XYplorer 17.80 has been released on 21-Mar-2017. Here’s a quick introduction to the main new features:

• Icons in Custom Columns
• Circles in Custom Columns
• Scroll Margin
• Ad-Free

• Icons in Custom Columns. Now you can create your own columns and have them display icons of your choice. E.g. you could create a column that shows a special camera icon for all photos that were shot with a Nikon. Make stand out what’s important to you, and do it in a way that works best for you and your eyes.

  Let’s look at that Nikon example:

  

  Nikon shots are clearly marked by the black camera icon.

  How to do it: First select an icon (any *.ico file), call it "Nikon.ico", and place it in the "Icons" folder under XYplorer’s app data folder. It could be anywhere else but this is the default path for Custom Column icons. It makes the scripting easier, more readable, and also portable.

  Now create a new Custom Column (Configuration | Custom Columns | Custom column definitions), set the caption to "Nikon", set the column type to "Script", and the column format to "Icon".

  Now paste the following script into the script field. It sets the column contents to "Nikon.ico" for all files where the property CameraModel contains the string "Nikon":

  $camera = property("#image.cameramodel", <cc_item>);
  if (strpos($camera, "Nikon") != -1) {
    return "Nikon.ico";
  } 
  

  Set the item filter to "jpg;jpeg". This will limit the job to JPEG files (we want speed).

  Now the column configuration should look similar to this:

  

  Nikon shots are clearly marked by the black camera icon.

  Now add a new column to your list (View | Columns | Add Column), right-click the column header (still named "(Undefined)"), and click "Select Custom Column..." in the popup menu. Now from the list select "Nikon, Script (jpg;jpeg)" and press OK.

  Now the icon should appear for all JPEG files that were shot with a Nikon.

  
  

  Of course, you can have any number of icons in one column, and also more than one icon column (actually up to 64) in the list. Here is a screenshot of a more colorful situation:

  

  Colorful situation.

  This is the script for the "Icon" column above. It doesn’t make much sense but it shows a way to return specific icons on specific conditions:

  $base = getpathcomponent(<cc_name>, "base");
  if (strlen($base) <= 8) {
    return "ads_black.ico";
  } elseif (strlen($base) <= 12) {
    return "Football.ico";
  } elseif (strlen($base) <= 16) {
    return "SmileyHearts.ico";
  } elseif (strlen($base) <= 20) {
    return "Green.ico";
  } elseif (strlen($base) <= 24) {
    return "ExclamationBubble.ico";
  } elseif (strlen($base) <= 32) {
    return "Acorn.ico";
  } else {
    return "Green.ico";
  }
  

  
  

  The bottomline of all this is, of course: Icons are easier on the eye than text, so here is a way to increase the accessibility of information, relieve eye strain, and put a little more color into file management. Which brings us straight to the next feature...

• Circles in Custom Columns. Now you can decorate your files with colorful circles. Brings back a long-missed psychedelic kindergarten vibe to file management.

  Here’s something for the playful creative nerd (in all of us). The possibilities are vast, so beware not to sacrifice your free time to this bubble gum feature. But, on the other hand, it can be pretty cool, too, I mean look at this:

  

  Circles.

  This is the script for the "Circ" column above. It doesn’t make much sense but it gives you an idea of the possibilities:

  $base = getpathcomponent(<cc_name>, "base");
  if (strlen($base) <= 8) {
    return ">draw.circle 12, 004444, 127, 4";
  } elseif (strpos($base, "mirror") == 0) {
    return ">draw.circle , 008000, 150, 3";
  } elseif (strpos($base, "v") != -1) {
    return ">draw.circle; , 66cc55, 200, , 7";
  } elseif (strpos($base, "bill") == 0) {
    return ">draw.circle 8, ff0000, 127; 8, ff0000, 127,, 10; 8, ff0000, 127,, 20";
  } elseif (strpos(property("#image.cameramodel", <cc_item>), "Canon") != -1) {
    return ">draw.circle 8, 0066ff, 127; 8, 0066ff, 192,, 10; 8, 0066ff, 255,, 20";
  } elseif (strpos($base, "fuji") == 0) {
    return ">draw.circle 10, dd6600, 192";
  } else {
    return ">draw.circle 18, C70102, 180; 12, FFFFFF; 6, 0380B8, 180";
  }
  

  
  

  Now it’s your turn to design cute circles and give them some meaning. Check out the Help file under Custom Columns for the syntax of the draw.circle command.

• Scroll Margin. Introducing a smart little usability enhancer that gives some context to your cursor when moving up or down the list with the arrow keys. Lets you see where you are going before you go there. Relaxing.

  This one is for typers. First set your preferred scroll margin at Configuration | Menus, Mouse, Safety | Usability | Scroll margin. A nice value is 2.

  Here is a mini movie about going up with the Up key and a scroll margin of 2:

  

  Going up. (Click to see the movie...)

  The setting affects keys Up, Down, PageUp, and PageDown in Tree and List when there is a vertical scrollbar. It also controls where the focused item is positioned when you do Ctrl+Dbl-Click on white space (= Scroll focused item into view) in Tree or List.

• Ad-Free. Now that Microsoft is showing ads within File Explorer it might be worthwhile to mention that XYplorer provides an ad-free experience. Explore files without an adblocker! :)