chopper1690
New member
URL: www.filecollager.com
The product:
FileCollager is a next-gen file manager nearing beta release with lots of unique features:
-Ability to undo/redo operations (wherever possible), in and out of order
-Queuing operations and working on files that are not yet there (i.e. you can queue an operation without actually starting it and changes it would make will be immediately visible as new icons (and marked appropriately)). You can then already work on those files - you can open them (and in such case the original file will be opened) or make other operations on them, such as copy, move, etc. In this case what really happens is that these new operations will be queued after the operations they depend on.
-The aplication automatically detects when it's alright to process operations in parallel (that is when they use different physical drives).
-Extremely customizable application layout. The application interface consists of panes of different types, such as folder listing, file preview, search, etc. They can be dragged one next to another, one over another (in which case tabs are created), they can be made to hide automatically to the side or dragged out to form a new window. These layouts can then be saved and loaded on demand depending on what the user intends to do.
-You can switch any folder listing to different a user or to sdmin mode, which means that whatever you do in this listing will be done in the context of this user (for example different users can have different home folders, can have or not have access to certain folders etc.)
-Improved sorting (you can sort by multiple columns) and you can reorder columns
-Built-in preview/syntax highlighting for 200+ file types, such as images, source code files, audio/video files, Microsoft Office (but only OpenXML format) documents, PDF, RTF files etc.
-You can view file metadata and search through it (for example photos have additional data such as the location where it was taken, which camera model was used etc., music files can have the album name, artist, cover art image embedded, etc.)
-External applications can be included in this layout as well. There is a special pane, called App Dock Pane and when you drag&drop any window onto it then this window will be docked so effectively it becomes a part of another window. For some applications, such as Chrome and Firefox it even remembers open browser tabs when saving the layout with such application in it. Most administrative tools in Windows can be docked in this way as well.
-Panes can be linked, which means synchronizing them in some way, usually their current file/folder. For example you can link folder listing with a file preview pane in such a way that whenever you change current file in folder listing the associated file preview pane will display its contents.
-The application has improved file search capabilities. It can either search for files in a traditional way by searching through disk but it is time consuming. But it can also use indexed search which principle is that there is a service running in the background constantly updating sort of a table of contents of a disk which makes the search near-instantaneous, but at a cost of this catalog being slightly outdated at times. Two such services are currently supported - built in Windows Search (the same that Start Menu uses when you type in something) and an application called Everything (https://www.voidtools.com/).
-File comparison is implemented by docking external applications using aforementioned layout mechanism (if they are installed) - KDiff3 (http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/) and WinMerge (https://winmerge.org/). File comparison essentially means opening two similar files in two panes and differences between their contents are highlighted.
-File Collager can open archives, including password-protected ones and remember their passwords if you chose to so that you don't have to provide them the next time.
The market:
Probably mainly corporations trying to boost their workers' productivity but also professionals that work on large number of files (such as graphic designers, web-devs, software engineers)
Competition:
Very stagnant and lacks most of aforementioned features (Total Commander, Altap Salamander, Directory Opus, Xplorer², XYPlorer, Q-Dir).
Stage:
Currently self-funded, hopefully the product becomes self-sufficient quickly
Customer conversion strategy:
Standard 30-day trial, bulk licenses, hopefully promo video will be enough to create some hype
EDIT: Formatting on desktop
The product:
FileCollager is a next-gen file manager nearing beta release with lots of unique features:
-Ability to undo/redo operations (wherever possible), in and out of order
-Queuing operations and working on files that are not yet there (i.e. you can queue an operation without actually starting it and changes it would make will be immediately visible as new icons (and marked appropriately)). You can then already work on those files - you can open them (and in such case the original file will be opened) or make other operations on them, such as copy, move, etc. In this case what really happens is that these new operations will be queued after the operations they depend on.
-The aplication automatically detects when it's alright to process operations in parallel (that is when they use different physical drives).
-Extremely customizable application layout. The application interface consists of panes of different types, such as folder listing, file preview, search, etc. They can be dragged one next to another, one over another (in which case tabs are created), they can be made to hide automatically to the side or dragged out to form a new window. These layouts can then be saved and loaded on demand depending on what the user intends to do.
-You can switch any folder listing to different a user or to sdmin mode, which means that whatever you do in this listing will be done in the context of this user (for example different users can have different home folders, can have or not have access to certain folders etc.)
-Improved sorting (you can sort by multiple columns) and you can reorder columns
-Built-in preview/syntax highlighting for 200+ file types, such as images, source code files, audio/video files, Microsoft Office (but only OpenXML format) documents, PDF, RTF files etc.
-You can view file metadata and search through it (for example photos have additional data such as the location where it was taken, which camera model was used etc., music files can have the album name, artist, cover art image embedded, etc.)
-External applications can be included in this layout as well. There is a special pane, called App Dock Pane and when you drag&drop any window onto it then this window will be docked so effectively it becomes a part of another window. For some applications, such as Chrome and Firefox it even remembers open browser tabs when saving the layout with such application in it. Most administrative tools in Windows can be docked in this way as well.
-Panes can be linked, which means synchronizing them in some way, usually their current file/folder. For example you can link folder listing with a file preview pane in such a way that whenever you change current file in folder listing the associated file preview pane will display its contents.
-The application has improved file search capabilities. It can either search for files in a traditional way by searching through disk but it is time consuming. But it can also use indexed search which principle is that there is a service running in the background constantly updating sort of a table of contents of a disk which makes the search near-instantaneous, but at a cost of this catalog being slightly outdated at times. Two such services are currently supported - built in Windows Search (the same that Start Menu uses when you type in something) and an application called Everything (https://www.voidtools.com/).
-File comparison is implemented by docking external applications using aforementioned layout mechanism (if they are installed) - KDiff3 (http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/) and WinMerge (https://winmerge.org/). File comparison essentially means opening two similar files in two panes and differences between their contents are highlighted.
-File Collager can open archives, including password-protected ones and remember their passwords if you chose to so that you don't have to provide them the next time.
The market:
Probably mainly corporations trying to boost their workers' productivity but also professionals that work on large number of files (such as graphic designers, web-devs, software engineers)
Competition:
Very stagnant and lacks most of aforementioned features (Total Commander, Altap Salamander, Directory Opus, Xplorer², XYPlorer, Q-Dir).
Stage:
Currently self-funded, hopefully the product becomes self-sufficient quickly
Customer conversion strategy:
Standard 30-day trial, bulk licenses, hopefully promo video will be enough to create some hype
EDIT: Formatting on desktop