Is there a way to keep a sub-dock open until 1) a different icon in the same parent dock is clicked or 2) until the sub-dock is clicked to close it?

If the answer is yes, how do I do it, please?

And ... if the machine upon which the dock exists is shutdown, can/will the open sub-dock be restored to its open state when the machine is booted? Or if the dock is exited and then later started can/will the sub-dock remain open?

Thanks,
Stan

not likely. i've asked about this feature for workshelf. it's really annoying when i need to work in multiple folders on the shelf and as soon as i open one the shelf collapses and i have to bring it back up again, and again, and again, etc....

when you reboot winstep will go to the defaults you have set, and will not leave any extended dock extended.

I think the major question here is whether workshelf can or should be emulating the functionality of a file manager. The fact that it allows directories and subdirectories to be shown as sub-docks, in my opinion, is a simple logical step from having directories as icons and more of a convenience rather than a full-blown file managing system.
What you're proposing is the transformation of Winstep's functionality so that it functions as a file manager -- in other words, to keep directory sub-docks constantly open so that moving or copying files from one to another could be possible.

Until now, Jorge has shown no interest in doing that transformation. To be honest, I am not interested at all in that (not saying it shouldn't be done, just that I am not bothered) and quite frankly, at this moment, we've got much bigger issues at hand.

@stanley: about the second question, no, rebooting will not restore your sub-docks from the previous session. I honestly don't see why you want that. What exactly are you trying to do?

maybe i should be more exact about what i asked jorge. i suggested a button that once click would keep workshelf from autohiding until you click the button again.

What I'm trying to do is, as closely as possible, reproduce the behavior of the MS Office Shortcut Bar.

You're not really helping here, mate. I've stopped using MS Office a long time ago, so I have no idea what the shortcut bar is nor how it behaves.
Care to explain?

forget that i disable it right out of the gate. take advantage of stacks docklet by rocketdock. just put it where you want it, pit a shortcut on your winstep dock or on workshelf and then add you office shortcuts to it.

The MS Office Shortcut Bar was NeXuS on sleeping pills ... sort of.

A "dock" to which one could add "toolbar"s. Park the "dock" at any edge or float it.

Click an icon for a "toolbar" and open it WITHIN the "dock". I used it on the right edge so the "toolar" opened vertically within the vertical "dock". Major limitation was that all "toolbar" icons always appeared WITHIN the "dock" and thus the more "toolbar"s the less space for shortcuts in an open "toolbar" ... not as much of a problem if one floated the "dock" but then the battle was for desktop space.

Drag a shortcut from the desktop and drop it on a "toolbar" and it was copied to the "toolbar" where a single click would initiate the command contained in the shortcut.

There was limited ability to edit colors of "toolbar"s, a crude ability to order "toolbar"s WITHIN the "dock" and order icons WITHIN a "toolbar", and an ability to change an icon. "Toolbar"s didn't have icons ... just a folder image.

It appeared, if I remember, with the first MS Office and support was dropped as soon as MS discovered how useful it was. Forwarding engineering it onto Office 2000 was possible. Thereafter it was gone.

I'm interested in retaining the functionalism in a supported product/tool.

For various reasons I've maintained my workstation at Windows 2000 for 10 years knowing all the while that that I'd have to move because of a lack of support for newer hardware. That time has come. I've tried to move to virtual machines but keep getting hung up in supporting the infrastructure instead of using the system.

So ... I'm on Windows 7 Home Premium with a desktop slowly filling with the mass of shortcuts representing the varius software, websites, whatever that I regularly (at least once a year) use. I really want (need) some way to organize them into a SINGLE hierarchical structure which I can rapidly navigate using visual clues to get to the entity I want to use. MS shortcut bar allowed me to do that (FOR FREE) on top of the software I'd already paid for. The price of NeXuS Ultimate seems reasonable to me ... if I can get it to work the way I want and remove the distractions as I navigate AND IT HAS THE ADDED BENEFIT of cascading sub-docks ad infinitum (at least until I run out of compute power).

One thing MS Office Shortcut Bar did was maintain its state through shutdown/boot of the host OS. I can live without state retention across boots if I must ... but I'd sure like to see it. I can tolerate, and in fact notice a growing preference for, a sub-bar opening parallel to the parent bar instead of expanding inside of it.

Sorry for the verbosity.

Ah, now I see what you mean. I thought you were talking about something included in the last Office versions (for which I have no love nor idea). I actually remember using the Office shortcut bar once upon a time.
Now, you can have sub-docks opening parallel to the "mother"-dock, and I believe you can set it so that it never closes, until you click on it or another. However, you can't have multiple sub-docks open all at once.
And you cannot have that state persist through re-boots.
However, from what you said, I think you should take a look at Winstep Extreme and the "shelf", which is basically a dock with the ability to have tabs, thus giving you one more level of parallelism (if you get my point). You can have sub-docks nested in icons inside shelf tabs and pretty much everything else that Nexus has, including parallel sub-docks. Moreover, you can also have docks independent of the shelf -- which is only horizontal, by the way, which means it only gets docked at the top or bottom of the desktop -- so you can arrange your shortcuts in any way you seem fit.

On a completely different note, Microsoft has a talent for removing the most useful features and replacing them with either nothing or extremely annoying ones. Their latest achievement was removing the start menu whilst trying to remove the desktop itself.
But what do you expect from a company run by... Steve Ballmer...

if that's the case the feature should of been added to the main nexus docks and workshelf when it was added to the nexus subdocks.

If I take the focus away from the dock ... click on the desktop, whatever ... the open sub-dock closes.

I didn't see any way to attach the tabbed shelf to the right side of the desktop.

I like NeXuS Ultimate well enough.

How do I add "sub-dock stay open until I explicitly close it or open a different sub-dock" to a wish list for future enhancements?

I would also wish for "retaining state across boots."

Thanks,