Double click for resizing column

[yuyuki]

Hi,

First, hello every body.

Thank for this program, I use it every day.

I've a suggestion. Currently I use Total Commander 8.0.14 ß.

It would be great if we can adjust column's width to data when we double-click on header separator as in explorer in detail view.

Thank you,

[ghisler(Author)]

I have indeed considered this, but it was causing problems with content plugins - it can take a long time to get all fields in large directories. Currently they are only loaded when shown.

[sqa_wizard]

Well, what about taking just the shown entries in account?
This will be very fast, and I can quickly redo it if I find a not fitting entry later down the list.

[Hacker]

Well, what about taking just the shown entries in account?
This will be very fast, and I can quickly redo it if I find a not fitting entry later down the list.

Big support++.

Roman

[ghisler(Author)]

Sorry, that would be unexpected, all other programs which support this function take all items into account.

[yuyuki]

I think you can simply add this feature as option as others that slow the process.

I think at "Show icon to the left"->"All associated + exe/LNK (slow)".

Regards

[Phred]

It seems that 'Everything' catalogues all a disk's files exceptionally quickly - by reading the MFT, I understand.
Is/can TC doing/do it too?

[Metallator]

I found this thread searching for a request to autosize the columns, which would be even better. But a double click would already be a huge improvement. I work a lot on different (remote) computers with different screen sizes and therefore I run into this a lot.

I agree, autosizing columns would save a lot of 'fiddling' with the view. For me, but also new persons I introduce Total Commander to. They're already having a little trouble taking the leap from Explorer to TC and with detailed information being overlapped, it is not helping.

[Balderstrom]

Why not add a checkbox to the custom column entries:
[x] Allow Auto Resize
Add a command cm_ColumnsAutoSize

Optionally:
Add an ini-config to indicate whether the current normal displays should be excluded (allow by default) be auto-sized when the cm_ColumnsAutoSize is used.

The current situation is not so great, especially when you place something like Full path on a column, or even the last column. To get that to fit properly (frequently) you need to drag the divider outside of TC's window to make it wider.

It would seem TC does know whether or not there is enough space for the text to display at the given font size for each column, as ".." gets displayed when the space is too small.

[ghisler(Author)]

The problem with auto-size is that TC would have to load the extra fields for ALL files/folders first (as I have already described above). Currently it loads them only on demand (when displayed). The only exception is when you sort by a custom column, then it has to be preloaded. When you do this with a slow field, you can see how much this would slow down the browsing.

[Balderstrom]

It could be made to only resize for what files are currently visible --- or perhaps one additional screens (page-dn) worth - for calculating the widths.

TC would need to remember the current minimum widths for the columns, so that if you haven't changed directories, but have scrolled significantly away (up/down) from where the initial files were that were used for calculating the widths --- that a further double click on a column separator doesn't reduce the width just because the "now" visible files' data takes up less space than the other files did.

Then TC only needs to load one screen's worth of custom columns data (or 2), would not significantly impact the speed (or be noticeable at all) --- and all TC needs to do is store a handful (or more) of minimum column widths for a given folder or a subdir-branch view.

[Phred]

I support Balderstrom's suggestion.
Author Ghisler cites expectedness as a criterion for determining column-size change and associated techniques. I suggest that expectedness is a continuum, and some streamlining of column size setting is better than the essentially primitive method we have always had and have now. IMHO.
A double-click on a local set of files (inc one PgUp, one PgDn) would be extremely useful. (Windows Explorer does the visible.)
This does introduce the tangled web of TC column-width setting, in general. For years I've lived with the mystery of left-referencing right-aligned data columns (e.g. Size, Date) and one-over column predictions.
Setting the size column, for instance, is possible in places only by adjusting the adjacent column and relying on visible overlap. To me it's counter-intuitive in the extreme.
Therefore - 'assisted column-width setting' would have to include a 'stealing' algorithm:- from where does increased column width come? A double-click on the right Extension column separator, for instance - to achieve a three-character width - would destroy any suitable alignment that already obtains on the Size column.

Perhaps we could have the expectedness quotient raised when a decision to implement assisted column-width setting is made.

[Metallator]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to re-open the consideration for this one, although an automatic resize of the column would be even better

Every time I start TC in a folder I have to manually change the size of the columns. That is cumbersome and to new users, to which I show TC, it is weird and confusing. I understand that for folders with large amounts of files/folders, it would get slow, and I am glad that performance is on top of mind of the developer(s?).

However, I reckon it would get noticeably slow when exceeding something like 1000+ items or maybe 2000+ items, depending on your hardware? Usually folders don´t have that many items. One could set a hardcoded limit (on 1k or 2k or ...k) and when the number of items exceed that limit, it would not autoset the column width.

For the 99% other folders, it would be a massive improvement. Hope to hear your reaction soon! Cheers!

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately it's too troublesome with plugins.