Folder Behavior

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

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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).
• 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).
• Prevent automatic loading of certain types of folders: This option can be very useful if you have Opus set to re-open the last location when it runs, or to open a specific Lister layout that displays network drives or another slow drive type. It stops Opus from attempting to automatically read the specified types of folders when a Lister first opens. For example, you could have a layout that reads a network drive - with this option on, opening that layout would not automatically connect to the network drive, but instead you will be prompted to click a link in order to read the folder.