finding files when path is too deep

[Rene Stephenson]

Hello All,

We have a single-sourced architecture with the following basic path structure:

[drive]:\private\[ProductLine]\[Product]\FMfiles\[bookname].book

Since any given .book file can share several .fm files, we often end up with .book windows that look like:

[drive:\fullyQualifiedPath\.book]
|_ File1.fm
|_ File2.fm
|_ ..\_CommonText\Boilerplate1.fm
|_ GeneratedTOC.fm
|_ GeneratedLists.fm
|_ File3.fm
|_ ..\[DifferentProductFolder1]\FMfiles\FileA.fm
|_ ..\[DifferentProductFolder1]\FMfiles\FileB.fm
|_ ..\[DifferentProductFolder2]\FMfiles\FilenameZ.fm
|_ ..\[DifferentProductFolder1]\FMfiles\RatherLengthyProductSpecificFilenameY.fm
|_ ..\_CommonText\UniversalGlossary.fm
|_ GeneratedIX.fm

Frequently, the names of the folders plus the file names in the path for a file in the book comprise so many characters that FM displays it in the book window as:
|_ ..\[DifferentProductFo...uctSpecificFilenameY.fm

This is annoying, but not altogether unworkable...UNTIL a couple of files go "missing" from a .book either because someone changed the file name via access from a different .book, or because the path structure somehow changed. Pressing F2 in the book window to get the original .fm file name is sometimes of limited assistance, but if the file name changed, what we would find most useful is the fully qualified path.

Granted, some rather strict naming conventions would help, and I have
preached it for several years now, explaining how keeping paths shallow
and filenames short and both free of spaces and special characters is
the best way to optimize FM file architecture, citing the known issues
and even demonstrating the difference first-hand. But, alas, you can
lead a horse to water but you can't lead a horticulture. <g>

Is there a way to:

	1. Find via FM the fully qualified path that the .book file was using but that is truncated in the .book window?
	2. Have the .book files in any given path automatically synch up if a file name shared by the .book files changes in one of the .book files?
	3. Use some plugin prevent this or somehow manage this phenomenon?
Thanks in advance for your insight!

TGIF!


Rene L. Stephenson