Beef up the Options

[J. Scott Elblein]

Some minor enhancements I'd love to see added, to make the app more user friendly:

(These are all under the "Browser / Applications" tab)

• Double-clicking an item in the list brings up the Edit dialog window (instead of having to highlight the item plus click the Edit button every time. I have an old habit of just dbl clicking things in lists to get to their properties.)

• Up/Down arrows next to the list, to change their position (X, Y) automatically to match. Currently, it's a bit painstaking to manually add a new item, and then go through and re-do all the X, Y indexes when there's a conflict. Usually involves opening each item, memorizing their X, Y values, setting one's value to a very high random number to avoid the conflict, setting the new item to it's old X (and/or Y), then changing the original item's X,Y to wherever you'd like it. With many items, this could mean having to manually re-do all following items' X (and/or Y) as well, afterwards.

• Ability to drag items in the list to do the same as the above arrows, as well.

• A column in the List, showing the items' X/Y positions. This would at least help in not having to click into the Edit of each item, to see (and try to memorize) each one's X/Y values during the moving around. Maybe even rename "X" and "Y" to something less tech-geeky, like "Row" and "Column", or something. I think "X" and "Y" is a bit more of a developer-speak, that can confuse the layman.

• Ability to Drag a program from Explorer into the List, and have it auto-fill in the values, instead of only being able to do that by clicking the Add button. i.e. Drag Chrome.exe into the list, it's path, Icon, etc. automatically get filled in. would make adding things so much easier.

• The browser's (or other app's) icons next to the name, in the Name column. (This is just for eye-candy though. =) )

I noticed all of these while trying to add a new browser (Vivaldi) into the middle of the top row (row 1, or X1), when I have 9 apps already added, in 2 rows, and position-tweaked. I realized while trying to position the new item exactly where I wanted it was actually a huge pain, and not real end-user friendly, lol.

[guy]

Wow. lots of great ideas. I will go over them one by one.

• Double-clicking an item in the list brings up the Edit dialog window (instead of having to highlight the item plus click the Edit button every time. I have an old habit of just dbl clicking things in lists to get to their properties.)
  • Simple to do, it will take me more time to comment here than to actually implement.
• Up/Down arrows next to the list, to change their position (X, Y) automatically to match. Currently, it's a bit painstaking to manually add a new item, and then go through and re-do all the X, Y indexes when there's a conflict. Usually involves opening each item, memorizing their X, Y values, setting one's value to a very high random number to avoid the conflict, setting the new item to it's old X (and/or Y), then changing the original item's X,Y to wherever you'd like it. With many items, this could mean having to manually re-do all following items' X (and/or Y) as well, afterwards.
  • Agreed. I've always had simple lists, but have seen some amazing lists. in the next beta (not the one I am currently working on) I will focus on this.
• Ability to drag items in the list to do the same as the above arrows, as well.
  • Not to difficult to do since I have just finished adding the same thing to the AutoURLs. It won't change the x/y - just the order in the list
• A column in the List, showing the items' X/Y positions. This would at least help in not having to click into the Edit of each item, to see (and try to memorize) each one's X/Y values during the moving around. Maybe even rename "X" and "Y" to something less tech-geeky, like "Row" and "Column", or something. I think "X" and "Y" is a bit more of a developer-speak, that can confuse the layman.
  • I will add that this morning. Row / column makes more sense - I always confuse what is x and what is y.
• Ability to Drag a program from Explorer into the List, and have it auto-fill in the values, instead of only being able to do that by clicking the Add button. i.e. Drag Chrome.exe into the list, it's path, Icon, etc. automatically get filled in. would make adding things so much easier.
  • This is the one that interest me the most. I had never thought of it but does sounds like a great idea. Not sure if I can get it into the current beta - it is due at the end of this month and I only have about 3 hours each week to work on it. If not, definitely in the next version.
• The browser's (or other app's) icons next to the name, in the Name column. (This is just for eye-candy though. =) )
  • Actually, that would be a fantastic thing to add. It would make the tool look a little more modern. If it's not too much effort, same as above, this beta.

Really, these are fantastic ideas. Without these, I'd have nothing to do!

[guy]

Well, it turned out adding the browser icons to the list was really simple. Took about 10 minutes and is in the next version. X/Y was renamed in the edit browser screen Double click also done. Finally, the list shows row/column and if advanced screens are on - protocols and filetypes.

[J. Scott Elblein]

Awesome, thanks! Looking fwd to the updates. BC2 is one of my fave little utilities. =)

I've always got tons of idea, if you're looking to keep busy! hahaha. I swear, it seems as if I can download any software and immediately find an issue with it, or needed things. :P

[guy]

The more the merrier! Doesn't mean I will do them all, but so far I think I have rejected only one idea since the start of this project.

[guy]

I beleive I have done most of the items here. I will this open for now.

Unless I'm wrong, here is what is left from your list: 1. Drag in a new Application 2. Simpler way to arrange the main screen

Also, I am looking at implement a Metro based UI. I have been messing around with WPF and some plugins in VS2015 and it looks interesting.

[guy]

For the remaining items. Most were done in Beta 2