Sort columns in "download in progress screen"

Not sure about this.

Case 1: Queue order changes when sorted

• Destroys queue order
• Might happen unintentionally (quite often)

Case 2: Only display order changes

• Queue order does not correspond to display order anymore
• Causes confusion
• What about those Queue reorder operations? "Move to top" will cause the item to jump to bottom e.g. because of the display/sort order?

Can you provide any more details on how to realize your idea.

Reality is that if you are downloading a large number of items and you're not sure if something is already in the queue, it's hard to know without manually scanning throuhg a (very long) list.

Case 1 is not desirable for the reasons you cite.

Case 2 can be implemented by adding a left-most column for "queue order" value to reduce confusions. Users would be able to indicate under "preferences" whether to auto-sort the displayed list by the queue order (the current functionality), or to sort by any other field without disrupting downloads in progress or disrupting the current queue order. Move to top and move to bottom features consequently would not change the physical position on the list, but instead change the value in the queue sequence field. Sort by the queue order column to come back to the original view. Later features could include a "change download queue based on current order" option, reassigning all values in the "queue order" field.

Thanks for considering.

Replying to MaierMan:

Not sure about this. Case 1: Queue order changes when sorted * Destroys queue order * Might happen unintentionally (quite often) Case 2: Only display order changes * Queue order does not correspond to display order anymore * Causes confusion * What about those Queue reorder operations? "Move to top" will cause the item to jump to bottom e.g. because of the display/sort order? Can you provide any more details on how to realize your idea.

hmm... I still think this may confuse people...

We will explore if and how we will implement this.

Some first thoughts:

• The sorting should not be persistent across sessions (per default).
  That way we avoid "queue is unordered" bugreports all over.
• No additional preferences for this, at least no UI-prefs.

Yes, the option should be available only in the active download window, not persistent.

This would help a lot, as you have a lot of file and want to see the progress of file for example nr.234 i need to scroll down , but this way i only click on the "Progress" tab and it sorts them.

Replying to MaierMan:

hmm... I still think this may confuse people... We will explore if and how we will implement this. Some first thoughts: * The sorting should not be persistent across sessions (per default).
That way we avoid "queue is unordered" bugreports all over. * No additional preferences for this, at least no UI-prefs.

But sometimes sorting the queue itself is the goal. It might be good to be able to right click on a column heading to get a drop-down menu that allows you to just change the order the list is displayed or change the queue order (perhaps with a warning dialog box that you can turn off if you want). It is a lot harder to right click and select a menu item by accident than it is to left click on something by accident, especially with a warning box.

Suggestions:

1. For downloading-in-progress sorts: One-time-only sorting. Sort a snapshot of the queue at the time, then continue downloading. Don't try to resort on the fly. 1a. Perhaps a notification box informing the user of this, with a checkbox "Don't tell me again."

2. For sorts when no downloads are occurring: why not?