SyMenu Forum

ineedh3lp

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13/04/2012 Topic: Better Search Feature ineedh3lp	Hello! First, I would like to thank you for this great utility that you are providing free of charge. The current name search feature is good, but it can only find entries that start with what is is typed. For example, if I want to open BestCrypt, I have to type "best". Typing "crypt" would not find BestCrypt. If you are familiar with Listary or QuickJump, you know how nice it is to have such a search feature implemented. Secondly, is it possible to automatically reposition the cursor over the search field, because if the menu is too high, the cursor will most of the time fall over a folder or something. I even managed to exit SyMenu several times while trying to find an entry using the Search field. Thank you!
13/04/2012 Topic: Easier SyMenuItem.xml access ineedh3lp	Hello, is it possible not to keep SyMenuItem.xml in an archive? Sometimes I find it very easy to edit the config file directly, or even automatically with some custom utilities. Having it in a zip file makes things harder as I have to unzip it first, edit it and then zip it back again. Thnak you!
13/04/2012 Topic: Better Search Feature ineedh3lp	Excellent. Adding search-in-title as an alternative sounds great! Regarding cursor repositioning, at least from my behalf, you can forget about it- it is an issue for me only when having the menu position set to "Mouse location". I have now set it to "Left upper screen" and I get less interference with the pointer over the folders.
13/04/2012 Topic: Easier SyMenuItem.xml access ineedh3lp	Yes, I have hundreds configured in SyMenu. I have tried leaving just the SyMenuItem.xml file in the Config folder, but SyMenu ignores it and creates a new SyMenuItem.zip with no items. Would be great if you could program the application to read either zip or xml (with priority set on one of them). That way people who like the speed of zip can use zip and those who need the benefit of direct editing can keep it in xml. Of course, it is not hard to unzip, edit and rezip, the issue is that I'm doing it quite often, and I rely on some utilities I created to automatically change the SyMenu configuration. Also, having SyMenu on a SSD or RAM Disk doesn't pose a reading speed issue : D
13/04/2012 Topic: A Few More SyMenu Concerns ineedh3lp	I don't want to crowd the forum with individual topics, so I will cover more in a single thread. These are regarding usability, not issues or problems, just stuff that could improve the workflow. 1. Allow dragging items between containers and do not automatically position an item in a container, unless the item is dragged over the container. A separator indicator would be good to inform the user that the item is going to be positioned between two containers and not in the container. 2. Allow renaming separators so that they automatically get repositioned in the desired location when automatically sorting items. That way a separator will have its own identity but still look like an ordinary separator in the menu. 3. Allow multiple item selection (with Shift and Control modifiers) for easier reconfiguration of the menu. Currently, if I want to drag 100 items in a container, I have to repeat the drag-and-drop process for each of them. Do not get me wrong, I totally like SyMenu and the work you're putting in it. These suggestions are mere ideas for improvement. I, by any means, do not try to crowd your ToDo list with useless stuff- I actually believe that these additions would improve the workflow with the application.
13/04/2012 Topic: A Few More SyMenu Concerns ineedh3lp	One more thing I have forgot about (well, there may be more, but I recalled this one): 4. Automatically give unique ID's to generated/extracted application icons. Currently, if a program is called "application.exe", SyMenu generates an icon called application.exe.ico The problem arises when I add another program called "application.exe"- SyMenu then uses the same icon for it. The issue is the same when updating the icon for an existing application. My suggestion would be to add a random string at the end of the extracted icon, like application.exe-dBnQCa55.ico every time a new icon is added, even if it is the same icon (or do a CRC check to see if it is the same, and if it is, leave it the same). 5. Please add a Description field to containers and maybe even a URL field. There's enough room for it and some may find it useful- I know I would. <em>edited by ineedh3lp on 4/14/2012</em>
13/04/2012 Topic: Feature Request - "Tools" item Placement ineedh3lp	I would vouch this to be an option and not a permanent change (I use Tools most often. Maybe even allow the user to completely reconfigure the major SyMenu entries- like hiding Exit and moving Search items to the bottom. <em>edited by ineedh3lp on 4/13/2012</em>
14/04/2012 Topic: A Few More SyMenu Concerns ineedh3lp	And a couple extra ideas: 6. Allow for longer Name entries, unless there's a XML limitation that makes it impossible. Maybe add an option regarding how long a menu entry should be, automatically trimming the name title. 7. Allow making copies of entries. Just like dragging, but instead of moving it performs a copy operation. If you add this, an important feature would be linking copies, so we can have multiple instances of one object (which benefits updating of multiple instances at once).
14/04/2012 Topic: Easier SyMenuItem.xml access ineedh3lp	JC wrote: I believe that if Gianluca does something with this, his time would be best well used by creating an import/export function for "SyMenuItem". Import/Export is not needed as it is merely backing up or replacing the configuration files (or the entire folder). My suggestion still gives everyone the possibility to use zip, it just also gives everyone the alternative possibility to use xml. I do not need an export/import command, I need to be able to remotely edit the xml file in place.
16/04/2012 Topic: Easier SyMenuItem.xml access ineedh3lp	Yeah, that's a good idea. Or maybe include a .ini file in the Config folder in which interested users can make changes, like forcing zip/xml settings, debugging, etc. That way SyMenu can read the special settings from the ini file and not rely on the existence of files with certain names. <em>edited by ineedh3lp on 4/16/2012</em>
16/04/2012 Topic: A Few More SyMenu Concerns ineedh3lp	Thank you for considering each point. 1 - Dragging a SyItem among two containers I understand it is difficult and it's not that important either. I would've just helped speeding up reorganizing items. The "Move item up level" will have to do. 2 - Renaming separators Yes, I would find renaming separators useful when sorting items. That way I can give the separator a specific name and predict its positioning after sorting, so manual repositioning isn't required. 3 - Multiple item selection I understand this may pose a issue. This feature isn't an important one as well, just one that would've aided easier menu items configuration. 4 - Icon unique name Thank you for adding this in the next version. 5 - SyContainer description Let me give you an example for container description and URL: For example, I tend to organize my items similar to the way Softpedia does. So, If a container contains browser applications, the container's description would be Home > Windows > Internet > Browsers and the URL would be http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/ The URL would be to link to something related to the description, so I believe it would be useful to have it too, actually I would be grateful if you'd add it. Or maybe give the option to enable description and URL fields in containers. 6 - Longer name for SyItem Yes, please allow for unlimited characters in titles, even if the complete title is trimmed when displaying the menu. I really use SyMenu not only as an application launcher, but also as an applications map with names, descriptions, links (that's why I asked for container description and URL at the previous point). 7a - Copy SyItem with drag and drop Yes. Since currently both left-drag and right-drag perform an item move operation, you could program SyMenu to do a copy operation when using right-drag. 7b - Introducing a link relation between SyItems Well a copy is a copy. A link is a link. The main reason I'm asking for this is because sometimes I want to have the same application in different containers (for mapping purposes), and when I update one instance, the other gets updated as well, but without having the linked item displayed multiple times when searching for the corresponding entry. Hmm, I think this would complicate things in the programming sequence, so you should probably forget about it and just add the ability to copy entries (7a). - <em>edited by ineedh3lp on 4/16/2012</em>
04/05/2012 Topic: Expand/Collapse All ineedh3lp	Hello, I wish you could add an expand/collapse all feature for the SyMenu tree panel. Well, mostly Expand All, I don't care about collapsing as I can simply close the window, but expanding everything is important to me because I often want to have an overall view of all the items in my menu, and there are well over a thousand now- it is a real pain having to manually expand everything. Thank you!
07/05/2012 Topic: Expand/Collapse All ineedh3lp	Yes, it's over a thousand, but not every link is a link to a different program. All items are what make up my entire SyMenu tree (including folders, subfolders, and links to applications). I'm currently still organizing it and I will refine it after the next SyMenu version is available so I can add those descriptions and URLs I've been talking about in a different thread. Thank you for considering this suggestion!
07/05/2012 Topic: Feature Request - Hide Menu Items ineedh3lp	Hello! I would like to ask if it is possible to add in a future version of SyMenu the ability to hide SyMenu items. The reason for this is pretty obvious: I do not want to see certain items but I do not want to delete them from the list either, so the best solution would be to have a function to hide them and, of course, to show them again when needed. I'm thinking something similar to how an item looks in the list when being queued for deletion (italic and stroked). Hidden items could be showed in the list editing panel as italic entries with red text- that would mean they're hidden items. The option to hide an item should be located in the contextual menu or the Item Manager menu together with all the other item options. Thank you!
08/05/2012 Topic: Feature Request - Hide Menu Items ineedh3lp	Greetings, Gianluca. You're right, if an item is hidden then it won't show in the contextual menu, and it is like a deleted item in that regard, except it's not really deleted and can be easily reactivated any time in the same place. Yes, you could call it backup, but it's more like a filter, temporarily disabling items. The Trash folder idea sounds good, though I think that means actually moving the item there without referencing it's original location. My initial thought was to be able to hide an item and leave it in the same place where it was hidden. There are several benefits: for example if I send my complex and organized configuration to a friend, he can hide whatever applications he is missing and reactivate them later after he installs those applications. All he has to do is re-enable an item and update the application exe. path if needed- the icons, descriptions, URL links and everything else will already be there.
09/05/2012 Topic: Feature Request - Hide Menu Items ineedh3lp	Since I'm the one who came up with this, I would also like to be the one to say that you shouldn't give priority to this particular idea. There are far more useful features to address, but of course, the decision is all yours regarding when, how and which feature to implement. Thank you.
18/06/2012 Topic: Features for next SyMenu version 1.17 ineedh3lp	Wow, Gianluca, what a great pack of features in this update. I see a lot of my suggestions on that list- I am grateful for the hard work you've put into SyMenu to accomplish those. I've updated today and did a quick run of the latest version to check the new features: ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When a Windows shortcut is dragged to SyMenu, it'll preserve its real name - This works well, a dragged shortcut preserves its name. I believe that the next step to improving this feature would be to also read the shortcut's custom icon location and its arguments (because not all shortcuts use the icon of the executable they are pointing to and also a lot of shortcuts already contain program arguments) and automatically fill the Icon Path field with the icon the shortcut is actually using (which could be a custom icon) and the Program Arguments field with the parameters specified in the shortcut. That will surely increase the value of SyMenu's drag-and-drop shortcut feature. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The description field is now available for SyContainers too - Thank you for adding this. I hope that in a future version you will also implement a URL field to accompany the description field of a container with a Visit web site button like the program item has. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is possible to clone items with a drag and drop operation (pressing the CRTL key). The cloning function only works for single elements (not for SyContainer) - Cloning a single item is a very good start for better items management. I've tested it and it seems to work good. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New feature "move an item among two elements" during drag and drop - Excellent! Now containers can be repositioned without having to use the "Movie item up level" option. New users may not be able to make the difference because there's no separator or guide line to show that an item can be placed between two other items, but it's easy to figure out how it works. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The search works optionally for the text inside item names and not only in "start with" mode - Remarkable! This was one of the things I wished most in SyMenu and now it is here and it's working great. The search results list gets populated very fast even when searching for a single letter. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is possible to name a SySeparator element to allow predictable ordering inside a SyContainer - Okay, I specifically asked for this feature and I am glad you implemented it, but there is a little problem with it. It seems that although the separator can now be renamed, it still gets positioned to the bottom of the list when sorting items in alphabetical order. No matter what name I give it, it always goes at the bottom of the list after a sorting operation, so this could be a small bug. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- F2 key on a SyNode in configuration form allows to rename it - This is good. It may be useful to automatically re-focus the item list after a user renames a node and presses enter so the user can continue navigating the list with the arrow keys, but that's just a small suggestion. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New command to expand and compress all folder in configuration form (shortcut F11, F12) - I absolutely like this feature. Now no more manual expansion needed to have a general overview of the items tree. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is now possible to hide elements (shortcut F3). An hided item become invisible in contextual menu and in the search but exists and is visible in configuration form - Yet another feature I specifically asked for. Thank you! Now I can use SyMenu to organize applications in the configuration panel without actually crowding the popup-menu. Hidden item is italic and greyed out- just excellent! ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A new file report is available in menu Options - System. It contains the full list of SyMenu items with their main attributes - I have exported a file report and opened it in OpenOffice Calc, but I guess it is meant to be opened with MS Office's Excell, and I do not have that available at the moment, so I can not say much about it. ;~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All in all, this SyMenu update brings a lot of new and useful feature (at least for me) and I thank you for it. ;~ ========================================================== I can't understand your question about the search start. Do you intend the "natural" order you explicitly configured for your items? - I believe that PoWi was wondering if it is possible to have two different ways of sorting searched items: alphabetical sort and popularity sorting. When he said "counter of the starts of each menu item", I think he was referring to a counter that would keep track of the number of each item launch, so when the user searches for items, the list displays first the result with most launches and not an alphabetical list of the results. This implementation would be useful indeed if a search result returns multiple items and the user wants to quickly access the item that was launched the most by pressing the down arrow a few times. This feature would go well with the new ability to search in item names.
27/06/2012 Topic: Features for next SyMenu version 1.17 ineedh3lp	Hello! Sorry for the late reply... Shortcuts improvement Well your idea is very good but I need to know how many people really need these features... Linking a shortcut is an unnatural operation for SyMenu because it means that you are statically linking a resource on a certain host PC while SyMenu should be able to execute that resource on any PC. It means that you are using SyMenu as a start menu replacement in a single PC. I'm very interested in knowing how many people use SyMenu in that way. If a lot of people regularly use SyMenu in that way... well... I should need to rethink to several features. While I never used SyMenu for portability convenience on a USB stick (because I didn't need to), I do use it on 4 of my computers sharing the same SyMenu configuration and it's excellent because most of my applications are using the same installation path or sandbox locations, so SyMenu entries are valid on all LAN computers. I can not tell how many people are using SyMenu as a stationary app launcher, but I can say for sure that at this moment I find it to be the best application launcher solution. I mean, even if I would use it for portability, I see no reason why I wouldn't use it on a single PC as well- it is the most optimized way to organize applications and quickly launch them. Ordering SySeparator Well I'm not able to reproduce this bug. Have you tried to create the separators by scratch, without reuse the old ones? Maybe the problem could be that. Yes, I have deleted all separators and then recreated them- still the same issue. I will do more tests in an attempt to find the cause and will report back if I get any positive/negative results. Refocus on rename I have to think to this feature well. Should it be available only if you have pressed F2 before? I think it could be misleading.Should it be always available? I think it is better, but should it be available on any field or only in the Name's one? So, let's say I'm navigating the items tree with the arrow keys and then I want to rename the currently selected item- I press F2 which focuses the name field, I change the name and after I press enter the focus goes back to the items tree so I can continue navigating it with the arrow keys. And yeah, it should be available for any field, but once again, this is just a small detail and it is not that important. I only mentioned it for the sake of completeness : D ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Regarding hotkeys for Search I am using the "Set focus on search bar" option, but yes, I would be great to have a hotkey just for the search-box, this would also fix the current issue I am having with the mouse pointer focusing a folder from the menu when I sometimes want to search for something using the search field. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I designed some small utilities for personal use and I understand how hard it can get to implement new features and make GUI changes, so I think that the problem of adding more and more features doesn't interfere with new or less experienced users, but with the developer's time, resources and ability to optimize the location and appearance of multiple options. As PoWi suggested, there could be an advanced options tab or window for tweaking more delicate settings of SyMenu, so the new user can still enjoy the simplicity, while the advanced user can take advantage of better SyMenu personalization. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I admit I have never donated or invested in this project, mainly because I'm always on the edge with money and have a lot of debts, and I also do not want to insult your work by donating just a couple of euros, but as soon as I get financially back on my feet, I will most certainly contribute to this project properly, and if SyMenu were commercial software, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it after getting used to it all this time. So thank you Gianluca for developing, sharing and supporting this useful tool without charge.
12/07/2012 Topic: Items Configuration Filter/Search ineedh3lp	Hello, After using SyMenu for such a long time and adding and organizing a lot of items I've come to realize that a filter or search field is a necessity. Thus, my suggestion for a new feature would be an items filter or search functionality within the SyMenu items configuration panel. Let's say I have hundreds or over a thousand items in the config panel and I want to quickly reach one of the items which I know by name, but can't remember exactly in what folder it is stored. By using the filtering system or a search field, I could input its name (just like I'm searching for an item from the contextual menu) and SyMenU would then display that item (or the items that match the filter) and their root folders- that way we can easily access the item for changes and also see where it is located in the folder tree structure. Clearing the filter or search field would then display all items again, but leave the searched items expanded, so then the user can move them to different folders or locations and have a better overall view of where the item is located within the entire folder tree structure. Thank you.
22/07/2012 Topic: Items Configuration Filter/Search ineedh3lp	Hello, Gianluca! I am sorry for such a late reply, for some reason I didn't get notified by e-mail, though I specifically checked that option. Doesn't matter, I should revisit the forum more often anyway. Regarding this subject I must admit that I am complete moron and I am ashamed, I honestly didn't notice the Start Search field on the upper right corner of the configuration window- I'm such a fool. It is working better than I could've ever wished. Thank you and sorry for creating this topic uselessly. <em>edited by ineedh3lp on 7/22/2012</em>