+1

Better labels for WinExplorer windows

Anonymous 11 years ago updated by Michael (Ramen Software) 11 years ago 4

Another deficiency I never understood in Windows is the way too long text is clipped on taskbar buttons, and particularly for Windows Explorer windows. It just clips and adds ellipsis. Sometimes this makes it impossible to differentiate between multiple directories with the same root:

c:\some\long\path\1\ and c:\some\long\path\2\ will both appear as c:\some\lon...

A smarter behavior, that Microsoft did implement in some of their software but strangely not for the taskbar, is to try to keep the last word intact and add the ellipsis in the middle:

c:\som...\1\
c:\som...\2\

Having such an option in 7TT would be nice.


Answer

Answer
The thing is that the taskbar cannot know that the title is a path.
The fact that the taskbar shares the process with explorer can be (mis)used to special-case explorer folders and show the path the way you suggest, but it's questionable whether the special case is justified here.
Answer
The thing is that the taskbar cannot know that the title is a path.
The fact that the taskbar shares the process with explorer can be (mis)used to special-case explorer folders and show the path the way you suggest, but it's questionable whether the special case is justified here.

Title = Microsoft Word...

This is the same case. I can recognize the app by Icon. Why do I need the name of apps in TaskBar?

I don't use Word myself, but judging from screenshots It seems like it displays the document name before the application name (like most editors).
e.g.:
http://www.baycongroup.com/word2007/images/01_Word2007Screen.gif

"The thing is that the taskbar cannot know that the title is a path."


It's possible to match the string pattern. And like you say, the window owner process can be checked. But actually why have an exception for WinExplorer when this is useful for any app showing a path for its window title?


It might also be useful as a general smarter text clipping algorithm.


"but it's questionable whether the special case is justified here."


Well, if you don't find it useful that's something else. :)