Synch behavior

[BillB]

I've been using BC3 for two weeks now, and I'm beginning to understand its idiosyncrasies. I've previously been in touch with support via email, and [they] helped me get about halfway to where I'd like to be. I've been able to get rid of that annoying initial screen by creating a default Folder Compare session and saving it, but my joy ends there. For me, the most important thing is doing what I want in the least number of steps. In that regard BC2 shined by comparison. I'd gotten used to BC2's insistence that I confirm every file operation. I thought I might have gotten lucky when I saw BC3's option to turn those confirmations off. Not so! They won't go away no matter how often I uncheck them.

What bothers me a lot more is that 'Select All' button. If I look for newer and orphans on the left, doesn't it stand to reason that I'd like to sync them all to the right? Instead of the intuitive behavior of BC2, I now have to click an item on the left, click Select All, click the Sync to Right icon and then confirm that this was my intention. That's two extra steps! What's more, the Select All button is no more than 1/4" from the Move Up in Folder button. I've misclicked a couple of times, and had to start over. In my view, an Undo option would be worth the time it takes to add, and it would spare users the intrusive safety features. (Didn't Vista's UAC impress this on program designers?)

I'm in complete agreement with other beta users who miss the v2 Sync buttons. Elsewhere in this forum, Tim T. says that they were abandoned because 'they caused confusion.' Maybe they did, but I'd wager anything the new way of doing things will engender a lot more confusion. Reading further in the forum, I found some workarounds involving methods by whch session saving, scheduling and the use of scripts could be employed to minimize user interaction. I rest my case...

[Michael Bulgrien]

Yes, I totally agree, Bill. As cool as it is to know one can do interesting things like this:

After "Select All Files" you can press Shift+RightArrow to limit the selection to only the right side.

Such procedures become quite tedious when it could be prevented by giving UI a few more smarts. Several of us have offered numerous suggestions on how functionality could be improved here. The two main suggestions that come to mind are:

1) When a user does a select all then initiates a copy or move dialog from the context menu on the right side, then default the direction of the copy from right to left instead of from left to right.

This topic was so hot in one thread that the debate went on for three pages.

2) The other suggestion was to create a dedicated Selection drop-down menu as described in this thread.
It doesn't even have to be visible by default...so long as users that want it can configure it.

P.S. Although I mentioned it a couple times, I've never had a response from the Scooter team on this one.

[markf_2748]

For the record, I am in favor of the current BC3 behavior for synch buttons. That is, selecting specific items (in many situations I simply select with the mouse) and then RMB Synchronize > Update Left or Synchronize > Update Right works for me, especially with a customization that puts the update buttons on my toolbar. Maybe the behavior needs to be configurable for those who prefer otherwise.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Hi Mark,

The dispute is not over the synchronize functionality in the context menu. I agree that the current implementation of the synchronize features is well done.

The dispute is over the defaulted direction of a copy or move function when triggered from the context menu on the right-hand side. After a select all, the copy/move functions always default to copy from left to right even if the user triggers it from the right side.