File displays can now be grouped as well as sorted. You can group by any currently displayed column, and groups can be collapsed and expanded. Grouping is controlled the same way as sorting (via Folder Options, the column header context menu, etc) and via the Set GROUPBY and Set GROUPREVERSE commands.
Grouping can also be accessed by ALT-clicking the column header; ALT-click a column to group by that column, ALT-click again to reverse the group direction, and SHIFT-ALT-click to turn grouping off.
Opus 10 provides “native display” of some virtual folders that in Opus 9 were displayed by hosting the Explorer view. Libraries (in Windows 7), the Computer (My Computer in XP), the Desktop and CD Burning folders are now displayed natively. This means that full Opus functionality is now available in these folders.
The Virtual Folders page in Preferences has been expanded to control these folders. You can opt to turn off the native display of Computer and Desktop if desired, in which case the old Opus 9 behaviour will be used.
For Desktop, you can configure which child items are visible – if everything is turned off here, only real files and folders will be displayed (the same effect as browsing to the physical Desktop folder rather than the real one).
For Computer you can choose to enable the Files stored on This Computer section (emulates Explorer’s behaviour in Windows XP) and to enable the display of empty disk drives (by default these are hidden).
Opus 10 provides more integrated support for CD burning using the Windows CD burning sub-system. When you browse to a writable CD, Opus now separates the view into two groups (files on the disc, files ready to be burned to the disc) like Windows Explorer does. Opus also correctly handles the formatting of blank CDs and will prompt you to initiate burning when appropriate. Opus also correctly detects discs formatted using LiveFS and will treat these as normal writeable folders.
File Displays have a new non-modal error / warning system that is used to display messages directly in the Lister rather than via a popup dialog. For example, trying to read an empty disk drive no longer results in an “Insert disc” popup, instead displaying a non-intrusive message at the top of the file display.
The new message system is also used for the prompt to indicate files are waiting to be burned to CD, the prompt when automatic loading of certain folder types is blocked, and several other situations.
Opus 10 now fully supports localization of folder names in both the File Display, Folder Tree and Breadcrumbs bar under Vista and Windows 7. There is an option in Preferences to disable this ability and display the real underlying names if desired.
There is a new selection mode available in Details and Power mode known as Full column selection. This is a hybrid of full-row selection and the original filename-only selection – in this mode, the full width of the name column (including any whitespace to the right of the filename) is used as the selection hotspot.
The spacing between lines can now be configured, and there is an additional gridline option of alternating solid colored bars. The opacity of gridlines can also be configured.
The Folder Formats system now lets you create a format that uses a wildcard path rather than for a specific folder. Use the Add drop-down on the Folder Formats page in Preferences to select Wildcard Path Format, and then enter the wildcard path in the field at the top of the Edit Format dialog. You can use either standard Opus wildcards, or regular expressions to specify the path wildcard. The format will be used for all paths that match the wildcard, provided they do not have their own path-specific format defined.
Under Windows Vista and Windows 7, Opus can now use the shell to generate thumbnails for folders. This results in the new 3d-perspective style folder thumbnails rather than the old “flat” style that Opus itself can display.
There is a new item on the folder tab context menu to split all tabs from the selected tab to either a dual display or to a new window.
The file display buttons (the little Forward / Back / Up / etc. buttons in the file display header) will now open a new tab if the ALT key is held down when they are clicked (they also support CTRL for dual-display and SHIFT for new window).
Folder tab close buttons have a new "large" option. (There's an option to use the old "small" close buttons instead if you prefer.)
There is a new Index column that can be added to file displays and gives the ability to select files by index and range. When the Index column is displayed, pressing the # key in the file display will open the Find-As-You-Type field letting you perform index or range selection (e.g. #30 to select file 30, #5-10,15-20 to select files 5 through 10 and 15 through 20, etc.)
When reading a folder takes more than a few seconds, you will now see the new inline progress display rather than the old simple “busy” indicator. Depending on the operation, this might display an actual progress indicator (e.g. opening certain types of archive files will show an accurate progress bar), or a generic “marquee” display.
There is also a new busy indicator that appears in the Lister status bar (at the far-left by default, but this can be repositioned by editing the status-bar in Preferences). This indicates that a background process is operating. For example, you may see this indicator while establishing an FTP connection, performing a Windows Search or reading from an archive. You can click the spinning indicator to see a popup list of all background processes and the Lister can still be used normally while they are working.
The background of the Breadcrumbs path field will also show a marquee-style busy indicator whenever a background process is operating.
Drag & drop support has been improved in a number of ways. The action that occurs when dragging and dropping to various locations is now more consistent (and governed by the settings in File Types). The cursor shown when dragging will now indicate more accurately the action that will take place – previously the cursor only indicated the qualifier keys that were held down, rather than the default drop action.
Opus also uses the new features in Windows Vista to display a drag cursor with a tooltip indicating the action that will take place. (On older Windows versions, Opus still simulates this using its own tooltip where possible.)
File and Folder Labels allows you to create “labels”, consisting of a named set of color and font style attributes, and then apply these to arbitrary files and folders. The File and Folder Labels page in Preferences has replaced the old Folder Colors page, as well as the individual File type color settings in the File Types dialog.
A label can be set to override the text and background colors (both foreground and background) of item names, as well as the icon color of a labelled file or folder. Additionally labels can apply bold, italics or underscoring to the item name. You can create as many labels as you like.
The Preferences page also displays a list of the files and folders that have been labelled. You can also assign labels based on wildcards – wildcard labels can apply to files, folders or both, and you can match on the full pathname or just the filename. For example, you could apply a label to all text files by entering *.txt as the wildcard pattern.
You can also use the Properties SETLABEL command to assign a label to selected files (add it to the All Files and Folders context menu for easy access).