Navigation Lock

Navigation Lock (NavLock) is a mode you can turn on in a dual-display Lister. When you turn NavLock on (using the command in the Folder Options drop-down menu), Opus records the two folders that are currently displayed in both file displays. From this point on, any navigation you perform in one file display will be automatically replicated, if possible, on the other side. This mode is most useful when you have the same (or a similar) directory structure on two different drives (or on a local drive and an FTP site, for example).

NavLock has been turned on in the above Lister. Double-clicking on the Files folder in the left-hand file display results in...

... the right-hand file display also navigating into the Files folder. We then double-click on the Pictures folder in the left-hand display and...

... the right-hand display replicates the action. The same applies to other navigation actions like Up, Back, Forward, etc. - as long as there is a matching folder on the other side of the Lister, the action will be replicated.

If, however, there is no matching folder on the other side, and the action can't be repeated, the file displays will get out of sync. In this event, the following message will be displayed:

At this point you have four options:

• You can ignore the message (and dismiss it by clicking the close button).
• You can manually navigate back to an in-sync location.
• You can reset the sync position - this will bring the folders back into sync, and NavLock mode will remain enabled, with the current locations set as the new base folders.
• You can turn off Navigation Lock - either using the link in the message or by selecting the command from the Folder Options drop-down again.

Navigation Lock with multiple folder tabs

Navigation Lock is a mode which applies to the lister as a whole and not specifically to the pair of folder tabs which were active when the mode was turned on.

If you switch between different folder tabs while Navigation Lock is turned on, the Navigation Lock base folders will be reset each time. Effectively, if Navigation Lock is on when you switch to another folder tab, it is momentarily switched off and then back on again.

If you are considering using Navigation Lock in a lister with multiple tabs, you may wish to use slave tabs instead. Slave tabs are similar to Navigation Lock but pair two specific tabs together instead of whichever tabs are currently active. Slave tabs also differ in what happens when a navigation causes the two sides to go out-of-sync. See the Tabs page for more information.