Options

This page contains miscellaneous options relating to file operations.

• Deselect files used in functions: Normally when you select one or more files and then invoke some sort of function on them (e.g. copy them to another folder), Opus deselects the files involved in the function automatically. If you turn this option off, the files will remain selected so that you can perform additional operations on them without having to reselect them.          
  • Postpone file deselection until end of function: In conjunction with the above option - the files will not be deselected until the function has finished. With this option off, the files would be deselected as soon as the function is invoked. When this option is on, the function only maintains a "weak" connection to the files involved - as soon as you click in the Lister or do anything else that involves selecting or deselecting files, the link is broken and the files will no longer be automatically deselected.
• Detect external file changes on network drives: This option causes Opus to monitor network folders for changes made by other programs. For example, if you use a third-party archiving tool in a network folder, Opus would not detect any files it created in a network share unless this option was on. Monitoring network drives like this can result in reduced network performance (some file systems are worse than others) and so you may want to turn this off - you can always manually refresh a file display by pressing F5.
• Re-upload modified files: This option lets you (sort of) edit files directly on FTP sites. When you double-click on a file (say, a Word document) on an FTP site, Opus will download it to a local temporary copy, and then open the local copy in Word. If you make changes to the file and save it to disk, Opus can detect this and re-upload the new version of the file to the FTP site automatically. There are a number of different options for this monitoring:         
  • Check for modifications when launched process exits: This is the default option, as it involves the lowest system overhead. Opus waits for the program it launched to exit, and then checks the temporary file for changes. Unfortunately this option is not always reliable - many programs when run simply send a message to an existing instance of themselves and then exit immediately. If you have this option on and you find Opus isn't detecting your changes, try one of the other options below.
  • Monitor file until it changes: With this option, Opus will continually monitor the temporary file until it changes exactly once. Subsequent changes will not be detected.
  • Monitor file for X minutes: Opus will monitor the file for any changes that occur within the specified time. When the timer expires, Opus will stop monitoring the file.
  • Monitor indefinitely: Opus will monitor the file for any changes, and keep monitoring it until Opus itself exits (or you restart or shutdown the computer).
  • Ask before uploading: With this option on, Opus will ask you before it re-uploads a file it has noticed a change in. If this is turned off the file will be uploaded automatically.
  • Use file checksum to detect modifications: Normally Opus detects a file has changed by comparing its timestamp against the original, but with this option on Opus will also calculate "before" and "after" checksums and compare those. This prevents unnecessary uploads of files that may have been re-saved but haven't actually changed.