Can't see file names in MRU dropdowns

[Michael Bulgrien]

When I begin typing a filename in the MRU textbox,
The dropdown isn't wide enough to let me see the filenames to pick from.
Also, there are no pop-up hints on the drop-down entries to compensate.

http://screencast.com/t/fcktCSMw8

[Aaron]

Thanks for the suggestion, Michael. I'll make a tracker entry to look into this.

[Lutz]

Looking into this I noticed two issues:

In 13298 MRU list of right Text Compare is missing (available in 13046).
EDIT 20110214: It's there again.

Michaels screenshot shows a resize grip on the right down corner of the expanded MRU list. In my portable versions 12831, 13046 the MRU list is as wide as the listbox without the grip. In 13298 the MRU list is about a third wider without the grip.

I'm not sure, but haven't those lists been user-resizable anytime in the past?

Greetings Lutz

[Michael Bulgrien]

Good catch on the resize grip. It's never been there before, I don't think. It certainly wasn't there in 13046. Back in the Cirrus days I asked for dropdown fields that sized automatically to the longest text in the line, and sent sample VB code I had written to accomplish the task in a project I had worked on. Team Scooter put it in. I don't mind having a resize grip, but I prefer the auto resizing feature that we've had since beta days.

Or perhaps it has been there, and I've just never triggered it before. I've been working with remote path names up to 16 to 18 levels deep that vary between 150 and 200 characters in length... so perhaps there is simply a limit where BC3 throws up its hands and says "This is too much, I can't take it any more!" then leaves the width of the dropdown as-is with a resize grip in place for the user. My choice would be to expand the field as long as it can go before "giving up". The more the user can see without manual intervention, the better.

[Lutz]

Just catched a similar case:

Using Move to Folder the listbox expands by dropdown to the longest pathname, pasting and editing a path exceeding the listbox width shows a single preview line with the grip.

I got the same in a Folder Compare (grip while editing), maximum path length is 179 characters.
On fullscreen (width 1786 without sidebar) full path is visible, in a window (width 536) the width of the list is double of the listbox but shows only 62 characters. I can navigate through the list using the arrow up/down keys and the listbox shows the trailing characters of the path. I can change between up/down arrows to navigate history and left/right to examine the currently selected path.

Greetings Lutz

[Tim]

There are actually two independant drop-downs in our path edits.

One is the MRU list, a history of files that have been opened on that specific side. The MRU list is at least as wide as the edit (including the dropdown button), and BC sets it wider to accommodate longer file specs. It does not have a resize grip. Off the top of my head, I don't recall if BC uses a popup hint for *really* long specs in the MRU list.

The other drop-down list is Windows' auto-completion feature, with the size grip. It is not an MRU list, but rather a dynamically generated list of files that match what you've typed so far. We don't control the width of the auto-completion list, and I don't know if we can.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Thanks for the explanation, Tim. Yes, you are right, it was the Windows auto-completion drop-down that I was complaining about. Now that I know it has a resize grip, it becomes a non-issue. The MRU dropdown still expands for longer paths, and I now know that I can manually expand the auto-completion dropdown when I need to.

[Lutz]

The MRU dropdown expands to the longest path, but only if the path is shorter then the double width of the listbox. With a resized BC window this can be to short.
Using BC in fullscreen my MRU dropdown cuts after 261 characters.

I suggest to use the full screen width or make it user-resizable or using the same behaviour as the listbox itself (path abbreviation by "..." on upper level folders with a word-wrap tooltip (tested with a 518 character path, but it wraps only on spaces, without spaces the tooltip exceeds the screens right border)).

Another possibility would be to show the hovered path of the MRU dropdown in the listbox as it is if navigating the dropdown with the up/down arrow keys.

Greetings Lutz

[Michael Bulgrien]

I agree. It would be preferable if the MRU drop-down would expand such that the left edge of the BC3 window to the right edge of the dropdown is the width of the visible desktop regardless of how small the resized BC3 window is.

[Aaron]

Updated with these additional recommendations.