Freeze Columns etc in Detailed View

[JohnFredC]

This is my request for a datagrid (or datasheet, or spreadsheet...) approach to the file panels in Salamander.

Most file managers treat detailed file displays as list boxes. Yes, you usually can sort the rows of files and some file managers allow you limited control over column sequences and visibilities but that's it. In my opinion, the detailed view in any file manager should be understood and implemented as a data grid (not listbox!), a spreadsheet that contains file data. We already interact with the file data in many of the same ways we interact with spreadsheet data in Excel (for instance), so why not design the file manager interface accordingly?

Spreadsheet developers have evolved many interface functions and tools to enable efficient data manipulation in the spreadsheet grid. I wish for the same tools (where appropriate for the file manager metaphor) to be present in the Salamander detailed view.

Some of these would be:

1. Ability to place any column in any position. (I personally would choose the Extension in the first column on the left, Filename with extension in the second column, etc.)

2. Ability to identify columns to "freeze". Freezing selected columns would enable horizontal scrolling of the columns to the right of the frozen columns, making it easier to display many additional columns in the file panel while keeping the most important columns always visible (additional columns are on the way in future versions, right?).

3. "In place" editing of date, time and other data (such as comments, artist, etc) in addition to filename.

4. Ability to select arbitrary blocks of file data for copying to the clipboard.

5. Ability to rename groups of files, change dates & times and other "column values" directly in the grid with an "autofill" function similar to Excel's.

6. Ability to hide arbitrary rows by reducing row heights for selected rows to 0... (this is different from filtering on filenames or other attributes)

7. Ability to change the format of individual cells...

8. Ability to "calculate" a column value based on values in the current row. For instance, a user could design a new column that contained a script or formula to dynamically change the contents.

A simplified example: a column might be defined as: =iif([Extension]="jpg", [Dimensions],Format[FileSize], "MB") ...where the column shows dimensions for jpgs and filesizes in megabytes for everything else.


I recognize that enabling the above functions and making them persist would involve saving metadata into the system environment for later retrieval. My impression is that in the future Windows Vista may provide an API for file metadata that would keep Salamander's developers from having to invent their own methods for storing and accessing it...

Thanks for listening!

[KNUT]

This is my request for a datagrid (or datasheet, or spreadsheet...) approach to the file panels in Salamander.[...]

Nice idea, but this is really (and only!) an "approach"
I think the SS function are good enough for a file manager
Thanks for you idea..

[JohnFredC]

We're used to individual files living in the "vacuum" of their specific locations on our storage media.

In the future (ie. Windows Vista, WinFS, etc.), the physical location of a file and it's logical location in a folder hierarchy will be only two of many categories (some of them also hierachical) of "file" metadata belonging to a "file". Name and location won't be the only identifiers anymore.

The more metadata there are for "files", the more a file manager will need to be a flexible data tool... and that is best done by a spreadsheet or datasheet metaphor.

Might as well start designing for that now. It won't be easy to do and besides, some of Salamander's competition already have a head start.