Pop-up Help messages in 3.8

[Morf]

These seem to have become very annoying in 3.8:

Every time I hit Load I get "Why do you not use drag-and-drop to directly drop in your files" - simple answer, because I don't want to! Tell me once, but don't tell me every time.

I load a file, then hit Match, I get "Nothing to match. Please add some files or fetch data first". Yes this is a valid message, but actually what it doesn't tell me is the thing that I always forget even now, and which really confused me when I first started using FileBot - I have to right click Match to get the fetch data menu.

Why not include this in the explanation, or better still (which would make Filebot more friendly for new users), make a left click on "Match" bring up the Series/Movie Data menu if a source hasn't already been selected?.

Failing that, a third button down the middle:

Fetch Data (which brings up the "Series/Movie Data" menu"
Match
Rename

This would give a logical flow to the operations which is missing at the moment.

Can the user's preferred source for data be made a permanent preference? In that way I could select the source once and have it used every time unless I right click and select a different one.

HTH,

Morf

[rednoah]

You can get that menu by:
* right-click Names list (seems most logical for me)
* right-click Files list
* click Fetch Data button (in case you don't have a right mouse button)
* right-click Match button (this one is stupid, so use one of the options above)

Not available anymore:
* click Match button

Because Match always had another function. But since matching requires entries on both sides, I thought I help people along by suggesting they fetch data. Thus the Match button had two completely different functions depending on the state of the application.

The message "... and fetch data first" should hopefully direct users toward the "Fetch Data" button.

This is how I had imagined the logical flow:

Drag movie or episode files into the "Original Files" list area
Right-click "New Names" list area and select your preferred datasource
Hit "Rename"!

So I'm quite surprised people use "click Match button" more than "right-click Names list" cause the former was just a hack to things for people clicking buttons randomly. But I don't care, I've already reverted that change, so you can have back the old behavior with the next release.

[rednoah]

Just auto-selecting a data source requires a lot of assumptions about your input and the choice of data source can make a big difference so I want users to actively know what they're doing.

There's always cmdline for specialized usage and do things like this:
http://www.filebot.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1053

Every time I hit Load I get "Why do you not use drag-and-drop to directly drop in your files" - simple answer, because I don't want to!

Hopefully the messages will annoy you into using drag-n-drop. You can thank me later.

[Morf]

This is how I had imagined the logical flow:

Drag movie or episode files into the "Original Files" list area
Right-click "New Names" list area and select your preferred datasource
Hit "Rename"!

And you know, I never even realised you could right click "new names" and get the menu!

For a flow to work for most people, it has to go left to right. Presented with the Filebot screen, it's logical to work out to pick some files at the left, then pick an action button in the middle and see a result at the right. Going left - right - middle is counter-intuitive to me at least.

Also, with the flow you mention, the "match" button isn't needed, whereas being big and central the perception is it's important.

So I'm quite surprised people use "click Match button" more than "right-click Names list" cause the former was just a hack to things for people clicking buttons randomly. But I don't care, I've already reverted that change, so you can have back the old behavior with the next release.

I remember when I first tried FileBot (maybe before you added this hack) I worked out how to load the files easily enough, but I puzzled for ages about how to make it do something with them! I finally had to search out instructions to find out to right click the Match button. That sort of thing is enough to make a new user say "I can't work this" and hit uninstall. As it is, when I recommended FileBot to friends I remembered to tell them about the right click.

Also, I think most people expect to be able to work something using only left click, which isn't possible without the hack. Glad you're putting it back!

[Morf]

Just auto-selecting a data source requires a lot of assumptions about your input and the choice of data source can make a big difference so I want users to actively know what they're doing.

Maybe I wasn't clear, I wasn't suggesting auto-selecting, just a way for the user to say "use source xxxx every time unless I pick differently". For instance, 95% of the time I use The TVDB, if I could set a preference that says my preferred source is The TVDB then I could simply select source files, hit Match, make sure it looks OK and hit rename.

There's always cmdline for specialized usage and do things like this:
http://www.filebot.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1053

Now that I do like, never noticed this before! Just needed a quick tweak to use my format preferences (I prefer SnnEnn to nXnn), and seems to be working fine. Many thanks!

[Edit to add] - and if I don't like the rename, it's there in the rename history to revert it. Even better!

Every time I hit Load I get "Why do you not use drag-and-drop to directly drop in your files" - simple answer, because I don't want to!

Hopefully the messages will annoy you into using drag-n-drop. You can thank me later.

I'm a Luddite, no other explanation!

[rednoah]

Yes. CLI/GUI will work with the same history file. So rename/revert things with CLI/GUI interchangeably.

You can easily add another context action for Revert using this script:
http://www.filebot.net/forums/viewtopic ... 2485#p2485