I would like to create a content type which recognises when a folder contains only folders, or a majority of folders, and then to have a different set of settings for this.
My problem seems to be related to adding file extensions to a group. What is the file extension for a folder?
In the existing content type, there is a type called . Is this what I am looking for? A search for if the manual gets no hits, and none without the brackets seems to hit instances of the Select keyword.
Thanks.
I don't think there's a way to do this at the moment.
As you found, if you edit a File Type Group then you can only add other File Types by their extensions.
If you go into the list of System File Types then the Group drop-down, which is an alternative way to add types to groups, doesn't appear for the items at the top of the list with "(NONE)" for their extensions, including the Folder type.
Interesting idea, though, to have a content type based on folders. Out of curiosity, what kind of thing do you want to use it for?
I have my folders set up so that they're mainly folders, or they have content (images, music, docs etc.) I am thinking different backgrounds, layouts etc.
I could set the 'custom' view to be folders, but this has a global effect, which I am always loathe to experience!
It just seemed reasonable that if files can be identified, then so can folders.
BTW.
I have set up a favorite format called 'Folder', and a button to apply it to the current lister. (I do not want lots of local overrides though, but here goes anyway...)
When I apply it to the current lister (single display) it seems to work. However, if I then press the 'Dual Horizontal' tab, the new display pane uses the old, default settings, not the 'favorite folder format' that I had apllied a few seconds ago . How are local folder formats stored? What is their life span?
The two file displays in a dual-display lister are (almost) completely independent of each other. Think of them as separate windows, just joined together.
Applying a favorite format to a file display is temporary and only affects the one file display involved.
This happened because the dual lister pane wasn't open at the time you applied your Favorite Format, so it did not apply to the dual lister pane. The lifespan of the Favorite Format is only with currently listed folder listed in the current lister pane, not with the folder itself, or the lister itself.
Edit: And as Nudel notes above applying it to one lister pane does not affect the other.
The lifespan of the Folder Format, Content Type Format, or Default Format is only with the currently listed folder. Whether you open a new lister to a given folder, or navigate to the folder in a currently open lister, Opus goes through its precedence progression to determine how to format the new listing: Folder Format (if defined), Content Type Format (if defined and applicable), Default Format. When you toggled your lister to a dual lister, you in essence opened a new lister, which triggered Opus to go through its precedence progression to determine how to format the new listing.
However, once you have a lister (or lister pane) open, you can lock its Folder Format/Folder Options such that they do not change while you navigate to different folders if you set the lock button (looks like an unlocked padlock) in the Status Bar which locks the format from change. This format lock affects both panes of a dual lister.
Thanks for the info
I think I have understood it ... just one final question ...
What command do I use in a button to save the current layout for that folder's format?
I have a button that displays the Folder options dialogue box, but I still need to click on 'save' and 'for this folder'.
Similarly, is there a command to reset to custom or default, and recursive options for these commands?
Ooops ... more than one question again. 
PHPBB_IMPORT_WARNING CODE_NEAR_LI
Folder Options for a given folder can only be saved from within the Folder Options dialog, or from within the Preferences > Folder Formats dialog. There is no raw command to save a current folder format. However, if you are adjusting columns on-the-fly by right-clicking on the column headers, you can quickly access the Folder Options dialog from the same context menu that displays the full compliment of Opus fields.
The good news is that you can use toolbar buttons to apply different saved formats with single mouse click. (And would you believe until you raised this question, I wasn't aware of this?)
Here are some buttons:[ol][li] Change the Folder Format to the Custom Default Format.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button display="both" effect="saturate">
<guid>{9555B8AA-65F3-4A1E-8A0A-6708E8BE2AF8}</guid>
<label>Custom Format</label>
<tip>Change the Folder Format to the Custom Default Format.</tip>
<icon1>86</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Set FORMAT=!custom</instruction>
</function>
</button>
[/li]
[li] Change the Folder Format to the Default Format appropriate for the listed folder: Local, Network, FTP, et cetera.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button display="both" effect="saturate">
<guid>{2EE1D510-A1E1-4970-95DE-34EA39FF61E2}</guid>
<label>Default Format</label>
<tip>Change the Folder Format to the Default Format appropriate for the listed folder: Local, Network, FTP, et cetera.</tip>
<icon1>86</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Set FORMAT=!default</instruction>
</function>
</button>
[/li]
[li] Change the Folder Format to the Folder Format saved specifically for the listed folder.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button display="both" effect="saturate">
<guid>{E05CEEC4-BDBB-4CB9-88CC-A355FE1CE0D8}</guid>
<label>Folder Format</label>
<tip>Change the Folder Format to the Folder Format saved specifically for the listed folder.</tip>
<icon1>86</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Set FORMAT=!folder</instruction>
</function>
</button>
[/li]
[li] Change the Folder Format to the Print Folder format.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button display="both" effect="saturate">
<guid>{B66BE4BB-5F8D-4B8A-8A85-990B90238A7B}</guid>
<label>Print Folder Format</label>
<tip>Change the Folder Format to the Print Folder format.</tip>
<icon1>86</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Set FORMAT=PrintFolder</instruction>
</function>
</button>
[/li]
[li] Change the Folder Format so that all filters are removed and the listing displays all files and folders.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button display="both" effect="saturate" separate="yes">
<guid>{B3D597A3-85DC-4465-B802-5E4547AD5EF4}</guid>
<label>Show All</label>
<tip>Change the Folder Format so that all filters are removed and the listing displays all files and folders.</tip>
<icon1>86</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Set FORMAT="Show All" </instruction>
</function>
</button>[/li][/ol]To get any of the above buttons to your Opus configuration:[ol][li] Copy the button code above to your clipboard.[/li]
[li] Right-click any Opus toolbar and select Customize.[/li]
[li] Right-click on the desired toolbar/menu to add the button to, and select Paste.[/li][/ol]EDIT: Note that the buttons above only change the Folder Format for the currently displayed folder in the current lister. Upon navigating to another folder, Opus will still use its Folder Format precedence to format the newly listed folder, unless the format lock was enabled prior to changing folders.
Many thanks for these ... I will have a play later.
During my explorations, I think I have worked out what I am actually trying to do! 
What I want is for Opus to recognise both file types (documents, media, folders etc.) and file path, and apply a mixed style to a folder.
For example, a folder with the path c:\home\my stuff... might have a watermark or colour applied because it is part of the 'home' path, but at the same time might have the columns and icons associated with the contents type of that folder.
Similarly, a folder with the path c:\work\work stuff... might have a different background colour or watermark, but use the same content recognition settings (icon size, colum settings etc.)
The idea is that I have the correct infomation fields set up for the data type, but a clear reminder as to where the data is stored.
The nature of my work involves using Adobe software at home, m$ at work, and synchronising the results. Knowing if I am looking at the work or home data would be really useful.
I am pretty certain that this is not possible in Opus at the moment....
Does anybody know of software that can do this? or is it on the horizon within Opus?
Mixing a watermark for specific folders and a Content Type format to define the columns (but not replace the watermark) is definitely possible.
Save a folder format for the path which specifies the water mark, then go into Preferences and edit the format. (The checkbox I'm about to talk about only appears if you edit the format via Preferences.) On the last tab page, Options, there's a setting called Include columns from other matching formats and if you turn that on then Opus will fall through to the Content Type formats to pick up additional columns if one of the Content Types matches.
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Here is an even more useful toolbar button (in my opinion). It's a menu-button that includes:[ol] [li] A button that opens the Preferences Folders page. This puts you a click away from editing all of your Folder Formats and other folder-related preferences.[/li]
[li] A menu that displays:[ol][li] All defined Favorite Folder Formats, including these two defaults:[ul][li] Print Folder[/li]
[li] Show All[/li][/ul][/li][li] All enabled Content Type Formats (those marked with a check mark in Preferences - Folders - Folder Formats)[/li]
[li] Options to reset the Folder Options for the currently listed folder to:[ul][li] The Custom Default Folder Format[/li]
[li] The Default Folder Format for the listed folder (FTP, Local, Network, Zip, et cetera)[/li]
[li] The Folder Format saved exclusively for the listed folder.[/li][/ul][/li][/ol][/li][/ol]<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button display="both" effect="saturate" type="menu_button">
<guid>{FCF9CCDB-CAAF-48B6-A4BB-E978EFEDE0F7}</guid>
<label>Folder Formats</label>
<tip>Preferences – Folder Page: Edit Folder Formats and other folder-related settings.</tip>
<icon1>119</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Prefs PAGE=folders </instruction>
</function>
<button display="both" effect="gray" separate="yes">
<guid>{4BFD5A31-8B40-47D6-A9EF-20CCE33250B4}</guid>
<label>Folder Formats</label>
<icon1>86</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Properties FORMATLIST</instruction>
</function>
</button>
<button display="both" effect="saturate">
<guid>{0141D521-3D5E-4F12-B04F-32FD35EFD9E0}</guid>
<label>Reset to Folder Format</label>
<tip>Reset Folder Options to those saved in the Folder Format for the listed folder.</tip>
<icon1>0</icon1>
<function type="normal">
<instruction>Set FORMAT=!folder</instruction>
</function>
</button>
</button>
To get the above buttons to your Opus configuration:[ol][li] Copy the button code above to your clipboard. [/li]
[li] Right-click any Opus toolbar and select Customize. [/li]
[li] Right-click on the desired toolbar/menu to add the button to, and select Paste.[/li][/ol]NOTE: The buttons above can only change the Folder Format for the currently displayed folder in the current lister. Upon navigating to another folder, Opus will still use its Folder Format precedence to format the newly listed folder, unless Format Lock was enabled prior to changing folders.
Thanks folks, this is all excellent stuff ...
I think that I am almost there ... and I really most do some actual work as well 
Just a couple of things/observations that I have found a little tricky ...
The applied format hierachy is not always easy to determine.
The 'Custom' default format is always applied even if a content/folder format has already been used (with the allow other columns box tcked). i.e. allow other columns is not just resticted to content types .... Thus the custom format needs to be edit to have only the filename column. It took a while to track this down.
What is the role of the Local drives formats, when are they applied in relation to 'custom'?
The content type detection does not always seem to apply itself. It is enabled, but I can see a folder with 2 ppt files and 2 xls files, content type:None!
If I go back up my tree to before the watermark (up to My Documents) then content type works immediately.
If I create 10 blank xls files and paste them into every folder down my tree, the content type becomes document, until I reach a local format, where it stays at 'none'. From then on, the content type stops detecting (presumably because of inheritance?) and always shows 'None'.
The 'watermark' folder format is including other matching formats and is the default for sub-folders. There are no othe folder formats saved other that the 'watermark' format.
The Solution:
The water mark folder must
a) be set to details mode
b) have no additional columns of its own. (only set through the preferences!)
c) the content type still displays 'none' but the actual columns are for 'documents'. (The 'my documents' folder is full of documents. Could it be inheiriting the content type of a folder two layers above? and thru' a 'none' type folder?)
Oooop! two hours later ... no work done....
Still there is work, and there is play ... let us play some more ... time to start again in a known structure.
D:
New Folder 'WM'. This will have a watermark format.
Inside of WM another folder 'Contents' containing 6 blank spreadsheets.
See what that give me..
D:\ (Type none- displays as large icons)
D:\WM (Type none - displays a single large folder icon)
D:\WM\Contents (Type Documents - displays spreadsheets in details mode, using the correct document type columns)
Move to D:\WM and set up a watermark...
When applied no changes appear, but moving up to D:\ and back again, I see the tiled image, a single large icon, and content type:None (pretty much as I would have expected)
Looking at contents, the details mode has disappeared 
the content type is none and I am looking at large icons. The content folder seems to inherit from WM folder, but WM folder does not chnage the icon type. Without the watermark, content detection works, but with the watermark content detection stops!
I cannot see what I am missing. If I set an inheritable format to change nothing but the image, then I wold have expected nothing but the image to be inherited. Before the watermark, content detection occured, and icon types changed, after the watermark ther was no content type detection. I cannot see where in the folder format preferences I have managed to turn off content detection.
Forcng the Watermak into details mode causes the contents folder to show details. The columns are for 'documents' but the document type box is still displaying .
I cannot see where these columns are coming from. There is no local formatting for the contents folder. The content type is apparently 'None'. There is no content higher in the tree structure either. All of the default formats remain unticked except 'Custom', and custom is set to display 'Filename' only!
I have just previewed this lot ... ooops quite a bit more than the quick thanks that I had intended.
Still, many thanks for all the support you guys give ...
First of all, after changing the folder formats in Preferences you should always close exisiting windows and open a new one so you're sure Opus is using only what you configured in Preferences and not anything left over from the lister.
Custom format always used
You say the columns from the Custom format is always used but that should only be the case if all the formats which match before it specify using the columns of other matching formats. In other words, you probably want to turn off that option for the Content Type formats.
Content Type format not always triggers
In the case of 2 Excel files and 2 Powerpoint files not triggering the Documents format, were there other files in the same folder? A Content Type format will only be triggered if more than X percent of the files in the folder belong to its group, where X is defined on the Options tab when editing the Content Type format. ("Content threshold" field.)
(I'm not sure what happens if you adjust the thresholds so it's possible for two Content Type formats to match the same folder. Maybe the columns from both will be used or maybe just the first one's columns will be used. I'd have to set that up and see what happens to be sure. Probably not relevant here, though.)
Shows "None" despite Content Type columns
The Type drop-down on the toolbar will only show something other than "None" if the first thing which matches is a Content Type format. In your case the first match comes from the format saved for the path (to get the watermark) and the Content Type formats are only being used to inherit some columns, so Opus considers the primary format not to be a Content Type one and displays None in the drop-down.
Not in Details mode
The view mode is determined by the first matching format so it sounds like some of the formats you've saved for specific paths, to get the water marks, are not setting Details mode.
Remember that the "inherit columns..." option only inherits columns from other formats. If the first matching format doesn't specify a view mode then the view mode won't be changed from whatever it was before the folder was entered, even if the second or third matching format does specify a view mode.
Sorry ... I am beginning to get myself confused again and this is leading to fustration with what is excellent software.
The test folder that I created (D:\WM\Contents) contains only 5 xls files, no folders, no files of any other type.
The test folder was set up so that there is no specific folder format for that folder and that the content type is clearly documents. There were no formats in the hierachy above it. At this point, moving from the WM folder (large icons) to the Contents folder caused a switch to Contents (shown in the toolbar) and a switch to details mode (specified in the Contents filetype format). This is pretty much as expected, and agrees with all that has been posted above.
Going from a working situation to one involving a watermark I tried to change only the the background image without making any other changes. To do this I used the tick boxes in the preferences dialogue box. (e.g. Preferences > Folder Formats > Edit > display Tab? Next to the word 'view'.)
My logic would say that these tick boxes decide whether the view is over-ridden in that folder (and sub folders), or if clear, then the view is inherited from above. Certainly clearing the box prevents the display mode being changed.
Before the watermark was created, the contents folder (with the excel files) was correctly recognised at documents, and the display mode changed from large icons to details. Note that the view changed automatically. This is not about inheirtance of columns in details view, but the inheritance of the view mode, which seemed to work well before the watermark was created.
After the watermark format was saved, the spreadsheets inherited the WM format even though the WM format made no changes to the display mode (according to the prefences dialogue box)
Apologies if this sounds grumpy ... it just seems like the final link in the chain to making the software perfect.
I also find myself curious as to what the tick boxes actually do if not control inheritance. I have noticed that folder formats accessed via the contect menu do not have these boxes, and seem apply settings of their own.
To cut a long story short, you have to set the watermark format (the one saved for the specific folder) so it specifies details mode.
Columns are the only thing which may be inherited from lower formats once a higher one matches a folder.
The view mode is not inhereited from lower formats if the first one doesn't specify it.
If the first matching format doesn't specify a view mode then the view mode stays as whatever it was to start with.
A bit off topic, but:
Regarding that 2 years after release a single feature still brings that much fun, I am afraid (really afraid) what to expect from the next major version. Might be due in 1 year if next version is to follow v8 in the same timeframe as v8 followed v6. Oh my, we may get more than we ever wanted
In contrast to other applications, when I want to do something with DOpus and I don't know how, at first I suspect that I missed some Preferences option or Folder Formats/Styles/whatever feature More often than not I am right 
X.
While in other applications you just can't do it at all? 
Today I found myself in the same need, though for other purposes.
I often work on OpenDocument files. Actually they are Zip/Jar archives containing XML and related files.
In order to do some XSLT processing I need to extract the archive, which I do with two no-thrills/no-pain perl scripts, that decrunch an .odt (or whatever ODF it is) in the path of the source file, with the same name, just the extension is appended to the new folder-name. So MyDocument.odt becomes MyDocument_odt/*
However, the other file 'odpack.pl' now would take an *_odt named folder and recreate the ODF JAR archive.
And this is why I'd need to be able to introduce a folder-filetype to Dopus, so I get a context-sensitive popup menu.
On a sidenote, and related:
I would love to have the option to have certain configurations, including toolbars and menus on certain folders. I dislike the "have to turn it on by button" approach and would like it automated, dynamic. This would boost Dopus value extremly. Would give you some sort of virtual workspaces.
Having right-click menu items which only appear when folders with certain names are right-clicked is different from what the rest of the thread was about (having a folder format which is triggered by entering a folder which mainly contains other sub-folders). I guess it could have its uses, though.
I hide buttons like the ones you mention in my Tools -> Other sub-menu.
The stuff you mention in the sidenote has come up a couple of times and is definitely on the to-do list, athough I don't know when/if it will be done.
Having right-click menu items which only appear when folders with certain names are right-clicked is different from what the rest of the thread was about (having a folder format which is triggered by entering a folder which mainly contains other sub-folders). I guess it could have its uses, though.[/quote]
Yes, I rechecked it, it was not quite the same. I wanted to post my whish but did a search before and was reading to fast after I found this thread. Still, putting the stuff into a 'other tasks' menu is like wiping the floor and put all the dirt below the carpet, me thinks.
Hello all,
is there a way to copy the customized folder option settings, and paste them in another one?
The folder option settings window, only has save for this/for all, clear and reset.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a copy /paste settings option as well?