Win Explorer jumps back to parent

[Jack C]

Hello,
I am trying to selectively delete a number of subfolders, working in Windows Explorer. Every time I delete one folder, windows 7 jumps me back to the parent folder, so I have to scroll down again to where I left off. Very inefficient. In XP, the next folder in the list is highlighted after deleting one. I know Windows 7 is not XP, but this seems to be another unnecessary annoyance with file management, added to my growing list of file management annoyances.

I suppose MS found some good reasons to make file management so cumbersome, or I am not yet with the program, or there is something I can do to make this better, and I haven't yet found it
.
Is there something I can do to avoid this? Is there some other view of Windows Explorer I can use?
If I'm stuck with it, I'll learn to live with it.
Many thanks.

Jack

 

[Brink]

Hello Jack,

If the subfolders are in the same folder, you could use the check box option to check the ones you wish to delete to be able to delete them all at once.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10111-select-items-check-boxes.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[dsperber]

I suppose MS found some good reasons to make file management so cumbersome, or I am not yet with the program, or there is something I can do to make this better, and I haven't yet found it
.
Is there something I can do to avoid this?

You might consider using a "replacement" product for Windows Explorer, or at least as an alternative for those situations where you're not comfortable with the Win7 changes and wish you were back in XP.

I've settled on Free Commander for about 99% of my Explorer-related needs.

Its 2-pane presentation is perfect for drag/drop work, and you can instantly revert (by button) to 1-pane presentation if you want to see more of a tree. Also, the fact that it retains multiple selected items even after the function you've applied to the group (using a right-click context menu item, e.g. "expand with WinRAR" on a whole set of ZIP files) is completed, makes consecutive operations (e.g. now DELETE all of these ZIP files) on the entire selected set a piece of cake.

Highly customizable toolbar, panes, etc. Lots of keyboard shortcuts as well.

Kind of old-fashioned in its Win98-looking presentation, but that's actually a good thing if you're looking back. The new Win7 Explorer has lots to be said for it, but when you want to do things like WinXP or Win98 used to, I think you'll really like Free Commander.

Highly recommended. Give it a try.

 

[Jack C]

Hello Jack,

If the subfolders are in the same folder, you could use the check box option to check the ones you wish to delete to be able to delete them all at once.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10111-select-items-check-boxes.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

That helps! Took me a minute or two to realize that after checking the "use check boxes" in tools|folder options|view, I had to double click on the parent folder to make the "checkbox selectable" files do that in the right pane. But now I can work on it. I admit I didn't realize that choice existed.
Thanks Shawn.

Jack

 

[Jack C]

I suppose MS found some good reasons to make file management so cumbersome, or I am not yet with the program, or there is something I can do to make this better, and I haven't yet found it
.
Is there something I can do to avoid this?

You might consider using a "replacement" product for Windows Explorer, or at least as an alternative for those situations where you're not comfortable with the Win7 changes and wish you were back in XP.

I've settled on Free Commander for about 99% of my Explorer-related needs.

Its 2-pane presentation is perfect for drag/drop work, and you can instantly revert (by button) to 1-pane presentation if you want to see more of a tree. Also, the fact that it retains multiple selected items even after the function you've applied to the group (using a right-click context menu item, e.g. "expand with WinRAR" on a whole set of ZIP files) is completed, makes consecutive operations (e.g. now DELETE all of these ZIP files) on the entire selected set a piece of cake.

Highly customizable toolbar, panes, etc. Lots of keyboard shortcuts as well.

Kind of old-fashioned in its Win98-looking presentation, but that's actually a good thing if you're looking back. The new Win7 Explorer has lots to be said for it, but when you want to do things like WinXP or Win98 used to, I think you'll really like Free Commander.

Highly recommended. Give it a try.

That sounds like an interesting and valuable program. I downloaded it along with the help file, and made a donation, even though I haven't tried it yet. I am assuming I can try it and then uninstall or disable it without any permanent damage to the Win7 Windows Explorer. But I'm going to hold off, because I'm really trying to see if I can learn to live with the current Explorer (which crashes regularly by the way: "Windows Explorer has stopped working".) I was hoping I could get rid of libraries and other pointers and make Win 7 just let me manage my own damn files! But it's a lesson in progress.
Many thanks for your help.
Jack
By the way, how do you quote just parts of a post you are replying to? Can't find forum explanation for this.

 

[James Colbert]

I was hoping I could get rid of libraries and other pointers and make Win 7 just let me manage my own damn files! But it's a lesson in progress.
Many thanks for your help.

A few links tro help you remove Libraries from the Nav Pane:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61514-library-pane-turn-off.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/35627-libraries-folder-add-remove-navigation-pane.html


I'm not sure what you mean by "other pointers", but be careful about removing system or user folders, including the junctions for Documents and Settings on some machines. This includes changing permissions. There are many posts in this forum from those who have hosed their systems doing so.

By the way, how do you quote just parts of a post you are replying to? Can't find forum explanation for this.

You can use the 'Wrap' icon on the message icon bar (pasting the text in between) or you can type in your own starting and ending Quotes, i.e. [?QUOTE], [?/QUOTE]. Remove the question marks, as they are just there to prevent the QUOTES from being converted to HTML.

 

[Brink]

Hello Jack,

If the subfolders are in the same folder, you could use the check box option to check the ones you wish to delete to be able to delete them all at once.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10111-select-items-check-boxes.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

That helps! Took me a minute or two to realize that after checking the "use check boxes" in tools|folder options|view, I had to double click on the parent folder to make the "checkbox selectable" files do that in the right pane. But now I can work on it. I admit I didn't realize that choice existed.
Thanks Shawn.

Jack

You're welcome Jack.

Just let us know if you have any other questions on this.

 

[dsperber]

That sounds like an interesting and valuable program. I downloaded it along with the help file, and made a donation, even though I haven't tried it yet. I am assuming I can try it and then uninstall or disable it without any permanent damage to the Win7 Windows Explorer.

Just to be clear, this isn't actually a "replacement" for Windows Explorer. I hope my original use of that word didn't mislead.

It's simply a 3rd-party product that performs the functions of Windows Explorer (plus enhanced equivalent functions, plus additional functions, in a more "familiar" if old-fashioned GUI). So even if you install it, you have done zero to impact true Windows Explorer.

You're free to use either program whenever you want to. They're completely independent of each other. Note that the same right-click context menu popups you would get from Windows Explorer on items... you'll get the same right-click menu from Free Commander.

So it's really intuitively similar, making it instantly usable with no real learning curve, although with more experience and customization you'll grow to learn more about its enhanced capabilities.

 

[Jack C]

You're free to use either program whenever you want to.

But I'm wondering if by using Free Commander, and adding/deleting/modifying files and folders ... those changes get carried over into the "real" Win7 Windows explorer?
I guess I'll just have to work with it and see what happens. Thanks.
Jack

 

[dsperber]

But I'm wondering if by using Free Commander, and adding/deleting/modifying files and folders ... those changes get carried over into the "real" Win7 Windows explorer?

Absolutely. You can use either of them interchangeably at any time, to perform any function performed by the "real" Win7 Windows Explorer. The changes are actually made to the folders and files identically, by either. Identically.

 

[Jack C]

I was hoping I could get rid of libraries and other pointers and make Win 7 just let me manage my own damn files! But it's a lesson in progress.
Many thanks for your help.

A few links tro help you remove Libraries from the Nav Pane:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61514-library-pane-turn-off.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/35627-libraries-folder-add-remove-navigation-pane.html


I'm not sure what you mean by "other pointers", but be careful about removing system or user folders, including the junctions for Documents and Settings on some machines. This includes changing permissions. There are many posts in this forum from those who have hosed their systems doing so.

By the way, how do you quote just parts of a post you are replying to? Can't find forum explanation for this.

You can use the 'Wrap' icon on the message icon bar (pasting the text in between) or you can type in your own starting and ending Quotes, i.e. [?QUOTE], [?/QUOTE]. Remove the question marks, as they are just there to prevent the QUOTES from being converted to HTML.

Thanks for links on turning off libraries. I've really been trying not to mess up the standard situation, but I find it very worrisome to be chasing all over Windows Explorer. I am presuming that if I work in desktop\computer name (c\users\username, that the same things I do there happen in the apparent "pointer" which is just labelled "username" in the main hierarchy under desktop. I find that confusing and haven't tested it yet. I was told earlier on this site that Win 7 had to keep some pointers to the old XP "documents and settings" folders to be compatible with programs written for that OS, but that they are really apparently dummies and can't be worked on directly. Whew!
Also..... I'm still really confused about how the threads are organized and how to reply, copy partial quotes from the post you are replying to, etc. Maybe I'm a dummy. I've never had problems with nntp groups or other forums or emails. And I can't find any guide to these things in the forum itself. Any pointers would be appreciated. I do appreciate everyone's interest and help.
Jack

 

[dsperber]

Also..... I'm still really confused about how the threads are organized and how to reply, copy partial quotes from the post you are replying to, etc. Maybe I'm a dummy. I've never had problems with nntp groups or other forums or emails. And I can't find any guide to these things in the forum itself. Any pointers would be appreciated. I do appreciate everyone's interest and help.
Jack

It's pretty straightforward. Just push the QUOTE button, and everything in the post you're replying to is automatically wrapped with a [.quote] at the front and a [./quote] at the end (those ".'" are not really there). The poster's userid is also inserted in that leading delimiter, so that it shows as the author of the post to whom you are replying.

Now, you simply edit the quoted text any way you want. Select a whole piece and then DELETE it if you don't want it to appear in the quoted text, but rather just want to reply to a specific thought or sentence, and want to eliminate other irrelevant text.

Or, you can say break up a paragraph with multiple thoughts, and reply to individual sentences individually. Just hit the RETURN key a few times on the keyboard after the end of where you want a quoted area to stop, and add your own [./quote] right there, to finish off a quoted section. Now you just type your own reply right there, following that [/quote] you manually inserted.

When you're done replying to that thought, you then go down to the "dangling" section you previously spaced down a bit with multiple RETURN keys. And you then manually insert your own [.quote] at the start of that next section, to begin a newly quoted text area. And then again, you position the cursor at the end of the next "thought" section you want to reply to, and then once again RETURN a few times, and manually add another [./quote], and insert your reply to this quoted text section.

Etc., etc.

It's really just like editing text. All that's needed is to manually ensure that each quoted text section starts with [.quote] and ends with [./quote], which you'll just have to manually place there yourself, and ensure occur in pairs. Normally, you clean things up (if you pressed RETURN a few times, just for good form) so that say that the start of each quoted text section is "double-spaced", to make it stand out clearly for readability.

And you simply delete all irrelevant text that you have no interest in appearing as quoted text in your reply. If you practice a bit, it'll quickly become clear. And of course you can always go back and "EDIT" your reply (pushing the EDIT button at the bottom of all of your own posts, and then push the SAVE button when your edit is complete), if you mess up and want to clean things up a bit.

 

[Jack C]

They're completely independent of each other. Note that the same right-click context menu popups you would get from Windows Explorer on items... you'll get the same right-click menu from Free Commander.

Sounds nice. And I have it and will try it when it seems appropriate. Right now, I'm trying to sort out the "stock" version of Win7. Thanks. Jack

 

[Jack C]

Also..... I'm still really confused about how the threads are organized and how to reply, copy partial quotes from the post you are replying to, etc. Maybe I'm a dummy. I've never had problems with nntp groups or other forums or emails. And I can't find any guide to these things in the forum itself. Any pointers would be appreciated. I do appreciate everyone's interest and help.

Jack

It's pretty straightforward.

Now that you explain it! In simple terms: [.QUOTE] (without the dot) starts the quote and [./QUOTE] ends it. I'll try it.

... break up a paragraph with multiple thoughts, and reply to individual sentences individually.

.

OK, I am assuming that my own inserts to not require any delimiters. We'll see how this comes out.

When you're done replying to that thought, you then go down to the "dangling" section you previously spaced down a bit with multiple RETURN keys.

I think I'm getting it.

Now if I can figure out how the thread replies are organized. Hmmm.

I really appreciate the great help.

Jack

 

[dsperber]

It's pretty straightforward.

Now that you explain it! In simple terms: [.QUOTE] (without the dot) starts the quote and [./QUOTE] ends it. I'll try it.

Exactly.

You've got it. You just push the QUOTE button to quote everything, and then edit that big block as you want, deleting or replying-to as you want.

And of course, you can also edit your way for multi-level quoted text, to show things like "he said, and I said, and he said, and here's my reply to that whole thought".

You simply have to have multiple [.quote] at the front, and matching [./quote] at the end, so that they're paired.

The HTML editor understands that and presents it as multi-level quoted text, indenting and frame-surrounding each as makes sense for readability.

OK, I am assuming that my own inserts to not require any delimiters. We'll see how this comes out.

Exactly. Your text has no quoted text start/end delimiters.

I think I'm getting it.

Now if I can figure out how the thread replies are organized.

You've got it.

The only thing special done when you push the QUOTE button is to add the poster's userid to that first [.quote] start delimiter, which is an optional suffix to cause that value to show in the resulting post to identify the author of the quoted text. After that, it is not automatically inserted... although again, you could actually manually type it in yourself (just like appeared automatically in the first delimiter).

So if, for example, you were trying to produce a combined reply to multiple posters in one single reply of yours, you might put that "author value" in the delimiter for the quoted text piece from each author, so that each author to whom you were replying would recognize their text in your multiple-single reply to multiple authors in a single reply.

You're completely in control.

And it looks like you've got it.

Glad to help out.

 

[Jack C]

It's pretty straightforward.

Now that you explain it! In simple terms: [.QUOTE] (without the dot) starts the quote and [./QUOTE] ends it. I'll try it.

Exactly.

You've got it. You just push the QUOTE button to quote everything, and then edit that big block as you want, deleting or replying-to as you want.

And of course, you can also edit your way for multi-level quoted text, to show things like "he said, and I said, and he said, and here's my reply to that whole thought".

You simply have to have multiple [.quote] at the front, and matching [./quote] at the end, so that they're paired.

The HTML editor understands that and presents it as multi-level quoted text, indenting and frame-surrounding each as makes sense for readability.

OK, I am assuming that my own inserts to not require any delimiters. We'll see how this comes out.

Exactly. Your text has no quoted text start/end delimiters.

And it looks like you've got it.

Many thanks again. I found this a bit counterintuitive. I guess is more like native HTML editing. Most programs handle quoting in an opposite way, it seems, that is, highlighting and copying to clipboard what you want to quote. Here you quote the whole passage and then highlight and delete what you don't want quoted. Oh well, it's very helpful to get a feel for this.
Jack

 

[dsperber]

Many thanks again.

Actually, I think you lost one level of quoting in the post above. It looks like an "echo" of my post, not a "quote" of my post.

Looks like you forgot to add one more [./quote] ending delimiter, before you put your own text reply.

Takes just a little practice, when you're editing all of the large quoted text.

I found this a bit counterintuitive. I guess is more like native HTML editing. Most programs handle quoting in an opposite way, it seems, that is, highlighting and copying to clipboard what you want to quote. Here you quote the whole passage and then highlight and delete what you don't want quoted. Oh well, it's very helpful to get a feel for this.

Handling quoted text does seem to be a function of the BBS forum software product used.

But if you're not comfortable with this inline editing method resulting from the QUOTE button, you can approach it a different way... using the POST REPLY button all the way at the bottom of the page. This opens up a blank new composition area, and you can just enter whatever you want without a formal "quote" initialization. From that point, you could always COPY/PASTE from the original post that you're really wanting to reply to (open simultaneously in another tab, presumably, so that you can refer to it) and then manually insert all of the necessary [.quote] and [./quote] delimiters yourself.

And don't forget, you can always use the EDIT button to correct something you post, after you've posted it. This is the "whoops" key. Then SAVE to update your original post with the edited version.

Anyway, the secret is simply the single or multi-level paired [.quote] and [./quote] delimiters, and the rest is up to you.

 

[Jack C]

Many thanks again.

Actually, I think you lost one level of quoting in the post above. It looks like an "echo" of my post, not a "quote" of my post.

you can approach it a different way... using the POST REPLY button all the way at the bottom of the page. This opens up a blank new composition area, and you can just enter whatever you want without a formal "quote" initialization. From that point, you could always COPY/PASTE from the original post that you're really wanting to reply to (open simultaneously in another tab, presumably, so that you can refer to it) and then manually insert all of the necessary [.quote] and [./quote] delimiters yourself.

Interesting, but will I know which post I'm replying to?
I think I'm getting the picture. And thanks again for your patience.
Jack

 

[dsperber]

Many thanks again.

Actually, I think you lost one level of quoting in the post above. It looks like an "echo" of my post, not a "quote" of my post.

you can approach it a different way... using the POST REPLY button all the way at the bottom of the page. This opens up a blank new composition area, and you can just enter whatever you want without a formal "quote" initialization. From that point, you could always COPY/PASTE from the original post that you're really wanting to reply to (open simultaneously in another tab, presumably, so that you can refer to it) and then manually insert all of the necessary [.quote] and [./quote] delimiters yourself.

Interesting, but will I know which post I'm replying to?
I think I'm getting the picture. And thanks again for your patience.
Jack

You missed it again. Look at your post.

You neglected to add that one crucial ending [./quote] before you typed your own reply text. That would have finished off the outer pair, and shown everything above as "quoted" (including appropriate multi-level indentations) with your reply as pure unquoted new text.

You can verify that what you've composed looks right before you actually post it, by pushing the "preview post" button. Or if you do "submit reply" and then re-read what got posted and realize you made a mistake because it doesn't look right, you can "edit" and then "save" to correct.

Anyway, your post (to which I'm replying) is not right. Much of my text is not quoted, but appears as if it were your text.

You need to be sure you have PAIRS of [.quote] and [./quote], surrounding any area of text from the original author that you want to appear as quoted text. You can have multiple levels in, but you must have multiple levels out, in order for the multi-level quoting to appear as you want.

Your text should appear as "open text", and my text should never appear as "open text" but should always appear with the quoted text frame. Only if your text is multi-level (e.g. you're quoting me who quoted you) would your text appear inside of a quote frame... but in that case it would be further indented as part of the overall quoted text, and obvious that it was not your current reply text.


Hope this isn't getting too deep into the weeds.