Excel 2016 VBA FilePicker - Code to add Folders to Quick Access Group on Navigation Pane - excel

I can't find a way to add links of folders (network ones) to the "Quick Access" group in the Navigation Pane of Excel 2016's File or Folder Picker.
I create a File or Folder Picker in VBA, then I assign the most likely useful starting folder to .InitialFileName of the Picker object, but then there are another two almost as likely folder paths for the user to start with.
All three starting folder options are a pain to browse, hence the need to stick a link for the other two likely paths somewhere (which are not set at .InitialFilename). I could only think of the above described place to have links to the paths.
All help is appreciated...
First I tried to be really clever and judge the most likely path to be used (by the available data at this point of the macro), but all three possible paths are very likely starting points to pick the actual file or folder needed.
Then I went through the Properties of the File and Folder Picker Objects.
I found nothing about customising the Navigation Pane.
I found a way to add entries to Excel Recent Files, but I could only add files to it not folders, and also Recent Files List isn't available in File or Folder Picker.

Related

Search for files in folders that have a dot in their name

1st, I want to cover what this question is not about. There are 100's of articles that talk about how to search for folders with dots within their names. This is not the question. This is about searching for files within a folder that has dots in its name.
Say I have a folder
c:\public\dev\process.ui.help\
I have another folder
c:\public\processuihelp\
I have exact copies of the same files in each folder
help.csproj
help.cs
help.cs has a line in it like
//find this - SearchForMe
if in explorer and I search "SearchForMe", then explorer only returns help.cs from the 2nd folder but not the first. It may be treating the dotted folder names as extensions.
Edit: in the index options, any folders with extensions are automatically being de-selected. If I reselect them and save, they are de-selected again.
Is there any work-around or alternative search?
Why? : In this large development project (10's of projects, 1000's of folders), I am using dotted folder names to organise namespaces without creating a deep hierarchy of folders. Windows allows dotted folder names.
I haven't searched with built-in windows searches for a long time.
I just replicated your situation and tried searching with "Search My Files" and with "Everything", two tools I use frequently and both found both files immediately. Maybe give either or both of them a try and see if they do what you are looking for.
Edit: Everything is by voidtools, search my files by nirsoft, both are freeware.

Can I filter sidebar directories by name (in sublime text 3) to quickly find node module, for example?

Here is my example, where I could have some input to filter directory subfolders.
The direct answer to the question is that this is not possible; the list of files and folders in the side bar is controlled by what folders you add and the settings that you include/exclude files and folders from within those folders. In theory you could try to modify the settings to change what appears in the side bar, but every time those settings change the file catalog needs to be rebuilt, which is something that can take some time (particularly in something with a large node_modules folder). It also causes all of the folders in the side bar to fold up.
The expected workflow is more designed around working with files than with working with groups of folders and that workflow centers around the Goto Anything panel. Choosing Goto > Goto Anything in the menu will open a panel showing you a list of every file that is currently contained in the side bar (except binary files).
The panel can filter text via fuzzy matching using as many search terms as you want (in any order you want) and will move the most likely matches closer to the top of the list. It also learns over time what files you pick when you use certain filters.
For your use case here you can open the panel and use a filter like node_modules or nmod/ to filter to files in the node_modules/ directory, acorn/ to see only files that exist in folders that match acorn, or a combination. You can also include fragments of filenames like lodash/ indjs to bring the index.js of the `lodash/ package to the top of the list.
The best way to get a feel for how this works is to play with it a little bit. Note also that the context menu in open files has a Reveal in side bar command that will focus the side bar on that file, which can be a handy way to see the other siblings of files you have open.

Manage external data source locations in Excel when sharing the file across Dropbox

When working in Excel, sometimes we have external data sources.
In Windows, these files may be stored in a specific location such as C:\Users\Freelensia\Dropbox\data source.xls
When sharing the main file and the data source file with another person through file-sharing services such as Dropbox, the location of the data source will be changed to:
C:\Users\PeterSmith\Dropbox\data source.xls
(from the view of the Peter Smith user)
This will break the data connection in the main file when Peter opens it. He can reset the path to the one as seen from his computer, but that will break the connection for the Freelensia user when he/she opens it from his/her end.
Is there a way to permanently fix these locations for multiple users? Such that Excel will correctly get the path when the right user opens it.
I am looking for an inherent Excel property if such a thing exists. Else VBA macros (A table with the file paths for each user, and MsgBox that ask the user to choose the user profile). Else a Windows .bat file could work as well.
Thank you for your help.
A trick to this is to move your Dropbox to C:\Dropbox for all users.
To do that, click on the Dropbox icon at the bottom-right, click the Gear Icon, Settings, Sync Tab, then you can move the folder to C:\Dropbox.
If you encounter permission errors, follow the instructions here to reset the permissions:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/move-dropbox-folder
If my understanding is right when ever a different user opens/saves a file the path "C:\Users\xxxxxxx\Dropbox\data source.xls" will be same only "xxxxxxx" in the path will be varying with the active user who has logged in.
So use "Application.UserName" function to get the username and use it in the path mentioned above
Excel uses relative links, even though it shows longer paths in the cells when you look at them. This ends up meaning that if you move the file and the file(s) it is connecting to a different location then the links will still work.
If you put your main file in Dropbox\Excel\main.xlsx and then your data sources in Dropbox\Excel\Data\data sources.xlsx then I think you should be good.
I tested this with Google Drive on two different computers, taking turns opening and modifying the data source and also opening and having the main file update without any issues.
I am not positive if this would work for you in Dropbox, but I really think it should... I am using Excel 2010, so if you are using Excel 2003 (or saving files as .xls instead of the newer .xlsx format) there is a possibility that could cause issues.

How to Get specific version of solution when there are multiple solution?

I have multiple solutions in a folder. For example
C:\Code
-Solution1.sln
-Solution2.sln
-Solution3.sln
-[All other project files/folders belongs to above solution, etc]
Note that having these solutions in separate folders is not an option for me.
Assume if I open a one solution in VS2012 (i.e Solution1.sln). I right click on the solution
and select Source Control -> Get Specific Version...
Select Type "Latest Version", and tick two check boxes
a. Overwrite writable files that are not checked out
b. Overwrite all files even if the local version matches
And then press the "Get" button.
The problem is that this operation gets the all the latest files for the c:\Code folder - even the ones that are not belongs to my current opened solution (Solution1.sln). It replaces the files for Solution2 and Solution3.
Is there a way I can configure TFS only to get Solution1 file?
I'm using TFS2012
Update: Please see the sample structure below.
Okay. You have to move all your solution files to a solution folder will solve your problem. TFS is trying to get all the files from the solution folder and its sub folder. That's why you having this issue. Create a folder called Solution, you can create it inside the code folder or outside. Open your solution1 file in vs2012 and select the solution file and choose File -> Save Solution1.sln as and save it in the solutions directory. Repeat the same for all the solution files.
Once you are happy with the new solution files from the solutions directory, delete the old solutions files form the code directory.
Browse to your solution in Source Control Explorer, select "Get Specific Version" from the Advanced menu: it should work fine.

Total Commander How to feed list listbox with selected files

Just like Search result can feed the listbox (which opens new temporary tab),
is there a way to:
simply select files from one directory and feed the listbox?
select files from multiple directories and feed the same listbox?
Just to rename listbox's temporary tab and you could have favorite list of items over which you could perform more actions. This would increase productivity tremendously!
Regarding #1:
After you select the files activate:
Menu > Show > Only Selected Files
Regarding #2:
It's probably not what you were after, but you can use DiskDir / DiskDir Extended to add files (using a packer functionality, so you create an 'archive' file with extension .lst which contains a hierarchical list of the added files. You can then change source folder and then add more files. Later you just click on the .lst file and it looks no different then your normal file / folder list. Unfortunatelly you cannot rename the files, but you can launch them, with an extra confirmation.
UPDATE
Similar functionalitybut with 'source' renaming functionality limited to one file only (?): Virtual Panel, (File System Plugin, accessible through the Network Neighborhood 'drive'). It can launch files without a confirmation window. Rename 'source/target' file when you use it's own subbar (located here: %%COMMANDER_PATH%%\Plugins\WFX\VirtualPanel\EN\VirtualPanel.bar, make sure that you also have installed the AskParam addon and have paths in the VirtualPanel.bar right (both to AskParam.exe and VPBatch.exe). 'Regular' rename will change the file name only in the virtual panel.
URL: Virtual Panel Plugin

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