Drag and Drop onto a folder link

[About:blank]

Hi,

I have a folder that for quick access purposes has a shortcut pointing to another folder (the Archive folder), since the days I used the built-in Windows File Explorer. I've gotten used to quickly move folders to the Archive folder by dragging and dropping them onto the archive folder shortcut.

Although I find TC's dual panel mode very useful, for this particular operation I find dragging and dropping more efficient to me (and a habit I have a difficulty getting away from).

When I tried to drag and drop a folder onto that shortcut from withing TC it didn't work. I cant "drop" a folder onto the shortcut, it displays the "no access" icon.

Any idea if and how I can achieve this?

Thank you

[petermad]

You can make a button in the button bar for the Archive folder - just drag the folder to the button bar.

To copy a file to the Archive folder, just drag the file to the button.

To move a file to the Archive folder, drag the file while holding down both the left and right mouse button - then release the left button first when over the button in the buton bar.

[About:blank]

Great, thank you very much.

[meisl]

If you use a junction (aka "junction point" aka "reparse-point") instead of a .lnk (shortcut) pointing to your folder, then you have it exactly like in Windows Explorer.

To create such a junction:

Code: Select all

mklink /j i-point-to-target E:\archives\theTarget

If you're still on XP you need Mark Russinovich's junction.exe:

Code: Select all

junction i-point-to-target E:\archives\theTarget

Junctions behave like .lnk s in that you can delete them without having the target deleted and also invalidate them by moving or renaming the target.
Note that in the latter case, when you drag files onto it in TC, you'll get a misleading error message "cannot read xyz" rather than sth like "cannot write to junction".

[About:blank]

Thank you.

Not to ignore your suggestion or anything (which is exactly what I've asked for, so thank you for that), but after thinking about petermad's suggestion I was wondering if I could assign a shortcut to the 'Archive' button and then select all the folders that I need, press that keybaord shortcut (or button), and have them all archived like that in one fell swoop.

The only real reason that I still drag and drop is that opening the Archive folder in the second pane (I know, I can add it as favorite folder or just lock it as a tab to facilitate better switching) and then moving the folder(s) is a bit cumbersome. But if I could just select and use a shortcut (or even just the button) it would be even better because I wouldn't mind getting rid of the in-folder links.

However, I don't know how to go about it so I will have to research it.

[meisl]

You can of course select multiple files and drag them all at once, either to petermad's button or a junction.
And you can use - again for both - either left mouse button for copying or both mouse buttons for moving.
You will, however, have to make another click on "OK" in the upcoming dialog (again for both).

petermad's button has two advantages over junctions:

• - it's as easy to create as possible
  
  - it's in the button bar, rather than an "in-folder link" which I did not realize that you don't really want

Btw: in case you didn't know: you can have the folder under cursor shown in the other pane by pressing Ctrl-LeftArrow (if right pane is active) or Ctrl-RightArrow, resp.

If you want to get rid even of the confirmation dialog mentioned above, there's of course a way to make a button and/or keyboard shortcut that'll copy recursively everything selected in the active pane to a certain destination.
It's a bit more involved than just dragging a folder to the button bar, though.

I assume that something like this is what you're really aiming for, but before getting into it let me ask this:

How "fixed" is your target folder?
That is, assuming you've copied a bunch of stuff to, say, E:\archives\archiveA the last time, then, when doing it again, wouldn't you like to have E:\archives\archiveB created automatically and all the stuff in your new selection put there

If that's the case you might also want something more nifty than just "archiveA", "archiveB"; eg including date and time

[About:blank]

Thank you, meisl.

I don't mind in-folder links that much, but if there is something more global, then all the better.

I actually didn't know about these shortcuts, thank you very much for pointing them out; they do make it a lot easier (as with many things in TC, I still have a lot to learn and some habits to change).

My process is as follows: I have a Projects folder and a Project Archive folder. The Project Archive folder contains sub-folders by year, i.e. 2010, 2011, 2012...etc., and each of these sub-folders contains all the projects from that year. Each project has its own numbered folder and when it ends I just move it to the Project Archive > Respective Year sub-folder as is, no need to add dates or anything else.

I think that using the button (or junction point) and dragging and dropping the folder to it is a great, simple, and flexible solution that will work fine and seamlessly.

Thank you

[meisl]

So, I understand that your problem is practically solved?

But still, I think I've got one more for you - again, just in case you didn't know :

Given your process I'd do the following:

• - make a button like petermad suggested, for your Projects folder
  
  - right-click on it | Change... | and paste the path to your Project Archive folder, eg "E:\Project Archive" into "Start path:"

This makes the button, when clicked, set both panes simultaneously: current pane to your Projects folder AND other pane to your Project Archives folder.

Once that's done you click on the button and then simply drag the to-be-archived-project folder onto the appropriate year folder in the other pane.
This will also work with multiple selection and also either with left-mouse-button for copying or both mouse buttons for moving.

Afterwards, use the "Go Back" button or cm_GotoPreviousDir to get back to where you were (applies to active panel only, but you could even make another button to go back in both panels simultaneously).

[About:blank]

Thank you.
It never crossed my mind to have one button for quickly switching to the desired folders and I think that this is what I will use.

The original question came up while rethinking some steps of my workflow. You and petermad certainly answered my original question, and then some.

Thank you.

[meisl]

Great, you're welcome