Display files which only differ by extension in standard order?

I have thousands of files... .txt & matching .jpg files. These are matching pairs, same filename, just different extensions. Windows Explorer always list the .jpg first, then the .txt file... unless I reverse-sort. Opus is willy-nilly, some pairs have the .jpg first, others the text, seems totally half-hazard. No sorting options gets these to display the same... always random. When I'm 'eyeballing' for whatever reason, much easier to see a 'break' in the pattern when it's always .jpg/.txt, .jpg/.txt, etc.

I love Opus,was considering purchasing, but this is a huge issue for the way I personally do things... and a deal-breaker if I cannot resolve.

Any ideas?

It would only normally do that if you had configured Opus to:

  • Hide extensions from the Name column
  • Sort by the Name column alone

If you've showing extensions in a separate column, you can do a multi-column sort to sort by Name, then Extension.

But in the normal case where extensions are displayed, the names will be sorted with the extensions included.

Another relevant setting is in Folder Options:

Sort name and extension separately When enabled, Opus sorts folders by name by splitting up the filename stem and the extension, and sorting them separately (i.e. it sorts by the stem first, and only if the stem is the same does it consider the file extension). This has the effect of keeping names with the same stem together, for example:

sortnameext-1 - sortnameext-2

In the above images, there are only three files with the stem Test , and a fourth with the stem Test.bbb. In the image on the left, with the option turned on, Opus has sorted two groups separately. In the image on the right, Opus has considered the whole filename including the extension as a single string.

Thanks for replying, looks like I should have been more clear.

  1. I do hide extensions... one of the first things I figured out how to do. :slight_smile: I can't stand seeing file extensions of known file types.
  2. For these files, I just view the filename only, nothing extra, not divided up. Sorted by file-name only.

If hiding file extensions is the problem, then I guess I'll just have to remove Opus. Whether file extensions are listed or not, there should be some sort ot STANDARD listing order when file names are the exact same (just different file types).

The reason it works the way it does is people might want to sort by a second column (which I don't think you can do in File Explorer).

For example, if you have images in JPG and PNG format and want the ones with the same names (ignoring extensions) sorted by date or size order.

That said, if Name is the only or last sort column, it would make sense to break ties by considering the extensions, even if they are hidden.

We could certainly make a change there for that situation, without breaking the ability to sort by multiple columns as well.

People can sort as they wish. There are times when I view thumnails, icons, etc... but I'd say the majority are as below:

View: List View
Sort: Fle Name
With extensions hidden.

I've actually re-enabled extensions, things 'sort' better this way, but I just do not like seeing the extension... they shouldn't be needed to allow proper STANDARD sorting.

Say you have extensions hidden and in a folder with say 100 files even. All are pairs, 50 jpgs & 50 txts... each pair is the exact same exect for their extension differences. Doesn't it make sense that for List-View/File-Name that they be displayed in some sort of STANDARD order. Meaning jpg/text, jpg/txt, jpg/txt (or flip if I reverse order) than just a mix of jpg/txt, txt/jpg, jpt/txt... etc? There is NO standard list order for these. One pair may have the jpg first, another pair may have the txt file first... this should be intuitive.

Without enabling file extension view, I cannot get jpg/txt file pairs to display as I'd like. If I'm viewing in list-view and sorting by file-name, then any other property shouldn't matter... size, extension, etc... all that should be irrelevant. Therefore when looking at these files, there should be some sort of standard sort versus just hodge-podge.

It definitely makes sense that the ordering should be consistent. At the moment it's down to the vagaries of the sort algorithm which order two equal items are placed in.

We'll implement this in the next update.

How often do you do updates? Also, when updates are implemented by the user... do they lose all the settings they currently have in place?

See the New Releases area to get an idea.

As long as you install the new version over the top of the old (do not uninstall the old version), your settings will be kept.

Use Settings > Backup & Restore if you want to be safe and save a config backup. (Not a bad idea every so often, even ignoring updates.)