View Menu Default Change?
September 2, 2005 8:37 PM Subscribe
Windows XP: I would love when I go to 'Open' a file in an application of any kind if the 'View Menu' defaulted to 'Detail' and included 'Date Created'. I can change this every time by hand, but the changes never persist, even within the same session, and I can't find a global default change. Is there one? It seems like there should be. Thank you.
Best answer: Are you talking about the File-->Open dialog?
The short answer to your question: No, I don't think so.
The (probably overly) long answer:
The CommonDialog control (a part of most, if not all, Microsoft programming toolkits) provides an interface between the programming language used and the routines in the Microsoft Windows dynamic-link library 'Commdlg.dll'. If you've noticed, probably a majority of the programs you might use under Windows use the same Open File, Save As, Color, Font, Help, and Print dialog windows. These are all varied invocations of the same CommonDialog control. Depending on the language used, the programmer has options to set, for example, the file mask so that the dialog will only display Text Files (*.txt) or possibly All files (*.*).
Unfortunately, the CommonDialog control does not expose the user settings for everything that can possibly be changed, so there is no convenient (or maybe even possibility) of programmatically remembering run-time user-specified options such as the type of display listing and/or sorting options in the CommonDialog. Those are userspace sorts of things, and while I would, in fact, love to have the option, I don't think it can be done the way I think you are describing.
It's confusing for users since the dialog boxes look the same (and are, for the most part!) between applications, they (the users) think they are part of Windows, (and in a sense, they are!), but the individual implementations of the dialogs are left to the programmers, who use the CommonDialog tool to expose the Windows functions they need to interact with the user. Someonce could (and probably has) write a CommonDialog replacement tool, but most programmers seem to use the built-in Windows functions rather than spend more money for something that has relatively little value-add for most people.
posted by pjern at 9:42 PM on September 2, 2005
The short answer to your question: No, I don't think so.
The (probably overly) long answer:
The CommonDialog control (a part of most, if not all, Microsoft programming toolkits) provides an interface between the programming language used and the routines in the Microsoft Windows dynamic-link library 'Commdlg.dll'. If you've noticed, probably a majority of the programs you might use under Windows use the same Open File, Save As, Color, Font, Help, and Print dialog windows. These are all varied invocations of the same CommonDialog control. Depending on the language used, the programmer has options to set, for example, the file mask so that the dialog will only display Text Files (*.txt) or possibly All files (*.*).
Unfortunately, the CommonDialog control does not expose the user settings for everything that can possibly be changed, so there is no convenient (or maybe even possibility) of programmatically remembering run-time user-specified options such as the type of display listing and/or sorting options in the CommonDialog. Those are userspace sorts of things, and while I would, in fact, love to have the option, I don't think it can be done the way I think you are describing.
It's confusing for users since the dialog boxes look the same (and are, for the most part!) between applications, they (the users) think they are part of Windows, (and in a sense, they are!), but the individual implementations of the dialogs are left to the programmers, who use the CommonDialog tool to expose the Windows functions they need to interact with the user. Someonce could (and probably has) write a CommonDialog replacement tool, but most programmers seem to use the built-in Windows functions rather than spend more money for something that has relatively little value-add for most people.
posted by pjern at 9:42 PM on September 2, 2005
I apparently need a "good english" pre-post check option- I can't stand how I mangled tenses in what was otherwise a perfectly good post.
posted by pjern at 9:48 PM on September 2, 2005
posted by pjern at 9:48 PM on September 2, 2005
Response by poster: Thank you, solopsist. Let me clarify the question, with an observation. I am talking about MS programs, like Media Player, and even Explorer (not ie). And sometimes the File-->Open display view will change to thumbnails or something, without me doing it. Since it seems like it can change, I just wondered if there was a way to control it. I guess I'm doomed to clicking five times. Ah well.... Once again, gracias.
posted by umberto at 10:43 PM on September 2, 2005
posted by umberto at 10:43 PM on September 2, 2005
Best answer: If you're talking about what I think you're talking about-basic MS preferences- go into Explore, change the View to whichever you like, (for instance "Details"), then click on Tools, then Folder Options, then the tab that says "View" and, finally, the button that says "Apply to All Folders."
Now all my menus open up in the "Details" format.
If I have totally missed your point, and you are actually talking about something more sophisticated, please ignore this response.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:35 PM on September 2, 2005
Now all my menus open up in the "Details" format.
If I have totally missed your point, and you are actually talking about something more sophisticated, please ignore this response.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:35 PM on September 2, 2005
Response by poster: That worked great for explorer. Thank you. I knew there had to be some way to do that. Sadly, word, wmp, etc. seem to fall under solopsist's more tragic analysis. Although I guess I can just open new docs sraight from explorer come to think of it. So....also solved. Thanks!
posted by umberto at 11:41 PM on September 2, 2005
posted by umberto at 11:41 PM on September 2, 2005
I share your pain. I hate having to click on detail view in file dialogs when that's always the view I want and usually the one I need. I did find a shareware program a couple of years (or more) ago that essentially replaced the system file dialog with a customized one but it didn't work with all programs (those that roll-their-own file dialogs) and it was kind of flakey even when it did work so I ended up uninstalling it. It's academic because I can't find the program anymore.
I remember in pre-OS X Mac days that there were various programs floating around to replace (or enhance) the existing system dialogs and some were incredibly (Boomerang e.g.) useful. It's too bad apparently the same can't be done in Windows.
posted by TimeFactor at 11:57 AM on September 3, 2005
I remember in pre-OS X Mac days that there were various programs floating around to replace (or enhance) the existing system dialogs and some were incredibly (Boomerang e.g.) useful. It's too bad apparently the same can't be done in Windows.
posted by TimeFactor at 11:57 AM on September 3, 2005
BTW, it's trivial for a program to choose a view for the file dialog as you've seen: set a flag and the user sees thumbnail view or whatever, as you've noticed. Unfortunately Windows gives the user no facility to manipulate the default value of that flag.
posted by TimeFactor at 12:01 PM on September 3, 2005
posted by TimeFactor at 12:01 PM on September 3, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by oddman at 9:33 PM on September 2, 2005