Dragging a file into an open archive is subtly broken at the moment.
The sequence of events currently is:
drag an item from Windows Explorer onto an open archive in 7-zip
7-zip will show a confirmation dialog
if you click “yes” then the file will be added to the archive.
This doesn't work on modern operating systems. Windowing systems (either Windows or any Linux desktop) will not allow an application to grab the focus without user interaction. So the confirmation dialog doesn't actually pop to the front. And now we have a couple of small issues which together fatally break this feature:
The confirmation popup isn't centred on the 7-zip window, but on the screen. Often that means it will pop under another window, and it will not be visible to the user.
The drop message is handled synchronously, including the popup. This will hang the application where the drag operation came from (Explorer in our Example) until the user switches to 7-zip and dismisses the dialog.
If you drag a few files one by one, having to dismiss a popup dialog every time is cumbersome.
So, at first sight, dropping a file onto 7-zip just hangs Explorer. No other effect will be immediately visible.
It is only after (1) switching to 7-zip, then (2) dismissing the dialog, and (3) switching back to Explorer that the user can continue to select the next file he wants to drop.
✽ Note: I know that you can select multiple files at once using ctrl+click. But this is a somewhat advanced thing to do for an average user, and even for advanced users it is too easy to accidentally clear the selection. It is very much preferable to drag files one by one.
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Hi,
Dragging a file into an open archive is subtly broken at the moment.
The sequence of events currently is:
This doesn't work on modern operating systems. Windowing systems (either Windows or any Linux desktop) will not allow an application to grab the focus without user interaction. So the confirmation dialog doesn't actually pop to the front. And now we have a couple of small issues which together fatally break this feature:
So, at first sight, dropping a file onto 7-zip just hangs Explorer. No other effect will be immediately visible.
It is only after (1) switching to 7-zip, then (2) dismissing the dialog, and (3) switching back to Explorer that the user can continue to select the next file he wants to drop.
✽ Note: I know that you can select multiple files at once using ctrl+click. But this is a somewhat advanced thing to do for an average user, and even for advanced users it is too easy to accidentally clear the selection. It is very much preferable to drag files one by one.