Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

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JR147
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Joined: 24 May 2019, 06:58

Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by JR147 »

After performing a search for non-exact duplicate files (such as similar pictures), in the search result, there are occasionally cases where one or more unique files is included among several different groups, and I would like to be able to easily select these files in all of the groups they're included in with a menu option, so I can then use the existing "Remove all selected files from the search result" menu option, in order to easily remove them from all the groups at once.

I think it would be convenient to have a context menu option: "Select highlighted files in all groups" for cases like this where I know I don't want to compare against specific files that are included in several groups.

I see that there's an existing context menu option: "Remove file from the search result", but it only removes it from the groups that you've manually highlighted the file in.
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by Administrator »

Why don't you use the one-step command "Remove highlighted files from the search result" with your highlighted files?
JR147
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by JR147 »

"Remove highlighted files from the search result" still only removes the files you've manually highlighted - if you have a file that appears in multiple groups, you would still need to manually locate that file in each of the groups it's in and either highlight or select each instance of it, or else they will be left behind. It's the same case with the command: "Remove all selected files from the search result".
When you have hundreds of groups in the search result it's not something you'd want to do manually.

If there was a command: "Remove highlighted files from all groups", then that would also accomplish what I'm trying to do in a single step, although a command: "Select highlighted files in all groups" would offer more flexibility in case a user wants to do something else with the selected files instead of remove them from all groups. Having both of these commands available would be ideal!
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by Administrator »

The context menu command "Remove highlighted files from the search result" removes all highlighted files from all groups in the search result...
JR147
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by JR147 »

Yes that's correct, but when you have the same file appearing in multiple groups, you still have to manually select or highlight that file in each of the groups it appears in in order to remove it from all groups.

I think the issue I'm describing (i.e. the same file appearing in many groups) is only potentially an issue for a search result produced from a search of non-exact duplicates, such as a similar images search. As far as I can tell, if you do a search of exact duplicates (such as an MD5 search), each unique file only appears in one group.
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by Administrator »

Sorry, i dont understand what you really want to do....
JR147
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by JR147 »

I think the best way to describe what I mean is with an example:

If you have a sufficiently large folder of similar images that have already had all of its exact duplicates removed (e.g. using a MD5 search), then run a similar images search on it. Here are the settings I used for this:
Comparison method: dHash
Match: 80%
Picture area: entire picture
Comparison size: 8x8

When that search is complete (and assuming you ran the search on a folder with enough images in it), you will notice that in the search result, there are multiple groups that contain the same image (i.e having the same file path), and that image may not be a good match with the other images in the same group. If you know that this is an image that you don't want to be compared with any other images in the entire search result, then currently (as of AllDup version 4.4.54), the only way to select all of the instances of this image among all of the groups it's in, so it can be removed from these groups, is to manually locate and select each instance in each group it's in.

There is a "Select files by path" menu option, which I thought would be able to accomplish what I'm referring to, assuming you could provide a full path to a specific file in the dialog, but: 1) I can't get this to work in version 4.4.54 (it won't select a file when I enter its full file path), and 2) Even if this did work to select every instance of a file, it would be more convenient to have a context menu option rather than having to enter a full file path in the dialog.
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by Administrator »

How about right-click on file and use the command "Select all files with the same path"?
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by Administrator »

JR147 wrote: 23 Jun 2021, 22:30There is a "Select files by path" menu option, which I thought would be able to accomplish what I'm referring to, assuming you could provide a full path to a specific file in the dialog,
this command expect a file path w/o the file name...
JR147
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by JR147 »

Administrator wrote: 24 Jun 2021, 08:09 How about right-click on file and use the command "Select all files with the same path"?
This command can't be used for this purpose because it selects all of the files in the same folder as the one file I'm trying to remove from all of the groups. I would only want to select the highlighted file(s) in all of the groups it/they appear in, not the other files that reside in the folders of those files.
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by Administrator »

Why don't you use the existing context menu command "Select highlighted files" to convert all highlighted files to selected files?
JR147
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by JR147 »

That would work if it selected all instances of the highlighted file(s) in all groups that it/they are in, but I think it only selects the instances that are highlighted, right?
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Re: Suggestion: Select highlighted files in all groups

Post by Administrator »

This command select all highlighted files of the search result. What else should it do?
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