Select Orphans in BC3

[RBachman]

In BC 2 I selected orphans by
Menu
Edit
Select Orphans

Then either left or right side
I would then hit the delete key and verify to remove the whole group of obsolete orphans from a compare.

I do not see how to do the equivalent in BC3. In BC2 this was a very efficient way to remove lots of orphans. Is there now a different way to accomplish the same thing in BC3?

Bob

[Michael Bulgrien]

Those menu items were deprecated in BC3. Several users (myself included) have requested their return. I, for one, have many tasks in which I prefer to work with the entire context of my work (namely all the files in a given folder) visible, and use a selection to define the subset of files on which I want to perform an activity. Obviously, I am not alone in this...

So far, the Scooter team has remained adamant in their decision to leave them out. The Beyond Compare user base is being forced into always filtering files rather than having the ease and flexibility of working with selections. In my opinion, this is the #1 area of lost functionality between BC2 and BC3. I began using the BC3 beta two years ago (in 2006) and over the past two years, my opinion in this matter has not changed...nor is it likely to change in the future.

At one point, Tim Thousand intimated that having both Filter and View commands together in the View menu would cause confusion... and the Edit menu would be too cluttered, so I suggested that BC3 introduce a new dropdown menu specifically for selections. (See this thread for more details.) I even suggested that the BC2 selection options could be omitted from the menu in the "factory settings" so long as users that really want the functionality can add them using the Customize Commands dialog... But, alas, my plea seems to have fallen on deaf ears...

Edit: Perhaps I should not have put words in Tim's mouth. If you open the thread I've referenced above, you can read his comments for yourself.

[Erik]

To select all orphans, click on View -> Show Orphans and then Edit -> Select All.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Is there now a different way to accomplish the same thing in BC3?

In answer to your question, Bob, the easiest way to filter orphans in BC3 is to right-click on the toolbar and choose "Customize Commands..." then activate the Toggles preset. You will then see two buttons, one with a blue square on the left, one with a blue square on the right. They represent orphans on the left and the right. Toggle these buttons to filter orphans.

[RBachman]

Michael

Thank you very much for your help. I now understand what you mean by filtering and how this is a different way of doing things than in BC2. It definitely requires me to think more about what I am doing. I must admit I was used to (and happy with) the way BC2 did this task. It will take me a while to make the new approach seamless.

Hopefully this old dog can learn new tricks. In case I cannot I still have BC2 on my machine as well :-)

Bob

[Michael Bulgrien]

BC2 has the same filtering options. It was just nice to have a choice between filtering and selecting.