Thank you VERY MUCH for Free Commander

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Bearded Kirklander
Posts: 250
Joined: 25.07.2008, 12:54

Thank you VERY MUCH for Free Commander

#1 Post by Bearded Kirklander » 07.11.2008, 00:10

I know that I have posted a wishlist a mile long, but I wanted to express to you how thankful I am that you have made Free Commander available.

I use it very often - every day I'm on the PC - and I have come to rely on and appreciate the features already in the application as of the current beta.

I cannot imagine how I could accomplish some of the things I do in anything close to an efficient manner without the tools Free Commander provides.

Here's just two examples:

I have an older MP3 player that I like to use for my audiobooks. It doesn't support tags - just names and folders in the 8 dot 3 format. So, to get all of my books to play in order, I like them ordered from 01.mp3 to 99.mp3 (usually never more than 30-50 tracks really, but still). I can get that done with a CTRL-A, F2 and ENTER very fast. It saved my preference for two digits and the name as a [C] counter field.

On my "projects" drive, I have a number of folders dealing with audio and audiobooks, specifically. I have 4 key folders, all on that same drive:

Audio Conversions
Audio Recordings
Audiobooks Collections To Archive
Audiobooks Collections To Process

If I am recording one of my books from Cassette Tapes or CD's, I use the Audio Recordings folder. I usually record Cassette Tapes with the Punch-In feature in Sound Forge Audio Studio (the $69 version) and save each side as a unique file (tape01side01, tape01side02, etc.) in the uncompressed WAV format. When I'm all done recording the analog tapes, I edit them to clip off any extra audio I don't need (like "This is Side One of Cassette Two" and the like. Then, I drag and drop the completed list into Bonk Encoder for conversion to MP3 format.

In order to keep track of the collections, where there may be bunches of books in a series that I want to put in order by either publishing date or suggested reading order (Like the Dragon Riders of Pern series), I use the FOLDER TAB feature. It is amazingly helpful. I can have access to all 4 primary folders (2 on each side, or 1 on the left, 3 on the right) and quickly hop back and forth as needed. I also use CTRL-U to swap panes when it makes sense.

I use the different sort orders (sometimes extension, sometimes name), the F5 / F6 keys to do very fast copies or moves (way faster than dragging and dropping, and fewer mistakes).

When backing up the work, I can have a tab open in the right pane for my external hard drive, and one on the left for my local drive. I can do a FOLDER COMPARE to quickly identify books I've processed and not yet backed up and press the F5 key to copy those selected folders to the backup drive.

Sometimes I need to do the more involved SYNCHRONIZE DIRECTORIES function, which is especially helpful when I have been merging or splitting audio files so that they all end up around 60 minutes per file, per audiobook, which works best for my player.

In that case, the folders are still the same, but instead of having 99 tracks, I may have 15, or 20, stuff like that. Or like with Audible downloads, I start out with one or two HUGE files, and split them into manageable chunks of about an hour each.

Without the SYNCHRONIZE DIRECTORIES feature, I have no idea how long it might take me to do some of these back and forth updates.

The feature works great to manage my Internet Explorer Bookmarks as well. I constantly add / remove / categorize bookmarks using folders, and again, Free Commander makes it pretty easy to do.

So, all this to say that I'm grateful that Free Commander is out there and that it's being improved all the time. It's one of the most critical utilities in my arsenal, and I wouldn't want to use a PC without it.

Thanks much Marek. Sincerely. It's a fantastic program.

wkrekik
Posts: 58
Joined: 24.10.2007, 11:14

#2 Post by wkrekik » 07.11.2008, 11:19

Indeed, very useful program

NavyRet
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Joined: 07.11.2008, 18:42

#3 Post by NavyRet » 07.11.2008, 18:48

I'd like to add my thanks.

I recently bought a new computer and, of course, it came preloaded with the useless OS, Vista.

Vista's version of Windoze Explorer is absolutely horrible. That green weenie of a bar across the top is exasperating to say the least. But the coup-de-gras was when I was unable to access a subfolder on one of my drives - no matter ho9w many times I rebooted - I even did a defrag to no avail.

Then, saints be praised, I found this wonderful program and was able to immediately access my folders AND no more green weenie bar.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!! :D :D :) :) :lol: :lol:

matera
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#4 Post by matera » 08.11.2008, 06:42

Long live Free Commander! Death to the Green Weenie Bar!

Some time ago I used a program for a while that tracked my daily usage of all other programs. Guess what one scored highest.

Bearded Kirklander
Posts: 250
Joined: 25.07.2008, 12:54

#5 Post by Bearded Kirklander » 08.11.2008, 08:31

Somebody please post a screen shot of this "Green Weenie Bar" please. I'm not sure exactly to what you are referring.

Thanks :)

matera
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#6 Post by matera » 10.11.2008, 01:53

I believe it is the monstrous replacement of the status bar that is being referred to -- it is huge and silly. Here is a screenshot

Bearded Kirklander
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#7 Post by Bearded Kirklander » 10.11.2008, 02:38

matera wrote:I believe it is the monstrous replacement of the status bar that is being referred to -- it is huge and silly. Here is a screenshot
That TOP greenie bar thing is also very not what I want.

I really, really dislike the redesign of the Interface in Vista.

I wish that when you set the theme to CLASSIC MODE, it should not only change the colors and the buttons and the like, but the layout of the DIALOG as well.

Here is the Windows XP My Computer Dialog, which I like, and below that is the Vista dialog, which I don't.

I absolutely HATE that they disabled the menu by default, and then relocated it to BELOW the address bar.

That is NOT how life is supposed to be, you know? Menu should be on TOP like it is in XP, don't you think?

The ADDRESS BAR should never, ever have been moved to the top, imo.

Image

Image

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JohnFredC
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Location: Sarasota Florida

#8 Post by JohnFredC » 11.11.2008, 01:34

The one thing I do like about Vista's explorer and hope for in FC (or any other file commander product with sufficient nerve) is the functionality behind the column labels. The sorting/grouping/amd filtering options available from a right-click on a Vista Explorer column label are righteous, useful, and in the proper place GUI-wise.
Mouse-centric

Bearded Kirklander
Posts: 250
Joined: 25.07.2008, 12:54

#9 Post by Bearded Kirklander » 11.11.2008, 01:39

JohnFredC wrote:The one thing I do like about Vista's explorer and hope for in FC (or any other file commander product with sufficient nerve) is the functionality behind the column labels. The sorting/grouping/amd filtering options available from a right-click on a Vista Explorer column label are righteous, useful, and in the proper place GUI-wise.
Got a screenie? I'm not quite understanding what it is you are specifically referring to.

I can sort in FC by name, ext, date, etc. and I can apply filters as well.

I guess you must be talking about something a bit different, eh?

BTW, how do you get Vista to show that "3D alt-tab" thing? It's kind of cool to see those Free Commander iterations at an angle in 3D like that. But I can't seem to remember how to get that effect to show again.

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JohnFredC
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#10 Post by JohnFredC » 11.11.2008, 03:59

I'm referring to the functionality described and illustrated here.

It is the one thing in Vista Explorer that no other file manager does quite as effectively for us mouse-centrics.

This functionality could be expanded even further via the similar tools embedded in the Microsoft Access table (and Excel spreadsheet) column headings as described and illustrated here.

I hold the position that file lists in commanders and other file managers are simply tables of data like any other. It's a shame that file manager developers don't seem to understand that basic point when developing the GUIs of their programs. There are many useful approaches to sorting and filtering data available in professional data tools such as Access. Why don't the file manager developers offer the same functionality in their products? Is it because they are secretly, all of them, keyboard-centrics? Admittedly, it is difficult to develop an unambiguous keyboard interface to such tools.

Data is data is data, though, and unfortunately all file managers behave like severely crippled, low functionality data managers.

One can list other examples of data-centric GUI enhancements useful to all of us who manage files.
Mouse-centric

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JohnFredC
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#11 Post by JohnFredC » 11.11.2008, 05:14

Though true, that was a bit strongly stated on my part. No offense intended toward anyone.
Mouse-centric

Sheena3745
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Joined: 21.11.2008, 18:44

#12 Post by Sheena3745 » 21.11.2008, 18:51

Bearded Kirklander wrote:BTW, how do you get Vista to show that "3D alt-tab" thing? It's kind of cool to see those Free Commander iterations at an angle in 3D like that. But I can't seem to remember how to get that effect to show again.
Just use the Windows button instead of Alt. I guess it could be called a "Windows-tab" thing. :wink:

I'm adding my thanks to the bunch. I only discovered FC recently, but the functionality is exactly what a file manager should be on any OS. Kudos!

Rosie

blackcrack
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#13 Post by blackcrack » 06.01.2009, 07:48

me too, thank you very mutch for Free commander

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clanman
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#14 Post by clanman » 07.01.2009, 04:33

FC Rocks
Regards

Clanman
Using FreeCommander XE 2022 Build 860 32-bit public on Windows 11

matera
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#15 Post by matera » 15.01.2009, 04:54

Marek, I owe you. I'll pay up as soon as I get through the next few big bills (heating is heck here).

Last Friday my hard drive suddenly refused to boot, the MBR got damaged somehow. The partition table was all right yet, so I was able to read from and write to it from an operating system on a CD. Using a BartPE Windows CD, I could run FC from the disabled drive. Free Commander's ability to move files easily from one pane to another and to create zip archives made the huge task of organizing files to burn onto backup CDs much easier. (Zipping avoids CD name convention clashes.)

I used a Slax Linux live CD to burn the backups, but without FC to get things together I would either have lost many more days or a lot of data. The backups were absolutely essential, I couldn't fix the MBR, had to wipe everything.

I'm back on line with a newly partitioned drive, fresh Windows install, and the same Free Commander copied from a backup. It was the first thing I wanted for getting my system back in shape. Then Tweakui, AkelPad, and Irfanview -- I know what my priorities are :D

Until the bills are paid, here's a big
(((((((((( HUG ))))))))))

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