15-Minute Reviews :: AccelMan v3.5.0 (build 3600)

Good morning and welcome to an early-morning edition of 15-Minute Review! Today’s review is being done at this time because, frankly, I’m still up.

Today’s application is AccelMan version 3.5.0 (build 3600) by Flexigensoft Labs—An application built with multiple desktop purposes in mind including file viewing, bookmark keeper and much more. An Explorer-replacement, if you will.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“AccelMan is a modern multi-window file manager incorporating a file viewer, media player, bookmarks manager and console. In AccelMan you are not restricted to an obsolete dual-pane file manager interface – you can have as many managers, viewers and players as you wish and freely organize your environment on the AccelMan desktop.

AccelMan is a unique multipurpose application. You can use it as a improved file manager, one-click image viewer (30+ formats), images converter, bookmark keeper, play-list editor, audio player, convenient GUI console, fonts viewer, files processor, archiver with support of 15+ formats, PDF, MS Office, Photoshop and others documents viewer and manager, hexadecimal editor and a lot more besides in one seamless, ergonomic environment.”

Quick Pros

• Customizable layout options endless
• HEX viewer and editor built-in
• Support for previewing and in many cases editing a large assortment of files
• Built-in command console
• Batching functionality very extensive
• Select masks very handy
• Can be used in conjunction with Explorer via drag-and-drop (outbound)

Quick Cons

• There are so many features, you quite easily can get lost in all of them
• Can’t have multiple instances of the application up; Lack of multi-window support
• Interface, while powerful, is also cluttered due to this
• Media player too weak to use outside common previewing
• Floating trashcan a little too gimmicky

Expansion

If you were looking for an Explorer replacement, or occasionally want a little more oomph to your file management, this may be the one to try. There is a lot to this application for power-users. I state power-users, because even for myself, I found myself being overwhelmed frequently by this application and its sheer level of functions littered (Albeit cleanly) amongst the menus, right-click pop-ups and other buttons. There is just so much to this application, it is difficult to find it all. Some of the little tidbits I found myself was a HEX editor, command consoles, wildly-detailed file batching functionality (renaming, moving and so forth), selection masks based on a search-style box, and much, much more. The fact that batching can be done into a ‘queue’ so that you’re not bogging file copying/moving down by having multiple going at the same time is a great plus. I also found the color-coordinating file information was very useful for quick glimpses at the files to see what they were. I am glad for the assortment of viewers and editors built-in so you’re not having to constantly open to see what the files are, or relying on the pathetic Explorer thumbnail to guess what the image is.

The strange functionality I’ve not experienced often with other Explorer-replacement applications is the drag-and-drop support directly with Explorer and the desktop, as if it were just another Explorer window. This struck me as odd, expecially the fact that it works like Explorer. The only issue; It seems to only work outbound (Into Explorer) instead of inbound (Into AccelMan) even though it does seem to do something when you drag and drop into AccelMan to acknowledge the drag into it. It would be a nice add-on or tweak to make it work both directions.

I found that while the application is vastly powerful, it can be overwhelming to find what you need. As mentioned above, while the menus are organized very logically, and there is an army of keyboard shortcuts, it is still a matter of memorization and exploring. And while you can have not only multiple ‘children’ up inside the body of the application, each with multiple tabs as well for quick searching, the good old ability to have two separate windows up side-by-side as fully-separate windows outside the child window is lacking, giving a sense of ‘reliance’ on using the children layout and restrictive.

Outside the interface, I did find that while the audio player was a nice touch, I would likely rarely use it outside of previewing files; Not enough control, even with playlist creation and such, to be a replacement for WinAmp or similar, and honestly, I wouldn’t want it to be, concidering the clutter level already existing in the application.

The thing I felt was the most out of place or strange was the trashcan; Because of my real estate, I didn’t even notice it sitting on my yellow background in the first place. It’s detachment was refreshing, but ended up feeling out of place and quite often overlooked for deleting files outside of the ‘Delete’ key or ‘Edit’>‘Delete’ - The fact that there is no tactile feel to if there is actual trash in it makes this trash can suitable to be tossed in itself.

Final Verdict

While I do feel the sheer level of clutter in this application due to the featureset is high, in my opinion it’s also one of the best Explorer-replacements/substitutes I’ve seen in a long time. I hope they can tweak it up some throughout the future; I’d love to see an updated drag-and-drop support into the application, as well as either allow multiple instances of itself, or allow children windows to be outside the fram of the main application. If you are looking for an Explorer-replacement application, I do suggest grabbing it before it’s back up to $29.95. As for $29.95, it may not be ‘pretty’, but its sheer functionality makes it worth around this price, especially to those who could use the search, batch and select mask functionality.

Posted by BladedThoth on Monday, April 23, 2007