Will TC v9 support TEXT BUTTON feature?

[xmeron]

Currently seems no more new people care about new TC's message? It looks so quiet here for recent months, and seems new TC still needs one more half a year to release.
Months ago, I planned to post some very long threads to suggest tons of new TC features, but I noticed that Mr. Ghisler was very busy with the development of the new TC, I don't intend to bother/disturb/break his original development plan, so I decided to delay and post them after the release of TC 9 or TC 10.

But recently I noticed some people already suggested something here, like:

Thread 1: Is there any button action to toggle on-off color feature ?
Thread 2: Define Color by File Type (Add BACKGROUND COLOR PLEASE)

Above two suggestions are also minor part of my some color system suggestions, here is one of the demonstration picture:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/xmeron/TCColorScheme.png

And, in my many other suggestions, I will refer some pictures to show the final effect, just like below pictures from some threads/webpages:

http://ww4.sinaimg.cn/large/924a7b98gw1ew3ermiw25j20ly0bc7a4.jpg
And an animated picture:
http://postimg.org/image/fwwx3es95/

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To Be Continued, Will Update When Have Time.
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[xmeron]

Sample part for one of my several planned suggestion threads:
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Top 12 frequently complained features by TC users, such as below 4 features of these 12:
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1, The thumbnail size setting is really not friendly enough for picture file management. (P.S.: I have to say sorry, I heard another webpage designer leaving TC for just TC's thumbsize setting problem in this November, it's the fourth person who left TC just for this problem in this year. Actually there are indeed at least 3-5 important improvements for picture management, the thumbnail size setting problem is just one of them). It's another TC's lack/shortage of basic FM feature just like below:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/xmeron/TCThumbView.gif

Anyone, who also bothered by this feature and need this feature, can support it in Lefteous' this link:

http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=41689

2, Why TC's recycle bin can not check deleted date? even windows explorer provides this feature.

3, In TC's thumbnails mode you can't see customized details of all files, in TC's details mode you can't see thumbnails, why TC has no content view mode just like windows explorer (actually this content view mode is still a little basic)? or detailed thumbnails mode in other FM (easily adjust thumbnail size, easily drag column width, columns' automatical magnetic group)?

4, Any image viewer program or image viewer plugin can read TC's current sort order? For example, after sort the field Picture Width, I want to fullscreen view these images using this new width order, any solution in TC? It's just an internal feature in other FM.

5, ...
6, ...
......

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To Be Continued, Will Update When Have Time.
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[Lefteous]

As one of the posters in one of the other threads I'm not sure how certain things should be implemented:

1) How is per-file data stored? Secondary file stream, extra file, library etc.
2) How to combine a per-file system with the current rule-based system?

[xmeron]

Sample part for one of my several planned suggestion threads:
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Top 10 amazing features I am using in other FMs but TC cannot do (or at least cannot do well, or have to need your own complicated coding), such as below 1 feature of these 10:
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1, Enhanced command feature (Or you can also upgrade to Scripting feature):

Current TC still uses Dialog-Based-Operation mode, there are only 10 commands can support parameters, and these parameters are very simple. The CORE of enhanced command feature is Completing Operations With Just One Click, not current TC's always several clicks. I use below renaming operations in other FM over 100 times every day:

Rename /source %P%S /format %FileBaseName%+%Clipboard%
Just one click, the text in clipboard will append at the end of filename.

Rename /source %P%S /format %FileBaseName%+%ClipboardAutoRemoveCarriageReturn%
Also just one click, the paragraph text in clipboard will be removed the carriage return (via pascal script), then appended at the end of filename.

Rename /source %P%S /format %FileBaseName%+"-"+%CurrentDate%
Also only one click, today's date appends to filename easily.

I tried many external command renaming tool in TC, but they all have kinds of shortcomings. I also use some AutoClick script or tool in TC's MRT, but these script/tool are just an acceptable workaround, not a final perfect solution.

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The same problem also exists between internal TC copy function and external copy tool, even I use Teracopy, Fastcopy and Extremecopy.
My typical copy request is like this:

Every morning's start, I need to copy
F:\BackupData\*.*
G:\BackupDoc\*.xlsx
to
D:\WorkingFolder\
E:\WorkingFolderForShare\

If you want to do these operations with ONE CLICK using TC's copy, that's a horrible thing. But if you use external tool, you have to miss many features like: thumbnails compare, plugins compare, auto rename target, auto rename copied, manually rename collision filename...It's really a painful thing for a TC user.
So an enhanced internal TC copy/move command which combines all advantages is very necessary:

Copy /Source "Source A" "Source B" /Target "Target C" "Target D" /OtherParameterE /OtherParameterF

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To Be Continued, Will Update When Have Time.
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[Hacker]

xmeron,
If you don't post one feature request / bug per thread, your thread will end in chaos.

Roman

[xmeron]

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Continued From Above Post Of
Sample part for one of my several planned suggestion threads:
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Top 10 amazing features I am using in other FMs......:
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There are many TC operations can add to enhanced command feature list: copy, move, select, pack, rename, delete, rotate, hash, compare...

Select /Tab d:\pro
This command will highlight all tabs which start with string d:\pro, you can easily choose what you need among these highlighted d:\pro tabs. Or, you can keep typing until you find what you need tab "d:\program files" exactly.

Select /Line 2 5 7-11 16-23
This command will select line 2, line 5, line from 7 to 11, line from 16 to 23 in current active TC file list panel.

Select /Append 2 4 6-9
This command will select line 2, line 4, line from 6 to 9. Then add these selection to current already selected.

Select /Reselect 1-3 5-7 9
This command will deselect all first, then reselect 1-3 5-7 9

Other usages of Select command through TC's command line bar (or quick search bar) is like this:

Select /Name *.gif | (\d+)\.png
Select /Size >150kb
Select /ColumnField5 Height>500px /ColumnField8 Duration>1Hour
Select /Rating 3
Select /Label green

And, one click operation like Command Packing through button bar (or menu) is also very useful:

Pack /Plugin:ZPack /Preset1 /Source:%P%S /Target:Source /NoPopupDialog
Hash /Sha256 %P%S /SeparateHashFile

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Currently TC's color system still uses Single-Scheme-Color mode, but when you get used to multi-color system, you will enjoy the convenience, you can switch among different color schemes in any time according to your all kinds of temporary requests, such as:
Your default color scheme is maybe like this:

Color /Preset "Color by file type"

But sometimes you want to see the files/folders modified period, then you can run below command (all commands are switch commands, that means, run one time, the current color scheme enabled, run two times, the current color scheme disabled):

Color /Preset "Color by modified period"

Or, maybe you have some special temporary request, you can run the following customized commands:

Color /Preset "Color by filenames which have numbers"
Color /Preset "Color by filenames which longer than 200 characters"
Color /Preset "Color by filenames which have one blank space"
Color /Preset "Color by filenames which have two blank spaces" /Append
Color /Preset "Color by filenames which start with blank spaces" /Append
Color /Preset "Color by filenames which have dot symbol"

The parameter /Append means appending current color scheme to existed color scheme, both activated.

For now, just look previous demonstration TCColorScheme.png again, you can know better what I am saying:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/xmeron/TCColorScheme.png

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To Be Continued, Will Update When Have Time.
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[xmeron]

As one of the posters in one of the other threads I'm not sure how certain things should be implemented:

Hope eagerly to see a good solution.

If you don't post one feature request / bug per thread, your thread will end in chaos.

The most important reason to push/force me to post this thread is below:

After other file managers' ten years development and through other users' comparison, I, as a TC users,
When COMPLETELY switch to File Manager A, I found A can provide 70% common used features of TC, and 15% extra surprised features which TC has not.
When COMPLETELY switch to File Manager B, I found B can provide 90% common used features of TC, and 30% extra surprised features which TC has not.

This conclusion is undoubtedly not a good thing to a long term and heavy duty TC user.
P.S.: Most users just use file manager's common features, so we are just talking about common features, not talking about some special extraordinary features like: ZPaq plugin, TCFS2 Addon, GoogleLikeSearch Addon, CHM plugin, SQX plugin, Registry plugin and many many more.

At the very beginning, I'd like to write these things to Mr.Ghisler via E-mail, but there are really so many things need to add to TC. I am afraid I cannot complete this mail. Finally, I think, even I can't complete, but post out in forum what I already wrote, would be a better choice.

It's not completely like a feature request, some of these threads are more like statistics conclusion/feedback based on thousand of TC users' continuous requests/feedback.

I will post next several Sample Thread tomorrow or days later, one important feature of these Sample Thread will be TEXT BUTTON.

[krstatzar]

I do a lot of design work and also would love to see thumbnails feature improved. Slider for size change would be nice solution IMHO

[Hacker]

xmeron,

After other file managers' ten years development and through other users' comparison, I, as a TC users,
When COMPLETELY switch to File Manager A, I found A can provide 70% common used features of TC, and 15% extra surprised features which TC has not.
When COMPLETELY switch to File Manager B, I found B can provide 90% common used features of TC, and 30% extra surprised features which TC has not.

Which file managers are we talking about?

TIA
Roman

[xmeron]

Sample part for one of my several planned suggestion threads:
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Top 5 frequently teased/jeered TC features by other FM users, such as below 2 features of these 5:
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1, Button Bar Feature:

Current TC's buttonbar still uses Single-Left-Click mode (this is really a big waste), but some application troubles is like this:

Suggest Buttonbar temporally disable button: Make button hidden
I have 219 bars with 3486 buttons in total Wink...

I am not extreme as Vochomurka, but I also have almost ten subbars and totally 300+ buttons, for example, the IrfanView subbar has 20+ buttons, the TCFS2 subbar has 30+ buttons. So, the problems is most of the buttons have exactly same icon, can anyone tell me how to find the right button to click in 20+ same IrfanView icon buttons, or in 30+ same TCFS2 icon buttons in just one glance? When tens of SAME ICONS gathers together, then the icons will be almost useless, you don't know which icon you should click immediately, what you frequently do is hovering you mouse and waiting for the buttons' tooltip hint.

So, TC's button bar still has a lot of improvements, such as:

Improvement 1:
Same button, execute many different commands via left click / right click / middle click / left double click / long press left click / long press right click / long press only the second click of a left double click/ firefox-style rocket click (left & right click, right & left click, left holding & long press right click, left holding & scroll up, right holding & scroll down...)... and many more such as with Alt, Shift, Ctrl, Win, Fn...click. With just one button, you can get tens of (maybe 30+? 50+? 100+?) different commands execution. This sounds definitely ridiculous, but current TC's Single-Left-Click mode is also absolutely too simple/bare.

Improvement 2:
Use Text Button feature. Even with this new feature, you still can choose other button styles: icon+text button, icon+text+menu button, text+menu button, or just previous TC's icon only button. With this TEXT BUTTON feature, what you need to do in your new TC button's creation, is just type a text title, choose a foreground color, then a background color, then finished. You don't need to be bothered again by such problems: where to find 300+ satisfied icons? which icons collection website is the best? which icon matches the current existing TC buttonbar's color style? should I resize the downloaded icon or degrade colors to reduce the size occupation?

Just look previous animated picture again, you can cost one hour or more to find these 8 number buttons as before, but you can also use this TC's new Text Button Feature to get the same effect in just several seconds.

http://postimg.org/image/fwwx3es95/

Improvement 3:
For keyboard TC users, there are also some improvements, like:
Ctrl+3+E, the hotkey Ctrl+3 mapped to launching subbar 3, the E mapped to the 5th button in this subbar 3, so Ctrl+3+E means

When you press down Ctrl+3, TC switched to subbar 3,
then with button 3 still holding down, and press key E, that will cause the 5th button in this subbar 3 to execute it's command.

Ctrl+5+H6, if you defined different click mode for every button, for example, mode 6 mapped to Long Pressing Right Button, then

Press Ctrl+5, TC switched to subbar 5,
with button 5 still holding down, and press key H, that will activate the 8th button in this subbar 5, but this time do not loose key H,
continue with button H holding down, and use another hand to press 6, then finally execute mode 6's command.

If you need, you can also choose to

customize Long Pressing Ctrl+3 and Short Pressing Ctrl+3 as different usages, such as Short Pressing Ctrl+3 just still maps to some internal simple cm_command.

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Besides, there are also many minor improvements, such as:

Minor improvement 1:
Fully customizable Function Key Bar just like TC's main menu, including some special features like above: left click menu, right click menu and etc. Of course you can also introduce these features to TC's main menu.

Minor improvement 2:
Floating feature of multiple-separated Button Bar (independent and can appear simultaneous) or Function Key Bar, can dock at bottom/left/right/center or anywhere. Especially can dock outside TC's window, just like MS Windows Vista's Gadget toolbox in right side, in this situation, you even can completely hide you TC main window, just leave some small TC toolbar/gadget to right side of desktop, then you can easily operate files/folders in Desktop or Windows Explorer.

Minor improvement 3:
Add an option to allow to automatically return to main buttonbar after you click a button in a subbar.

Minor improvement 4:
When hover mouse pointer, automatically popup submenu if you set subbar as submenu.
...
...

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To Be Continued, Next Post Will Talk About Context Menu, Will Update When Have Time.
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[xmeron]

Which file managers are we talking about?

This thread is not other file managers' advertisement, so I just use some simple letters to describe them.

The purpose of this thread is trying to solve current TC's some VERY URGENT problems, and trying to make TC more powerful, then attract these already left TC users back (they used TC before, but using other file managers now), not push current TC users to leave more. That is the reason why I originally planned to write by E-mail, not by this public thread, and, that is also the reason why I am eagerly to see the release of TC 9 (or TC 10 and later) than other people.

[Hacker]

xmeron,

This thread is not other file managers' advertisement, so I just use some simple letters to describe them.

This is a discussion forum, nobody cares if you mention file managers by name.

Roman

[xmeron]

Sample part for one of my several planned suggestion threads:
******************************
Continued From Above Post Of
Top 5 frequently teased/jeered TC features by other FM users, such as below 2 features of these 5:
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2, Fully Customizable Right Click Context Menu feature:

Just like TC's button bar can provide only very basic features, Context Menu is another Frequently Teased Features by other FMs' users.
When we introduce TC to some people which use other FMs, their answers are: What? Are you kidding me? Can't believe TC cannot customize context menu. And, don't know how TC can get the Position Of Most Powerful Customization File Manager if TC has no these kinds of features, especially in front of these FMs which have such kind of context menu features for many years.

Since current TC's Right Click Customizable Context Menu is almost zero, this lack indeed causes much inconvenience. Below is one of my typical application which need context menu:

I open ten pictures with ten TC listers (by Imagine plugin) from different drives and different folders. Finally I decided to choose 3 pictures of them for further usage, so we need to copy their different full path & names from different TC's lister, but, you already know, just this simple request, you can't finish it easily in TC due to the lack of Customizable Context Menu feature.

Since context menu can exist everywhere, so the inconvenience, which caused by lack/shortage of context menu, can also exist everywhere.
What I need in context menu is far beyond above just copying path and name, actually in full screen image view mode, what I frequently used context menu in other FMs likes as below, they really bring me much convenience, such things like Renaming In Any Place (which TC cannot completely provide) is almost not a problem any more:

Copy /FullPathAndFilename

Generate QR Code of Web Full Path & Name in my home network
;With QR Code, you can scan with you Mobile Phone's camera and get the Home LAN Web Address of this picture easily, it's very useful for transfering files between computer and mobile-phone.

Rename /source %P%S /format %FileBaseName%+%MyCustomizedConstantTag1%
;Yes, besides Variables, some FMs also support to customize your own Constants for reference.

Rename /source %P%S /format %FileBaseName%+%MyCustomizedConstantTag2%+"-"+%CurrentDate%
;Yes, still in Image-Full-Screen-Mode, you just right click and let this file (which you are full screen viewing now) renamed without any annoying dialog. No need to go back to TC's main window, then find the right tab in TC's history list, then find this file in this tab, then launch TC's MRT window, then input many text, then click many places of settings, then FINALLY CLICK OK, but now, what you need is JUST ONE OR TWO CLICKS RIGHT HERE, so, can you feel this great convenience? Do not say you can't see this convenience, or you are a liar. And, that is also one of the reasons of why every time I open a pictures folder in TC, I have to switch to other FMs finally.

Move /source %P%S /target "H:\MyBackupFolder\2015\12\"
;Yes, still in Image-Full-Screen-Mode, you just right click and let this file moved to your desired folder without any popup dialog, if you need, you can also choose to popup a confirmation dialog or parameters dialog before move.

...
...

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Let's go back to TC now, the structure of a full function context menu feature can like below, use a ContextMenu.ini file, then put all menu items inside:

ContextMenu.ini

[Menu_AddressBar]
MyMenuCommand1
MyMenuCommand2
-
%SystemDefaultContexMenu%

• [Menu_AddressBar] means this context menu only shows when right click in address bar. And, if you need, you can split to [Menu_LeftAddressBar] and [Menu_RightAddressBar]
• MyMenuCommand1 and MyMenuCommand2 are your customized user commands.
• - is a menu separator.
• %SystemDefaultContexMenu% is a TC variable, will place here with default TC context menu for this area, in this sample, will place address bar's context menu here.

Here is another sample for ContextMenu.ini:

[Menu_LeftFilePanel]
;Nothing in this section, just place this line as comment.

[Menu_Region-50%-0%-100%-100%_RightFilePanel]
;Region-50%-0%-100%-100% means only shows this section's context menu in TC's RightFilePanel inside area from TopLeft (50%,0%) to BottomRight (100%,100%).

[Menu_jpg;png;gif;bmp]
;The collection of file extensions means only shows this section's context menu for jpg/png/gif/bmp files.
;Besides the variable %SystemDefaultContexMenu%, you can also put your own customized context menu like below:
%SystemDefaultContexMenu%
%Menu_SomeMenuGroups%
%Menu_FolderTab%
%Menu_StatusBar%
%Menu_FunctionBar%
-
Rename: With exif
Rename: With clipboard text as suffix (auto remove all line returns)
Rename: Append with current date
-
Move to archive folder F:\Archive
Email to someone@server.com
-
Imageviewer1 %P%N
Imageviewer2 %P%N with left rotation
Imageviewer3 %P%N with 50% scale
-
Search filename in Yandex.com
Search same picture in Bing.com's Image
Search similar picture in Google.com's Image
-
Change thumbnails size to 128*128
Change thumbnails size to 256*256
Change thumbnails size to 128*196
-
Execute a multiple-line command
;Yes, TC can't execute multiple lines command easily (means many lines, like 30+ lines internal commands and customized commands, TC execute them one by one), it's another lack of features.
Cm_TcRename /random %P%S >%L
;Since some wipe tools only wipe files without renaming, that's still dangerous, so we use TC's Cm_TcRename command to rename them to random filenames, then export these random names to %L variable.
SomeExternalWipeTool.exe %L
;Accept %L parameter just generated in above Cm_TcRename, then use "SomeExternalWipeTool.exe %L" to wipe them safely.

Below is a demonstration for just PARTS of above menu, the beginning half part of this GIF is for TC's mouse problem's demonstration, you can ignore them until my next post, and just look the end half part. And, if you can't see picture clearly, you can zoom picture to 100%:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/xmeron/TC-ContextMenuForFilePanel-Dynamic.gif

If above demonstration is too fast, here is a static frame for this customized menu:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/xmeron/TC-ContextMenuForFilePanel-Static.png

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The similar context menu settings for FOLDER TAB Area can be like this:

[Menu_FolderTab]
Paste full path and go
Close current tab then activate left tab
Close current tab then activate right tab
-
Copy full path and filename
Copy only parent folder's name
Copy virtual path
Copy real path
Copy web path
-
%SystemDefaultContextMenu%

Below is the demonstration for this Folder Tab's context menu:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/xmeron/TC-ContextMenuForTab.gif

I know many people never use buttonbar in TC, they even don't use TC menu. A strong enough Context Menu System can let you completely hide your TC menu and TC buttonbar. Thus also saves a lot of space, and saves a lot of time.

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To Be Continued, Next Post Will Talk About TC's Mouse Problems, Will Update When Have Time.
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[ghisler(Author)]

TC uses the standard context menu from Explorer, plus one default item (View - Lister) and items from custom associations, what would you customize there?

[xmeron]

This is a discussion forum, nobody cares if you mention file managers by name.

As an advanced file manager programmer, Mr. Ghilser should always know what file managers I am talking about. But I already emailed some file managers' name to you (if this forum's email function works OK), maybe/hope/believe you can persuade him and explain something. If any other question, please let me know.

what would you customize there?

Oops......even I wrote so much, but seems still cannot explain this feature clearly, I doubt if I need to post the rest of suggestions. What I wrote is JUST explaining how Customizable Context Menu works in other file managers, anyone who also use this feature in other file managers, please follow this post and help to explain clearly in your ways.

OK, now I give a brief/core description of this Customizable Context Menu feature:
If you use F3 to view a image, with Imagine plugin or just TC's internal Lister. In this viewing window, you click right button and need to do something, but,

you get nothing if you use TC's internal Lister, no any customized menu, no anything will popup.

you get only Imagine's popup menu if you use Imagine plugin, but no any other customized menu.

But what I need to do in this right-click-popup-menu are:

Example 1 for what I need in context menu:
Rename current image file with today's date as suffix
;Append today's date at the end of this filename directly, no any popup window.

Example 2 for what I need in context menu:
Search current image file's similar image in Google
;This menu will popup a web browser, and open Google Image website, then upload the image you are F3 viewing, then find out similar images.
;If you use Chrome or Firefox, Search Similar Image In Google is a very popular feature, someone already put this feature into file manages, is there no one use this feature in file manager in this forum? Why there are over 20 people use this feature in file managers around me?

Obviously, above 2 items are just examples, actually we need to put all operations into our context menu, and let context menu exist everywhere, so, in above previous post, I made 2 pictures to demonstrate the effect of Customizable Context Menu:

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/xmeron/TC-ContextMenuForFilePanel-Dynamic.gif
And
http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/xmeron/TC-ContextMenuForTab.gif

I doubt if there are some network problems to prevent you to access this two pictures? so cannot understand this context menu feature well? If network problems exist, I can upload them to another image host.

Finally, If you can understand the brief description of this short post, then you can go back to previous full description version to understand better.