Folder Behavior

The options on this page are mostly involved in what happens when Opus reads a new folder.

• Allow manual sorting in all folders: Some folders, like FAT32-formatted drives, don't support saving of manual sort information. If this option is turned off, you cannot even turn on manual sorting when on a drive where it cannot be saved, to prevent you from spending time organizing things only to find that you cannot save them. If the option is on, Opus will let you turn on manual sorting in such a drive, and you can re-arrange the files, but the sort order will be lost when the window is closed.
   
• Automatically save manual sort order where possible: If this option is on Opus will automatically save the manual sort order (if it can) whenever you rearrange files. If turned off, you need to specifically select the Save Sort Order command to make the sort order permanent.
   
• Calculate folder sizes automatically: When you navigate to a new location, Opus will launch a background thread that calculates the total size of all sub-folders. If this option is off you can always use the Calculate Folder Sizes command in the Edit menu. When this option is on you can choose what type of drives to apply it to. The Skip junctions and softlinks option can be used to stop Opus automatically calculating the size of any links or junctions that point to folders - only "real" folders would have their size calculated automatically.
   
• Cancel Checkbox mode when folder is changed: If the file display is in checkbox mode and you navigate to a new location, checkbox mode will be automatically turned off.
   
• Cancel Flat View mode when folder is changed: If the file display is in Flat View mode and you navigate to a new folder, Flat View will be turned off.
   
• Display extended sync attributes for cloud folders: For cloud storage folders like OneDrive, this option causes Opus to request additional synchronize state attributes from Windows. With this option off only online/offline state will be reported; with it turned on, other states like "synchronizing" can be shown.
   
• Enable Folder Content Type detection: This option enables the Content Type detection system for the specified types of drives. When this is on and you navigate to a new folder, Opus compares the contents of the folder against the configured Content Type formats and automatically changes the display format if appropriate. For example, the display might automatically switch to thumbnails mode when reading a folder containing mostly images.
   
• Ignore junctions and softlinks when calculating folder sizes: When calculating the size of a folder (either due to the automatic option above, or when triggered manually via the GetSizes command), this option causes Opus to ignore and junctions or softlinks within the folder.
  
  
• Select previous folder when going Up: When this option is on and you go up to the previous folder, the folder you just came from will be selected. Note that the Up button on the Location toolbar actually runs the Go UP BACK command - the BACK argument makes UP act like BACK if the previous folder in the history is the parent folder. Because file selection is preserved when going back and forward in the location history, the parent folder will most likely be selected irrespective of the state of this option. So long story sort, if you turn this option off and find that when you go up the parent is still selected, that's why!
   
• Sort shortcuts to folders like folders: With this option on Opus will treat shortcuts to folders as if they were the folders themselves when sorting the file list (meaning they'll be grouped with the folders rather than with the files).
   
• Path completion in path fields: This enables path completion in any string field that is used to enter a folder path (e.g. the location field on the toolbar).
  
  • Automatically, as I type: Path completion occurs automatically - as you type into the field, the first folder name that matches what you have typed so far will be automatically filled in for you. You can ignore it and keep typing, or press a path separator key (:, / or \) or Enter to accept the completed path component, or press the Up or Down cursor key to scroll through other matching folder names.
  • When I press the cursor keys: Path completion does not occur until you press the Up or Down cursor key, at which time the first matching folder name will be completed as above.
  • Complete paths for local drives only: Path completion is enabled for local drives (hard drives, USB drives etc) only and not for network shares etc.
  • Complete network server names: When path completion is enabled for network paths, this option specifies whether or not Opus should enumerate the computers on your network and do path-completion for the computer names. For example, if you type \\a you will see computer names starting with the letter a. The enumeration is done in the background but you may still wish to turn it off if your network is slow or has a large number of computers.
  • Display popup list: A popup list will appear above or below the path field showing possible matches for what you have typed so far. You can use the up and down cursor keys, or the mouse, to select items from the list. If you find the list gets in your way, you can turn it off.
  
  As well as regular paths Opus also auto-completes paths that you begin with a % character (for environment variables), paths that begin with a / (aliases), and URL-style paths (coll:// or ftp://, for example). When the cursor is at very beginning of the field there are also some special characters that will be expanded to certain locations as a shortcut:
  
  
  • ~ (tilde): Your personal profile folder
  • ` (back-tick): The desktop directory
  • $ (dollar sign): Your documents folder
  • * (asterisk): Your favorites folder
  • } (right brace): The Windows folder
  • ^ (caret): The Windows System folder
  • # (hash/pound sign): The program files folder
     
• Use 'descript.ion' file comments system: Opus lets you assign descriptions to files using the Set Description (and Edit Metadata) commands. If this option is turned on, those descriptions are stored using the semi-standard DESCRIPT.ION system, where a file called "descript.ion" is created in the folder to hold the descriptions. If you turn this option off, Opus will instead store descriptions using NTFS metadata - this only works on NTFS-formatted drives but means you don't have a lot of extra files cluttering up your folders.                           
  • Hide 'descript.ion' comment files when marked as Hidden: In conjunction with the above option, when the DESCRIPT.ION files have their H attributes set, Opus will hide them from the file display (even if other H-marked files are not hidden).