Condensed view settings - confused

[Void]

Okay, i'm finally caving in and asking: i just can't figure out how the display settings work in MC. I've tried and tried, spent many many minutes across many instalations in the last months, but I just can't figure it out and with every install I do eventually find a solution that sort-of works, but always only after a lot of frustration, so I have to ask! Basically all i want to do is see just the filename+extension, in multi column, and without any visual clutter like date/size and attrib. I seem to remember in some past times I got this solved by removing (via right click) columns... or no, i think that didn't work, and then I went into customize columns... but then there were always problems such as say only seeing "JP"out of a "JPG"extension or such things.

Also I always kept making changes and used them only to find out that after a restart I lost them. Or today for example I had somehow managed to make them and then found out that when creating a new tab suddenly they were all lost and then I had to recreate them... and now that I did recreate them I can't see the multi column view (which btw was such a FANTASTIC surprise)... so, I'm throwing in the towel: pleeeease, somebody tell me how to do this right once and for all I would very much appreciate your help. I've been struggling with this one a lot and didn't wanna ask if I could fix it myself, but I just can't seem to get to the bottom of it. I want that always and at all times to see only name.ext columns of files (eg. not just a long list as I'm seeing now... i know the feature is somewhere in there because if I manually drag a column width for a few seconds I can see multiple columns beautifully form... now if only there was a way to at some point just release the mouse and for it to stay that way, with that configured width... oh, how wonderful it would be!)

Thank you very much in advance for your help, and big thanks to the MC creators for providing us with such a great program!

PS: to clarify, where I'm currenntly stuck is I have managed to create a single column "name" which includes the extension, and I am in List mode, but I can't seem to be able to make multi columns stay longer than when I'm holding down the mouse dragging the bar at the top right of the file viewer, and as soon as I let go they go back to just one column

[Jungle]

1. If you want multiple file columns view, switch to List View mode. But it is lost after exit.
2. If you want different set of columns, you should 'Customize columns...' (in column popup menu), then 'Set current layout as default'

[Void]

Yes, I don't want it just temporarily, but as a constant permanent setting. I have edited in customize columns all the combinations I could think of but I have not yet been able to find one which allows me to see the multiple columns.

[Mathias (Author)]

I Assume you are talking about running the tab in LIST mode.
Changing view mode to List Mode should be saved between restarts. However when creating a new tabs it will be in detail mode.
And if you create tab at startup from script or command line it will not remember the view mode settings since you are creating NEW tabs, Not restoring old.  since the view mode settings is unique to the opened tabs.

Columns have very little use in LIST mode. Only the first column is used to size. (and all column will be shown with that size.)
the other columns are only used for sorting. So adding/removing column when in List Mode will have no effect.

Not sure what your problem is. I'm not able to recreate it, or I'm not understanding your problem correct.
I can switch a tab to List Mode and then exit , and start MC again and that tab is now still in list mode.

[Jungle]

Changing view mode to List Mode should be saved between restarts.

AFAIR, list mode remained after restart. But now it is not saved.

[Mathias (Author)]

Changing view mode to List Mode should be saved between restarts.

AFAIR, list mode remained after restart. But now it is not saved.

It remains but then it does not ?

I switch left a tab on the left side to list mode, Exit , Start , left side still in list mode... Or I'm missing something ?

[Jungle]

I figured out why list view mode is not remained. It is because i disabled Remember open paths option.

[Mathias (Author)]

I figured out why list view mode is not remained. It is because i disabled Remember open paths option.

Ahh. Yes that is correct. If this option is off. And MC starts without finding ANY old tab data, it will open two new tabs with default settings (one on each side)

[Void]

Okay. I think i get it now. What was happening is that as soon as I managed to have multi columns in a tab I would proceed to right click on the top bar and uncheck to me useless fields fields such as Ext, Size, Date and Attrib to clear out the visual clutter, but as soon as I got rid of them MC cut out columns, first in a fixable way, but after only "name" remained in an unfixable way (the columns would snap back to just one after a drag, at the moment of the mouse release).

As for the new tabs, that is quite annoying that it resets to the (to me ugly mess) view every time I create a tab, something I do often. It seems to do that even after I do a "set current layout as default". Shouldn't by definition a new tab be based on the default (in my case a list multiple columns with just filename)? And if not, wouldn't it at least make more sense that any new tab is a duplicate of the current one? These things to me seem quite natural and important, and if otherwise it would negate the usefulness of the quick use of tabs due to the time lost in always reconfiguring. Is there any way one could have that kind of behavior? I believe any new tab should be either an instance of a default tab (which should be configurable by the user), or if one wants a more user reactive interface as a duplicate of the cutomizing the user has already done on the current tab.

On another topic, is it normal that after unchecking Date, Size & Attrib, they reappear as soon as I do "set as default layout" exactly with the purpose of not having to set them off again, and the same thing after every restart?

Thank you so much for all your patience & help! With every month MC is becoming more and more powerful!

[Jungle]

Don't uncheck columns, go to Cusomize columns set...

[Mathias (Author)]

"set current layout as default" only affect what columns and columns sizes you want as default.. it does not affect what view mode you want to have.

What view mode should be used for new tabs can not be changed, It is always "Details". But there will be an settings for what the default view mode for new tabs should be in the future.

"Unchecking" column does not change the saved column set. just the current in memory set.. (this will change in the future) So you need to choose Remove Column (if shown.. only for none default column) or modify the "[Default]" column set under "Customize columns sets.."

[Void]

Thanks! I changed the default set (or would it have been enough to set my custom set that I had set as default? but didn't wanna take a chance). Initially I had the snapping back to one column problem because I had removed the Ext (knowing there's an option where the ext is included in the file name field), but then I added ext and now it seems to work fine. Thank you very much for your help!