> Well, it should be 'open mode spell searching', as
> opposed to 'closed mode spell searching'. In the
> 'closed' mode you would have to press a key, such
> as '|', to start it, and another key, 'Enter', to
> end it. But in the 'closed' mode, all filename
> characters would be available, without affecting
> any current or future ZTree features.

> In your example, you would simply press
> Shift-A, 1, Shift-B to get A1B.

Yes, exactly. I find that to be clumsy- though I admit I'm no star Mavis Bacon graduate.

I give some examples on why open spelling won't always get you completely to a file.

Suppose you are navigating to "xsec R430 stripped & design 9-5-00.ces". You cant remember where the spaces are or id there is 4 or 6 digitd in the date. In this case using open spelling navigation" I would be probably type "*stripped*9-5*.ces" but still have a choice to make. I'd use the cursor key to finalise my selection. Currently, and preferably I'd hit filespec either hit history, select the saved filespec *.ces (if it aint to far up the list) or just type ".ces" and use the cursor/page up/down keys to select the file.

Or consider "100001.vol" when there are 20 files in the same directory with the same name but different extension. I would be using open spelling navigation to get to "1*1.vol" (is Walter allowing wild characters? and still have a selection to make.

or how about "memo sr to RM re bar fine
reimbursements.doc" when there are 20+ files in the the same directory starting with "memo SR to RM..
I perhaps would not remember the exact name of the file so I would be looking for a file sent sometime in the new year. Spell search is not the first tool I'd be reaching for. It would be easier to set file display to show date, sort by date, not even bother to set file spec and simply visually scan that section of the list for a red file(my setting for DOC files). If then the file could not be found visually try setting filespec to *sr*.doc".

So what I'm saying is that I don't always have a file name which is a part of a subset which diminishes as you type one more letter.

I think it is more useful to
sort by date order to catch the newer files, zcolors.ini to visulally locate,
dot+extension filespecs to reduce the subset to filetype and
use of history-saved-complicated filespecs .

Anyone else besides Micheal agree? Maybe Jim?

See my next post as well
....Steve