What Does it Do - The Essentials?

FlashFolder is a small utility that enhances the common Open/Save File dialog boxes used by windows programs. It sits on top of the dialog box (docks) as shown above (the red border has been added to illustrate). FlashFolder provides several additional functions in the form of a toolbar to help you use and navigate when opening and saving files. I personally think this is a great little program.

Summary:

• Go To Last Folder
• Favorite Folders/Bookmarks
• Last Used Folders
• Resizes Dialog Box
• Positions Dialog Box at Screen Centre (Optional)
• View “All Files” in a folder
• Provides a file/folder path address bar
• Integrates with Total Commander directory menu

Pros: What’s Good?

• Simple and intuitive to use
• Provides some very useful functions
• Options/Configuration simple
• Low memory usage
• Allows exclusion of individual programs
• Appears stable in use
• Freeware
• Open Source
• AutoRun from startup

Cons: What’s Not So Good?

• Lack of back and forward navigation through folders (Breadcrumbs Functionality)
• Can’t toggle “View All Files” off

Why Would You Want It?

1. FlashFolder provides a means to quickly navigate to favorite and recently used folders. Many users experience the frustration of having to keep navigating to folders in which files are kept for different programs or different types of data. FlashFolder gives a quick and intuitive way to help get to these folders with a minimum of fuss.
2. Common File Dialog boxes are often of fixed or limited size and rather smaller than is convenient, particularly when the “Detailed” view is selected and scrolling horizontally is necessary to et to the Date Accessed, Date Modified, Attributes, etc columns. FlashFolder resizes the dialog box to a user definable size and allows manual resizing of the box with the mouse.
3. Programs usually define the file extension available for opening e.g with Notepad you can only view *.txt files. The user may wish to open a log file which is known to be in the directory but cannot be seen. With some programs this can be dealt with by a dropdown for the file type in the dialog box but this is somewhat cumbersome. The “View All Files” filter button overcomes this issue quickly and efficiently (except for the inability to reverse the action).

The following dialogs are currently supported:

• Common Open/Save dialog (Windows 2000/XP)
• MS Office 2002/2003 Open/Save dialog (Windows XP)
• common “Browse for folder” dialog (Windows 2000/XP)
• “Open With” dialog (Windows 2000)

More About What it Does in Detail:

Last Used Folder

The Last Used Folder button provides an instant return to that folder when pressed no matter where you currently are in the system path structure. As the above screenshot shows there is a tooltip showing the path which displays when the mouse pointer is hovered over the button as per standard Windows functionality. (All FlashFolder buttons have relevant tooltips)

Global Folder History

The Global Folder History appears as a dropdown when the button is pressed. The required folder can the be accessed by left clicking on it with the mouse. The total number of history items can be set in “Options” and appears to have a limit of 50 but this is not tested.

Folders of Currently Open Files

Displays a list of folders. How it determines which are the relevant “open files”I am unsure about as it shows a different dropdown depending on which program you open the dialog in.

Favorite Folders

Displays a dropdown of the folders already entered as favorites as well as options to make the current folder a favorite “Add Current Folder” or open the Favorites Manager shown below.

Favorites Manager

The favorites manager is another example of efficient programing in terms of functionality and useability, the screenshot says it all - impressive!

View All Files

Allows the user to remove the File Type restriction

Options

The Options Button gives access to “Check for Updates” and “About” screens as well as the options dialog screen.

The “Options” dialog screen presents a limited but well thought out series of options.

These allow you to set position and sizes for the Common Dialog windows as well as programs to exclude from being changed by FlashFolder. You can also set a keyboard shortcuts for several of the functions available within the program if you so wish.

What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?

What is the My Free Review Experience?

I have used this program for several weeks on two different laptops and it is now installed on my main desktop PC. I have found it to be very useful in my day to day work. It seems apparently stable in that it has not crashed nor does it appear to have had any adverse effect on any other program.

What Could Make it be Better?

• Back and forward navigation through opened folders trail (Breadcrumbs functionality)
• Vista Compatibility (The author states that it is not currently compatible with Windows Vista)
• Incorporate the History function into the address bar as a dropdown

NB The author is currently working on the next version (see website) but this does not currently address the points I would most like to see as improvements. The current areas being worked on are a better Favorites manager and display. Better integration with Total Commander.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Freeware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.