Total Commander

When I navigate through directories, I often enter the first chars of the dirname I wanna go to to find it quickly via Quick search.

Problem is: if there are let's say two dirs called:
and I enter "foo", the first one is selected.

I think it would be nice if there was an option to prefer 1st char matches for Quick search, but still finds other list items if no 1st char match was found.

start the search with *

Okay, I'll try to be more precise:

I have Quick search enabled "Letters, with search dialog"

I have both "Exact name match" options disabled (match Beginning, Ending).

This is generelly fine for me, to find anything which contains the entered string.

I just wanna have an option which finds anything which contains the entered string, but FIRST selects items which not only contain the entered string, but _start_ with it. If no such item is found, any other item with the substring is selected.

Hm. Let me think of another example...

I have two dirs
If I enter "dir", I want "dirtwo" selected - because it _starts_ with "dir". With the current behaviour, "adirectory" would have been selected. If I add the letter "e", so that I entered "dire", the selection should go to "adirectory".

If there weren't a dir called "dirtwo", then of course "adirectory" should be selected if I entered just "dir".

I hope you see my point. Tricky to explain somehow

2astralleib
Ok, I guess I got the point. This could be achieved with an AutoHotkey script, it should put a * after finding the first match, or maybe on a hotkey.

Also, you might want to try XCD.

2astralleib
Why don't you just configure TC to use "Exact name match" for "match Beginning".

Then, to follow your example, type dir if you want to find dirtwo and type *dir to find both adirectory and dirtwo.

This way you can toggle "Exact name match for the beginning" without having to go into the configure dialog - just start with a * if you don't want exact match.

Thanks for your suggestions!

2SanskritFritz
I would want it to work on dirs and files, and if I'm not mistaken, XCD is for directories.

AutoHotKey might work, but I'm no master at it - and this could get a little complicated as I fear.


2petermad
I know that it's possible to use a *. But if I used that in my examples, only the first entries would be selected.


What I want is the best of both worlds:
* First, select some file/dir where the first letters match (if there are any)
* If there are no such files/dirs, select those which contain the searchstring on any position (if those exist of course)

These behaviours are a mixture of "Exact name match" - "Beginning..." checked and unchecked.

So, if the "Exact name match" - "Beginning..." is unchecked, I would like it if there'd be another box active which says "First select files/dirs with matching beginning" or something like that.
But maybe that's just me

2petermad
I know that it's possible to use a *. But if I used that in my examples, only the first entries would be selected.

That's not correct - both adirectory and dirtwo will be found - but of course adirectory if found first - and that's what you don't want if I finally understand you correctly?

Yeah, sorry, both are found, but adirectory would be found first, not dirtwo, which is what I'd prefer, yes.

astralleib wrote:Yeah, sorry, both are found, but adirectory would be found first, not dirtwo, which is what I'd prefer, yes.

It's not a very bad idea. Quick locate is a desire.

History in IE7 works like that.
In Vista is a trend.

So, I agree, maybe like a filter, in this format:
- activate Quick search (locate) [Alt-letter, Ctrl-Alt-Letter and so on]
- first all dirs and files are shown
- after first letter and so on is introduced,
>- dirs and files must be filtered in panel - hide others
or
>- dirs and files must be colored distinguish in panel - unhidden others,
and toggle between filtered files/dirs

This option must be available even in normal view and branch view.

I think a files/dirs database, with background updatability, can be a future solution. Saved files I suppose will be in %appdata% directory.

Best wishes,

astralleib wrote:When I navigate through directories, I often enter the first chars of the dirname I wanna go to to find it quickly via Quick search.

Problem is: if there are let's say two dirs called:

Code: Select all

afoobar
foobar

and I enter "foo", the first one is selected.

I think it would be nice if there was an option to prefer 1st char matches for Quick search, but still finds other list items if no 1st char match was found.

Try this line in wincmd.ini :

QuickSearchMatchBeginning=0

Tested in TC7pb4.


Best wishes,

2eugensyl
Hmm, I have tried it, what does this do? I dont see any difference.

SanskritFritz wrote:2eugensyl
Hmm, I have tried it, what does this do? I dont see any difference.

Don't forget to restart TC or ...change ini file outside of TC.
Oh, you know this! Sorry...

So, in this case you can toggle between files witch contain the letters as you type, but not necessary match from first letter of files names.
With those settings shown below

QuickSearchMatchBeginning=0
QuickSearchExactMatch=0


you can quickly search in directory and I think is exactly the subject of this topic.

It's similar with setting

QuickSearchMatchBeginning=1

and search string

*string


but more comfortable.

My test resume only TC7pb4. I don't know behavior of others versions.
Possible necessity to change the old habituation for a while.


Best wishes,

2eugensyl
Ah, I see now. Well it is not exactly the request here, but nice nevertheless.

Thanks for your suggestions again!

2eugensyl
I know about these options, but what I would like to have is not achievable with them.

I try to explain it in pseudocode
So: The matches which start with the quickSearchString are preferred, but if no such matches are available, it looks if it contains such strings, without having to enter a "*".