I have an additional idea for what WyattRice has shown to be absolutely superior in finding what you need just a little bit quicker.
One obviuos worry is, how is anyone going to know what type of plugin they're picking when you're searching in the ALL category.
Headers. Small headers, maybe even coloured, but only the headers.
VST
entires...
VSTi
entries...
and so on. That way you'll still know.
The headers should be included even if a single plugin type catogory is chosen, because Windows 7 for example has very poor highlights when you haven't selected the window section that category lives in.
To illustrate,
in this shot the JS catgory is actually highlighted. Very hard to spot. Thus, a header should be included at the top of the entry list view of the plugins.
An illustration of what the FX browser looks like when I'm selecting something in the list view(not visible because of the screenshot sharing program). This is Win7 x64.
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Concerning the right-click menu on the FX button, rather than this:
You try this:
FX already in the chain at the top. Add FX with the somewhat long and redundant "Recently used", which might do well to take the place of "Add FX" in the form of "Recent".
And all the chains with their subdirectories beneath it. Maybe even just "FX Chains" instead of "Add FX Chains". Not sure about this one.
This would cut away a lot of menu travel. Would that work for you guys ?