when using Alt-Mirror Full Path

added by John Gruener August 17, 2009

http://www.ztw3.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=107324(external link)

93. Enhancement to Compare Filter

added by Ian, 2009-08-26
A useful addition to the Compare Filter (Alt-F4) would be a check for identical inode values on NTFS.
This would detect identical hardlinks or files which appear under Junctions.

The Content Compare Filter identifies files with identical content, but does not distinguish between genuine duplicates and duplicate filesystem entries. It is easy to test if files are hardlinks (using Alt-I), but not so easy to detect if they are under junctions.

Strictly MicroSoft does not use inodes, but the nFileIndexHigh, nFileIndexLow in BY_HANDLE_FILE_INFORMATION perform a similar function.

You would not want to access these values for all logged files, but the overhead is much less than comparing content, and only needed for files with identical size.

94. Option to Compare by Hash

added by gblentz September 24, 2009

Although ZTreeWin's Binary Compare option provides the highest degree of accuracy possible in detecting potential file differences, it can also be painfully slow, especially when comparing very large files where the directories or branches reside on the same physical hard drive. Much time is wasted, primarily due to drive seek and latency, since one segment of each file pair must be read in turn and compared in parallel with the other, then the next segment, and so on and so on. This inefficiency can be further exacerbated by a severely-fragmented hard drive. The drive essentially thrashes during the entire operation (which is also stressful on the mechanism itself).

A Hash Compare would get around these issues, while still providing a very high level of confidence. It would significantly improve on efficiency over Binary Compare because files are generally stored on disc sequentially, if not contiguously. Thus, File1 could be read in its entirety with a minimum of seek/latency cycles and a hash generated for it, then likewise for File2, after which the checksums are compared.

An arguable downside of this is that, unlike Binary Compare where the operation fails and exits immediately upon the first mismatch, Hash Compare would necessarily continue on to the ends of the files, even if the very first bytes were mismatched. But Hash Compare would likely be most effectively utilized in performing quick verification of back-up file copies, where the expectation is that the files do match, and that the only reason for a mismatch is due to corruption.

Still, a possible remedy would be to use a semi-hybrid approach, where a small random sample of blocks of a large file are Binary compared first. This could help catch "obvious" differences, eliminating the need for further processing of the file pair by hashing. Another would be to break a large file into a small number of segments and Hash Compare each segment before proceeding. Though this approach would reintroduce some of the seek/latency that we are trying to eliminate, it would be trivial compared to the overwhelming number that can be incurred using Binary Compare.

EDIT:

I did a couple of quick tests to compare performance between Binary Compare and MD5. Here are the results:

Size
Binary
MD5
Increase
Test 1
409.6MB
4:31.0
0:16.8
16.1x
Test 2
162.1MB
1:43.5
0:07.0
14.8x


95. Option display only subdirectories in FW and BSGW

added by Steve Rawling 23rd January 2010

Create a DW command that displays next level subdirectories of the highlighted directory in the FW and/or SFW.

Then the list could be sorted or filtered as a file is currently filtered, then by highlighting a directory in this special FW a command could be made that causes ZTW to jump to that directory in the DW and the FW goes back to displaying files.

Similarly in branch mode, could a command be made that displays only logged subdirectories of the selected branch. Again the list could be sorted and filtered as files normally are sorted/filtered and the highlight on any directory in the branch view, a single command , like \ would send ztw back to DW at that directory with the SFW or FW behaving as normal again.


96. F9 menu item name token

added by Ben Kent June 02, 2010

I have a few menu items which are the same apart from a one string, which happens to be the title of the menu item.

Having a token that is set to the title of the menu item would mean I could do things like this

1.
start explorer /e,/root,%#ZTMenuItemName%

2.
cd /d "NaV"
iniwrite32 -f "%USERPROFILE%\Citrix\Management Console\ima.ini" -s "Farms" -k "MostRecentLogon" -v "%#ZTMenuItemName%"
start "" /d"%ProgramFiles%\Citrix\Administration" "ctxload.exe"

See http://www.ztw3.com/forum/forum_entry.php?id=109503(external link)


New users should consider asking questions in the ZTreeWin Forum(external link). Some of the wishes above are already possible, or it is possible to achieve the desired result in a different way.




Contributors to this page: admin , vor0nwe , Stephen.Rawling , Ryan , rasa , R.O. , pshute , pseakins , phil , neil.f.clough , Michael_Kahn , Marcel , laurent , khenkel , johnrw , JohnG , ian , Hartmut , gblentz , ftwrks , Donald70 , dlegate , Brett_McGill , BobSelby , bill23 , BenKent and 0xF .
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