Directory sort order

Help & Support
1

Newbie here, currently evaluating Dopus vs xplorer2. I've searched and read the FAQ, but haven't found an answer to the question below.

So far I prefer Dopus over xplorer2 in most respects, but here is an exception (an important one to me):

I love the way xplorer2 per default sorts folders before files in most cases, but mixes folders and files when sorting by the Modified (time) column. Is it possible to do this in Dopus? If not, I'd like to request this feature.

By the way, here is something that absolutely drove me crazy while researching this. I saw several references to "Folder Options" but couldn't find it anywhere, even after spending an hour systematically searching through every subitem of the Settings menu. I finally frustratedly concluded that the references were based on a previous version of the program. Then, two days later, I stumbled upon it at the bottom of the Tools menu. So here's some feedback to the developers from a newbie point of view: you REALLY need to put ALL settings in one place!!!!

(Sorry for shouting, but please understand that I'm toning this down - if I really expressed my feelings about this I would be banned from the forum.)

2

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There are two ways you can tell Opus to mix files & folders:
[ol][li]Go to Tools -> Folder Options and then the Display tab. Under Sorting Options there is a Mixing drop-down which you can set to:

[ul][li]Files listed before folders[/li]
[li]Folders listed before files (the default)[/li]
[li]Mix files and folders together (what you want)[/li][/ul]
Going in there every time you want to change it will be a pain, though, so here's a more convenient way:
[/li]
[li]You can make a button, menu item or hotkey which runs this command to make the current window mix files & folders:

Set SORTORDER=Mixed
Working from there, you could make a button, menu item or hotkey which you click to sort by modified and mix files & folders:

Set SORTORDER=Mixed SORTBY=modified SORTREVERSE=On

(Use SORTREVERSE=Off if you find that sorts in the opposite way to what you want.)

Now you'll probably also want something to go back to sorting by Name and separating files & folders, which is what this command does:

Set SORTORDER=Folders SORTBY=Name SORTREVERSE=Off

Using a "three-button" is a convenient way to combine the two commands on a single button. Three-buttons can have up to three different actions, one for the left, right and middle mouse buttons. This one will only have two actions:

[ul][li]Left-click: Sort by modified and mix files & folders[/li]
[li]Right-click: Sort by name and separate files & folders[/li][/ul]
In the box below you'll find XML code that you can paste straight on to your toolbar to create the three-button. See the guide, How to add buttons from this forum to your toolbars, for instructions on how to do it. (You don't have to edit any files by hand or understand XML.)

Also, if you want to learn more about creating your own toolbar/menu buttons, watch the Toolbars 1 (video tutorial)

Here's the button code for pasting to your toolbar:

<?xml version="1.0"?> <button backcol="none" display="both" label_pos="right" textcol="none" type="three_button"> <label>Sort Modified</label> <icon1>#setdate</icon1> <button backcol="none" display="both" label_pos="right" textcol="none"> <label>Sort Modified</label> <tip>Sort by Modified, mixing files &amp; folders</tip> <icon1>#setdate</icon1> <function type="normal"> <instruction>Set SORTORDER=Mixed SORTBY=modified SORTREVERSE=On</instruction> </function> </button> <button display="both" label_pos="right"> <label>Sort by Name</label> <icon1>41</icon1> <function type="normal"> <instruction>Set SORTORDER=Folders SORTBY=Name SORTREVERSE=Off</instruction> </function> </button> </button>[/li][/ol]

I think it's always been Tools -> Folder Options in Opus. What did you read that said otherwise? I'll get it updated if I can.

The menu item was put there so that people used to going there in Explorer would find it in Opus, though I agree that the Settings menu would be more logical.

By the way, have a read of the Folder Formats FAQ as it will probably save you some time and confusion to understand how it all works up-front.

3

Oops, I missed the SORTORDER=Folders in the right-click button the first time I posted.

I've corrected the post but if you read it within a minute or two of it being posted then it would've been incorrect.

4

Thank you very much leo, that's nearly exactly what I wanted. I still would like to request for the next version of Dopus an option to go to mixed mode automatically when I click on Modified, and revert to alphabetical mode when I click on Name. But this workaround is very helpful for now.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. The references to just "Folder Options" were here in the forums. I think you should just move the whole submenu to Settings. It's more logical, and the Dopus version of Folder Options has very little in common with the Windows Explorer version. Also, the Settings menu is so prominent it can't be missed. If you still want to leave it where it is, please consider duplicating it.

Now I have another problem. Is there any way to stop the Folder Tree from scrolling horizontally when I click in the lister panels? To see what I mean, try this:

  1. Resize the Folder Tree panel so it's fairly thin.
  2. Set both lister panels to C:\ and make sure the Folder Tree scrollbar is at the left.
  3. Now click on a folder name that overflows the width of the Folder Tree panel (you may have to go deeper in your tree), so that folder opens in one of the lister panels. The Folder Tree scrollbar should still be to the left (which is good).
  4. Finally, activate the other lister panel (C:), and then reactivate the panel with the long name. Suddenly the Folder Tree scrollbar jumps to the right.

This is bad for several reasons. The behavior in step 3 & 4 is inconsistent. I lose the ability to navigate folders near the root, and clicking on folders to the left doesn't help. So I have to scroll the scrollbar manually to the left - but it jumps right back again when I activate the deep folder!

So, I'd like to have an option to stop this silly automatic scrolling.

5

If you want to request something write to GPSoftware so they can consider it and add it to their to-do list.

I agree.

I'll answer here but please ask unrelated questions in new threads to help people searching the forum for answers. (More on that in the FAQs.)

I don't think you can disable automatic scrolling of the tree, except by locking the tree so it does not respond to directory changes at all. I agree that it'd be better if it scrolled only when really needed (and kept the icons in view instead of scrolling so the name starts on the left edge). Although I turn off the tree completely myself, I filed a suggestion along those lines a little while back but I don't know if it'll be implemented.

You might find it helps to use a separate tree for each file display instead of a shared tree, though. The option for that is in Preferences - Listers Folder Tree.