The Folder Tree has greatly improved performance with network folders. Opus will no longer attempt to fully populate the contents of network folders (nor the list of computers on your network) when you browse to them – instead, the current folder (and its ancestors) will be added to the Tree and the rest of the branch will remain unpopulated until you manually expand it. This behaviour can be configured in Preferences - you can choose to extend the “no auto-population” rule to all folders (not just network folders), or disable it if desired.
Many other improvements have been made to try to improve network performance. For example, dragging files over network folders in the tree does not cause any access to the network until the file is actually dropped.
The tree now works properly with network folders even if they are not automatically enumerated (e.g. because they are hidden or the Browser service has failed to find the machine). When you navigate to a computer or network folder an item for it will be added to the tree automatically if required.
The tree behaves better when dealing with virtual folders that also have associated “real” folders. For example, the Tree will no longer get confused between the virtual My Documents or Desktop folders and their real counterparts below C:\Users\...
Previously, if a folder was hidden from the tree then the tree would never show you that folder (or anything below it), even if you navigated to it. The tree will now automatically add temporary items for folders you navigate to, even if they were previously hidden.
The tree now supports FTP. By default, the Folder Tree shows your full FTP address book in a hierarchical structure. When you connect to an FTP site it is displayed in the tree – underneath the address book entry if appropriate and under a dynamically-created, temporary entry for the site if not.
There are extended options for hiding various folder types (e.g. empty drives) and specific folders (e.g. the libraries or user profile branches) from the tree. This, combined with the improved behaviour with hidden folders, means you can reduce clutter by hiding things you rarely use without losing the ability to navigate those things via the tree when you want to.
For example, if you configure that FTP is not shown in the tree by default and then browse to an FTP site, it will automatically appear in the tree in that window while remaining hidden elsewhere.
When the tree is set to start at a level below the Desktop, it will automatically re-root itself as needed if you browse outside that hierarchy. For example, if the tree is set to start at the Drives level, it will automatically re-root itself to the Network level if you browse to a network folder (and then return to Drives when you go back to a local disk).
The Tree now supports several horizontal scrolling modes:
“XP” mode: A horizontal scrollbar is visible and can be dragged manually. When a new item is selected the tree automatically scrolls left or right to ensure it can be seen.
“Vista” mode: No horizontal scrollbar is visible. The tree automatically scrolls left and right in a way which tries to guess the best scroll position based on the vertical scrollbar, the mouse pointer and the current selection. (Available only on Windows Vista and above.)
“Windows 7” mode: No horizontal scrollbar is visible and the tree never scrolls horizontally. The tree must be resized to see items off to the right.
“Manual” mode: A horizontal scrollbar is visible and can be dragged manually. The tree never automatically scrolls left or right.
A new Preferences page lets you configure Folder Tree selection events, that is, what happens when you click on an item in the tree holding down a qualifier key. For example, ALT-Click can be set to open the folder in a new tab, and CTRL-Click to open in a dual display. You can also configure what happens when a folder is clicked with the middle mouse button.
There is a new button in the tree header (top border) that causes the tree to automatically scroll to reveal the currently selected item if it is obscured. The item will be positioned as close to the centre of the tree display as possible, and the tree will be given input focus automatically.
There is also a new option in the Tree Preferences that causes the tree to do this whenever a new branch is expanded. The currently selected item will always be kept as close to the centre of the tree display as possible.
When using the keyboard with the tree, pressing + (plus) on an already expanded item expands all of that items’ immediate children. This is similar to the existing behaviour of the * key (asterisk) which expands all an items children – the difference is that * will expand all children including sub-descendants, whereas + only expands the children immediately below the selected item.
Pressing – (minus) on an already collapsed item resets the expansion state of all that items children (so when the item is expanded again, any children that previously were expanded will now be collapsed), and also shifts the focus to the items parent and collapses it as well.
Similar logic applies to double-clicking on a tree item’s expansion glyph (the little +/- or arrow symbol to the left of the item’s label). If you double-click on a collapsed item, that item and all of that items’ immediate children are collapsed. Double-clicking on an expanded item will collapse it plus all of its children.
There is an option in the Tree Preferences to turn off the tree header (top border) if desired.
By default the Tree now hides empty disk drives, this can be disabled in Preferences if desired. Note that if empty drives are hidden, floppy disk drives are now always hidden – this is to match the behaviour of Explorer.
The Folder Tabs Preferences page also has a new option to preserve the expansion status of the Folder Tree when switching between tabs. Normally when you switch tabs the tree does not change its expansion, unless this is necessary to show the currently selected folder. With this option on the tree will remember the folder expansion status from one tab to another and restore it when you switch back.
The Set TREEROOT command lets you temporarily re-root the Folder Tree to a specified location. There is also a Root Tree Here command that is displayed in the context menu for items in the Folder Tree if you hold the SHIFT key down when you right-click them.