Current item highlighting in the last active panel

[MVV]

We already have ActiveTitle and InactiveTitle for that purpose

With very bad default colors with aero.

Very true. It is quite unfortunate that we are unable to customize TC's interface elements' colors more.

Just disable that dumb Aero, like me=) my colour theme is the same in all Windows versions, and I don't have any discomfort using XP/Vista/7 with their uncustomizable themes - I just don't use them!

BTW, Windows Explorer also hides cursor (frame rectangle) for inactive windows so if you have no items selected you don't see nothing when window loses focus. But (just checked) Windows 7 Explorer even doesn't restore focus rectangle when you reactivate window.

BTW2, you may activate panel by clicking on its free space (I'm almost always using brief view so such space exists).

It would be great to think out some way to show this inactive cursor that won't go out from TC concepts. IMHO gradients here are superfluous. If you're using inversed cursor, it may be nice to have same but more transparent in target panel, but if you like thin frame rectangle, it is hard to draw inactive cursor that won't confuse you.

Anyway, I don't see a need to show inactive cursor. None of keyboard operations work with inactive focused object (just target panel path is used; the only exception is %M button/usercommand parameter), also none of mouse operations work with it (just drop target is used). Also, if no objects selected in target panel, its statusbar shows name/details for focused one (if LongInStatus option is enabled - I don't think it is good idea to show information about absent selection so it is quite useful).

[Balderstrom]

When TC is not in focus:
1) You can still see the active/inactive panel by the pathbar colors.
2) You can still see file selections in both panels.
3) You CANNOT see either cursor.
And with TwinKey:
You CAN see where the cursor is in both panels.

Whether or not some of you think that is relevant information or not, I can tell you that I use that info all the time - especially when running scripts: I need to know where the cursor is in the Source panel and sometimes the Target panel.

And Explorer does show where the cursor is when the window is not focused.

[MVV]

And Explorer does show where the cursor is when the window is not focused.

Open Explorer window, put focus onto some item, then click on free space or press Ctrl+Space to remove selection (only focus rectangle should remain, not focus rectangle with selection). Then activate another window, and focus rectangle will be hidden.

[Balderstrom]

If you deselect the item, or ctrl-click, then yes you wont see cursor position --- but that is a pseudo-state in explorer, as soon as you move the cursor with a mouse-click or arrow keys an item is selected: which is visible when explorer is not focused.

[billiebub]

when you run applications externally - which most of us do so I wont say everyone just to be politically correct here - TC will lose focus. You sometimes would like to continue from the last file you clicked. What I do usually is click on the path bar which would then show me the last file clicked. The problem with that is its inconvenience. Sometimes, you might miss the path bar and instead click on the first file visible in the panel, other times the path bar gets into a rename state.

[HolgerK]

Strange.
If the external application terminates, here TC gets the focus again automatically and the cursor stays on the last position (tried with drag&drop, double click and <Enter>).
Even if TC would not get the focus, it's a simple click on the TC icon inside the task bar or the windows title/caption bar of TC (although i would prefer Alt+Tab here) to assign the focus again.
No need to click inside the panel list or path bar to assign the focus to TC.
Is it really such a advantage to search the (inactive) cursor and click onto this single line.
It would also be inconvenient if the directory above the inactive cursor would be opened because you missed the cursor line.

But i should shut up, because I said "it's no option for me".

Regards
Holger

[billiebub]

HolgerK, some people might experience different behaviors according to their environment setup. So people with multi monitors might lose focus where people with a single monitor might not. I just tried with my laptop which has Win XP Pro, the focus seems to always come back to TC. On my other computer which has two monitors and runs Win 7 Pro, the focus is always lost. Would anyone with at least two monitors try to see if focus is lost as well?

Is it really such a advantage to search the (inactive) cursor and click onto this single line.

Sure, why not? If you are checking files one by one in an ordered fashion, then this can be handy like for example, checking out camcorder films named in such a way that you can't remember the last one you watched.

But i should shut up, because I said "it's no option for me".

If it's not an option for you, then it should be an option for others.

[HolgerK]

On my other computer which has two monitors and runs Win 7 Pro, the focus is always lost. Would anyone with at least two monitors try to see if focus is lost as well?

I'm using at least for more than 10 years dual screen configurations at work (XP and Windows7, but sorry, can't test in detail at the moment ) and never noticed such focus problems.
Maybe my normal use case is different than yours, but i would suggest you to check your special setup.
If some other program is stealing the focus in your case, it should be easy to find which program has the focus in this case.
So far, your suggestions seems to be due to a very special behavior of your dual screen windows 7 computer setup.

If it's not an option for you, then it should be an option for others.

It may be faster to remove the reason for this behavior, than to wait for an additional option inside TC.
Also if this would be a bug or incompatibility of TC with Windows 7 or dual screen configuration:
Wouldn't it be better to remove the bug/incompatibility in first place than to introduce a new hidden option?

Regards
Holger

[billiebub]

Let's back up a little bit here and try explain the true problem here, this might have confused some people already.

On normal occurrences, focus comes back to TC when external apps exit or finish doing what they're doing. As probably the case with Holger.

This after all may not be a focus issue. The true issue here that I'm trying to get across is not being able to spot the last file selected when an external application has the focus. This can be usually seen with dual screens.

As an example, when I drag and drop movies into an external player, TC loses focus because the external app has it. Now TC does not have the focus and the file selected is unknown unless you activate TC or try to look up the name of playing media on the player (doesn't always work).

I hope this clears the confusion around the lost focus here.

[HolgerK]

I hope this clears the confusion around the lost focus here.

Okay it's not about terminating and not returning focus to TC:

When the external app terminates (i.e, mp3 player), you sometimes would like to continue from the last file you clicked.

And it's no bug of your dual screen configuration; just the wish to save a single click inside the windows title bar:

Is it really such a advantage to search the (inactive) cursor and click onto this single line.
It would also be inconvenient if the directory above the inactive cursor would be opened because you missed the cursor line.

But i should shut up, because I said "it's no option for me".

Now I'm really leaving the discussion

Regards
Holger

[billiebub]

just the wish to save a single click inside the windows title bar

TC does a lot to provide people many tasks not provided by explorer hence lots of people use it. To activate an app just to get a piece of info is not something that TC should be proud of. TC should be self sufficient in every which way whether its active or not.

What makes TC so darn good is its ability to provide options to take into consideration the variety of its user base. You need to remember that not all of TC users are nerds. Nerds can not think for all users and if that was the case, you wont find "business analysts" out there. If nerds are happy with their keyboard shortcuts and proud to treat the mouse as another piece of lame device, then maybe Norton Commander should be an alternative.

No I'm really leaving the discussion

We really need more business oriented minds around here. We can't have old timers think for everyone. Its funny when I hear others call features lame and useless. Don't think for yourself, think for others too. If Ghisler thought the way "some people" think, his user base wouldn't be as high.

[HolgerK]

You wrote in another post: "That's the problem here, people making assumptions for other people."

"Nerds can not think for all users"

And "business analysts" or "mousers" can?

Don't get me wrong, but would it really be better if only "business analysts"/"mousers" would influence where TC has to go?

In the end it's only Christian Ghisler who decides, which feature does it into the next release.

Regards
Holger

[sekular]

I could realy use this feature. I am not sure if it is exactly the same as this, but i think it sounds like it:

A similar feature would be that when a file is opened in an external application, the cursor remains visible even though the window is no longer active. This way i could see what was just opened without having to click the total commander window to see where the cursor was.

At the moment it means i have to make the total commander window active to see the cursor. Some times i click the top of the window and it will de-maximise total commander. Another problem is that you might not know which file was opened and if you click on the file list, it will change the location of the cursor and you could be unsure where you were.

This affects always on top applications (video players, music players etc) and applications on dual screen set ups.

[billiebub]

I just stumbled upon Double Commander which does implement this feature. Please consider this feature TC author. If DC does implement it then there is got to be a reason why this feature request exist???

[chrizoo]

°
support++

I still see no real advantage for this inactive panel cursor.

There is definitely an undeniable and objective advantage to know what the current file in the inactive pane is. For example, in my TC I use F12 to compare the current file in the left pane with the current file in the right pane in an external text diff tool. Without some form of visual marking, you can easily compare the wrong files. You can of course avoid this by expressly selecting one file in the left pane and one file in the right pane and deselecting all files in both panes again after you closed the external app. However this takes much more time and is quite annoying for repeated tasks.

Yes, I know Twinkey can do it but there are a fiew problems with Twinkey. First, it effects TC performance because the whole thing is a hack. Second, the highlighting does not always work. One of the things that makes TC shine is it's performance and as a performance freak, I hated Twinkey from the moment I loaded it.

Why is there a performance penalty? Does Twinkey run as a background process? If not, why would there be any performance penalty??

An additional cursor in the inactive panel can be confusing

(Aside from being optional) the user can choose a very unobtrusive color scheme (i.e. one that almost matches the background color), so that it's not visually distracting, but when you expressly look for it you can still (barely, but without problems) find it.