Fences 2.0: Folder Portals are Cool!

Thursday, September 06, 2012 by Island Dog | Discussion: Personal Computing

In case you somehow missed it, the beta for Fences 2.0 was released this week.  Fences has been a hugely popular app and Fences 2.0 takes that up another notch by adding some really cool features.  Today, I wanted to focus on one of them that is my favorite, and that’s folder portals.

This allows you to take a folder and create a Fence on the desktop with the contents of that folder.  This is so convenience and useful for so many reasons, but being able to directly interact with a folder as a fence is just cool.  Not all folders need or can be placed on the desktop, so this gives you the opportunity to work with them regardless of where they reside on your drive.

There’s two ways to get a folder portal going.

  1. Right-click and drag on your desktop like you would for a normal fence.  You will now have an option for a Folder Portal here.
  2. Right-click a folder and create the Folder Portal from there.

9-6-2012 3-55-49 PM

Windows 7 x64-2012-09-06-15-59-17


Visit: http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/beta/download.asp for more info.

18 Reply 11 Referrals
Snowman
Reply #1 Thursday, September 06, 2012 5:07 PM

Folder Portals really is an awesome feature. (I think I've mentioned this a couple of times already)

Next step for this feature should/could be a roll-up function so one could have several portals on one desktop, without having to sort to 'pages'

quoting post

There’s two ways to get a folder portal going.
1. Right-click and drag on your desktop like you would for a normal fence.  You will now have an option for a Folder Portal here.
2. Right-click a folder and create the Folder Portal from there.

3. ALT+Drag a folder to the desktop to show it as a portal


AceMatrix
Reply #2 Thursday, September 06, 2012 5:22 PM

The Folder Portals is definitely one incredible feature. It certainly has streamlined my skinning projects , I no longer have to navigate through dozens of folders to find an image I'm looking for. Just a few flicks of the mouse , and boom! there it is ! Also makes finding a particular piece of music in my vast library so much easier to locate. These new improvements are just too awsome for words. Thank-you Stardock !      -- Ace --


TheDude20165
Reply #3 Friday, September 07, 2012 7:10 AM

Maybe I am missing something here.  Won't a destop shortcut also give you accesss to the folder you want?


Zubaz
Reply #4 Friday, September 07, 2012 7:32 AM

TheDude20165
reply 3
Won't a destop shortcut also give you accesss to the folder you want?
Sure it will but you have to open that folder.  Why not have it open on your desktop, but only when you interact with the desktop?


Rosco_P
Reply #5 Friday, September 07, 2012 9:05 AM

Amazingly enough, you can create a folder portal that points to the desktop, on the desktop, and your computer WON'T explode.  It's crazy.


AceMatrix
Reply #6 Friday, September 07, 2012 2:49 PM

Well, to clarify a little....sometimes I don't know where a particular image is that I may be looking for, so that means I have to click on, and open, then scroll the contents of folder after folder until I find what I'm looking for. The way I have it set up now, The contents of each folder is displayed as an entire page, so basically I have about 6 or 7 pages of images that I can quickly browse by just using Alt+mouse wheel to "turn" the pages. So quick and so easy !!     -- Ace --


Zubaz
Reply #7 Friday, September 07, 2012 3:20 PM

AceMatrix
reply 6
Well, to clarify a little....sometimes I don't know where a particular image is that I may be looking for, so that means I have to click on, and open, then scroll the contents of folder after folder until I find what I'm looking for. The way I have it set up now, The contents of each folder is displayed as an entire page, so basically I have about 6 or 7 pages of images that I can quickly browse by just using Alt+mouse wheel to "turn" the pages. So quick and so easy !!     -- Ace --
Neat.


Leo in WI
Reply #8 Friday, September 07, 2012 4:01 PM

This is a great feature, and to boot it gave me the incentive to move some of the crap on my desktop into a folder in "My Documents." But still with the perfect ease of access for which I was keeping them on the desktop.

Bravo!


Quicksilver007
Reply #9 Monday, September 10, 2012 8:22 AM

Folder Portals, cool reature didn't know that, thanks ID!


MarvinKosh
Reply #10 Monday, September 10, 2012 1:32 PM

Just had the beta installed since about half an hour ago.  Folder Portals are so much better than the caveman way (having a bunch of manually created shortcuts that point to documents in the folder!) and since I can do list or details view, I can save desktop space even while I have access to the folder contents.

The shortcut keys for desktop page switching are very handy on the laptop too, as dragging my screen edge using a touchpad isn't particularly comfortable.

You guys rock!  Have I mentioned today how awesome you are?


Daiwa
Reply #11 Monday, September 10, 2012 11:06 PM

How about network share folders, ID/Zu?  Will they 'reconnect' when you come back?  Strangely enough, I run into a lot of people who don't really grasp the ancient concept of shortcuts, why & how they're important to use in a network environment; folder portals would avoid the 'confusion'.


MarvinKosh
Reply #12 Tuesday, September 11, 2012 2:08 AM

I've used the offline folders feature in Windows 7 to work with files on my laptop and desktop.  That neatly avoids the problem of not having access to a certain network folder, and Fences 2 treats them the same as any other folder.


Zubaz
Reply #13 Tuesday, September 11, 2012 7:17 AM

Daiwa
reply 11
How about network share folders, ID/Zu?  Will they 'reconnect' when you come back?  Strangely enough, I run into a lot of people who don't really grasp the ancient concept of shortcuts, why & how they're important to use in a network environment; folder portals would avoid the 'confusion'.
if the network connection is made before the network connection all is well.There may be an issue with slow network connections but we are looking at that.


Daiwa
Reply #14 Tuesday, September 11, 2012 10:51 AM

Zubaz
reply 13
if the network connection is made before the network connection all is well.

First spelling, now logic.  Huh?


Zubaz
Reply #15 Tuesday, September 11, 2012 10:55 AM

-sigh-
 

If the network connection is made before the fences starts, all is well.


Daiwa
Reply #16 Tuesday, September 11, 2012 12:37 PM

Do you happen to know if there is a way to ensure that happens at network logon, Zu?  Or if that is the default scenario?


Zubaz
Reply #17 Tuesday, September 11, 2012 12:57 PM

It really comes down to finding out what is causing the network connection to be slow I think.


Daiwa
Reply #18 Tuesday, September 11, 2012 1:56 PM

I'm referring to sequence, not speed.  Network's plenty fast.  Thx.


Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

  • Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
  • Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
  • Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
  • It's simple, and FREE!
Login

Articles Filters

Category:
View:
Search:
Apply

Latest Articles

Older >>

Home | About | Privacy | WinCustomize Wiki | Upload Guidelines | Terms of Service | Help
Copyright © Stardock Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


walnut3