Moving Files to SubFolder

I have a fair amount of trouble moving files within a folder to a newly created subfolder. This is typically to put old drafts into a subfolder called, not very creatively, Old. When I try to move the files with the mouse, it proves difficult to get them into the new subfolder. The cursor won’t hold at, and select the subfolder in question. Rather, it hops around. Eventually, I get it to work, but this happens enough that it seems as though it is perhaps an undesirable feature. ??

P.S., it happens with both a wireless mouse and the MacBook Pro touch pad.

I’m not sure what you’re referring to. EagleFiler isn’t doing anything to move the cursor. On my Mac, if I stop moving the mouse, the cursor stops moving.

Do you have any third-party software installed that might be affecting the way your mouse works? Perhaps it would help to use the larger icons in the source list, so that you have a bigger target.

Subfolders
I am afraid that I am not describing this well. Let me try again. I have a folder within a library. Within that I may have a dozen records. So I create a subfolder called Old. I then want to move most of the dozen records into that. Naively, I might think I could do so in the record-list window that shows the records and the Old folder. However, that window is not a Finder window and, no, one can’t move the records that way (unless there is a trick). So I use the mouse to pull a given record into the Old folder in the left pane’s list. The left pane has a list of all the folders of the library and, within any given folder, subfolders. If I try to move a particular file to the Old folder, it may or may not be easy to do the navigation. Sometimes (just now, after a restart), it worked with no problem. More typically, however, it is as though I keep “missing” the target subfolder. Yup, I see the problem agin. Holding the mouse button down and moving things, the gray shadow appears on the target subfolder, but then hops–typically to the containing folder. Or, the gray shadow will appear over the next lower subfolder, but when I try to move it up to the target subfolder, it will “hop” to the next higher subfolder. Getting it to grab onto the target subfolder can be tricky. This is not consistent, but it APPEARS that the problem is when the subfolder in question is the top one in the list. So, I have

Records
Person_Name
Subfolder 1
Subfolder 2
Subfolder 3

If I am moving a file and hover over the list, trying to put the file in Subfolder 1, I may have no trouble with Subfolder 3, and 2, but if I try to put it into Subfolder 1, the selection shadow hops to Person_name. Now, I can eventually get it to work, but there is something odd going on. It may also depend on the directionality–whether I approach top down, bottom up, or sideways. But it’s inconsistent.

No, this is not a matter of my having shaky arms.

Do I have third-party software affecting the mouse? I don’t think so and the problem occurs with the track-pad also. I even slowed down mouse-tracking and still had the problem. It seems that motion is not as continuous as it should be (perhaps it’s an Apple problem?). You suggest using the “larger icons in the source list”. I’m not sure what you mean. The left pane IS the source list, and I don’t see a control for icon size. The icons seem plenty large enough.

If this makes no sense to you, don’t worry about it. I will try to do better diagnosis over time.

If you try to drop between subfolders, it will target the containing folder. But there should be quite a large target for each subfolder. Make sure that you’re pointing using the tip of the cursor, rather than the image showing the dragged records.

Perhaps. As I said, EagleFiler isn’t doing anything special here. It’s using the standard outline view control.

There is a “Use small source icons” option in the action menu (and in the preferences) that can be unchecked.

I agree, but larger icons would make it easier for you to drop onto the middle of the folder, rather than between folders.

I’ve also had problems sometimes missing a folder because I moved a tiny bit before releasing the mouse button. It does not happen all the time, but I know I have to be careful when I move things. I never miss all the way to the next or previous folder, only to the parent folder.

A simple solution to this would be to allow moving to the parent folder only if it’s directly targeted. I really like the way Mail does it for instance: there is no gap between two sibling folders, so it impossible to send it to the parent folder as there is no “in-between”. I find that the gap between folders in EF is quite large (it seems to be around 10 px).

The gap size is controlled by the OS. My intent here was to make it easier to move records into the parent folder, since it might have been scrolled out of view. However, it seems people would rather make the subfolder targets larger at the expense of removing the “in-between” area, so I’ll look into doing that.

I’ve removed the “gap” in EagleFiler 1.3.5, so hopefully it should be easier to drop onto subfolders now.

It is much better, thanks a lot.

The adjustment helped. So also did your admonition to focus on where the arrow tip was pointed, but the combination is definitely much better. Thanks.