The Confirm File Replace Dialog

When copying files around, you'll often encounter the case where the file you're copying already exists in the target folder. In this case Opus normally displays the Confirm File Replace dialog, asking you what to do.

The goal of this dialog is to show you enough information about the existing file (the one that already exists in the target folder) and the new file (the one you are copying) to help you decide what action to take.

The basic information that's presented for the two files is Name, Size, Date (the last modified date) and Desc (the file's description). When this information is different between the two files it is displayed in bold, making it easier to see at a glance how the two files differ. If possible, thumbnail images are also displayed for the two files - if not, the file's icon will be displayed. The thumbnails (or icons) have some additional functionality:

• If a thumbnail is displayed for the file, hovering the mouse over the top of it will display a larger preview image.
• You can right-click the thumbnail or icon to display the context menu for the file.
• You can double-click the thumbnail or icon to open the file.

For efficiency, the Confirm File Replace dialog does not generate thumbnails or file descriptions for files on network or removable drives automatically.

Instead, a ? button (as shown in the above image) will be displayed that lets you choose whether you want to retrieve this information or not.

When the Confirm File Replace dialog has been displayed, there are several actions you can take. Fundamentally, you need to decide if you still want to copy the file or not.

If you do still want to copy the file, your available choices are:

• You can replace the old file. Click the Replace button to copy the new file over the top of the old one. The existing file will be replaced in this case.
  
  The drop-down attached to the Replace button also lets you select the Replace All action. This will replace the current file, as well as automatically replacing any other existing files encountered in this copy operation.
  
  As a shortcut to using the drop-down menu, you can hold the Shift key while clicking the Replace button.
  
• You can enter a new filename for the copied file.
  
  The Name field shown for the New file is an edit field that lets you provide a new filename. Similar to the Inline Rename function, this edit field responds to a few control codes that let you quickly select parts of the filename - Ctrl+A (select all), Ctrl+F or Ctrl+N (select file stem) and Ctrl+E (select file extension).
  
• You can automatically rename the new file, leaving the already existing file intact, with the Rename New command.
  
  The Rename New command can be accessed from the drop-down menu attached to the Replace button. When you select this command, the file you are copying is automatically given a new name (by appending a number to the name) so that it doesn't clash with any existing files. You can also choose Rename New (All) which will apply the same action to any other existing files encountered in this copy operation.
  
  As a shortcut to using the drop-down menu, you can hold the Ctrl key when you click the Replace button for Rename New (or Ctrl+Shift for Rename New (All)).
  
• You can automatically rename the existing file with the Rename Old command.
  
  The file you are copying will keep the same name, and the already existing file will be automatically given a new name (by appending a number to the name) so that it doesn't clash with the new file or with any other existing files. You can also choose Rename Old (All) to apply the same action to any other existing files encountered in this copy operation.
  
  As a shortcut to using the drop-down menu, you can hold the Alt+Ctrl keys when you click the Replace button for Rename Old (or Alt+Shift for Rename Old (All)).

If however you decide you don't want to copy the file after all, the available choices are:

• You can skip over this file by clicking the Skip button. Several other options are available from the drop-down:
  
  Skip All will skip this file as well as any other existing files that are encountered during this copy operation. Skip Identical will skip this file, and will also skip any already existing files that appear to be identical. Note that the test used for "identicalness" is simply to compare the size and timestamps of the files - Opus doesn't actually compare their contents.
  
  As a shortcut to using the drop-down menu, you can hold the Shift key when clicking the Skip button for Skip All, and the Ctrl key for Skip Identical.
  
• You can also abort the whole operation by clicking the Abort button.

If you are copying a file to or from an FTP site, and the remote FTP server supports resume, you will also have the choice to Resume the copy (as well as a drop-down for Resume All). If you select the Resume option Opus will attempt to resume the file transfer where it was (presumably) interrupted previously. For example, if the file you are copying is 100 KB and the existing file is only 50 KB, Opus would start transferring data from the 50 KB mark. This option will only be available if the existing file is smaller than the new one. You need to be sure of what you're doing when you select this option, as it would be very easy to wind up with a corrupted file if you accidentally resume copying the wrong file.