Select Orphans, Left / Right

[Michael Bulgrien]

A novice user might think that Select Newer Left will always select all the newer files on the left side, not realizing that the Display Filter first has to be set to expose them. My point is why confuse the issue by have two competing ways to do the same thing?

I'm starting a new thread to isolate the "Select Newer [Left/Right]" / "Select Orphans [Left/Right]" discussion from the "Component toolbar" discussion.

The graphics editor I use (Jasc Paint Shop Pro) has a Selections dropdown menu for manipulating selections. I've always considered it to be an exceptionally useful implementation.

Perhaps you are right about the potential for confusion with the "Select" items on the View menu. Perhaps they would be better implemented in their own "Selections" menu??? Just a thought.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Still waiting for Scooters thoughts on a separate drop-down menu to manage selections. I still miss this functionality greatly (being able to select a subset of the visible files from a dropdown menu). I used it quite often in BC2 and BC3 will never feel quite right without it.

[GreenMoose]

Couldn't agree more, today I missed remove the "include obsolete" filter when doing Alt-E, F, Ctrl-L so I accidentally copied all files when I really only wanted to copy newer .

[Michael Bulgrien]

In addition to the lost BC2 Select Newer Left/Right and Select Orphans Left/Right options, here are some more ideas for a BC3 drop-down menu dedicated to Selections:

Select Common Files
Select Common Folders
Expand Selected Folders
Collapse Selected Folders

Of course, to be consistant, the Select All, Select All Files, and Invert Selection would probably need to be grouped into such a selection menu if it were implemented.

[JohnFLand]

I second the motion for having more comprehensive "Select" functionality! Just today, I was comparing a BCSS snapshot of a remote drive to my local drive, and wanted to build a batch file of the orphan file names on the remote drive (so that I could delete them). In order to avoid copying folder names, I had to select ALL file names, then sort them and delete the names from the local drive. A "Select Orphans Right" would have saved several steps.

[Tim]

Wouldn't this have worked:
1) View | Show Right Orphans
2) Select All Files

[JohnFLand]

Thanks, that will work if ONLY orphans are needed (as in the case I described). However, had I needed Right Orphans + Right Newer, it won't work, since left side files will still be selected. A left select/right select would still be very useful.

[Tim]

Then you would use:
1) View | Show Right Newer and Orphans
2) Select All Files
3) Shift + RightArrow

[JohnFLand]

Shift Right-Arrow? That's a new one on me; is it in the Help file?

Yes, your process works fine. I still thank that using View to show what you want on each side, AND then using a "select all left"/"select all right" menu item is more intuitive then remembering key strokes (not that I'm suggesting getting rid of the key strokes). So consider this a feature request, even though my immediate problem is solved. Thanks!

[Michael Bulgrien]

The root of the issue is that some users (like me) prefer to to view more than the current selection. Although you can filter files, select them, manipulate the selection, then change the filter to add other unselected files back into the view, this often is very cumbersome (and introduces opportunity for user error).

Being able to manage selections separately from the file filter toggles was a plus in BC2. Removing the ability in BC3 equates to lost usability in my book.