Folder format confusion

Help & Support
1

Folder formats tend to give me a bit of a headache, i'll give a quick example.

I have previously been through and set a format, and chosen Save "For All Folders", and have a "Custom" folder format, which all my folders are picking up nicely, and content type is working too (ie, it changes to thumbnail views for folders with images in etc...), this I am pleased with, as this is how I want it work (and as I expected it to work)

So, Say I have these folders:

c:\1
c:\2
c:\3
c:\4
c:\5

These are all displaying my "Custom" format as I want, but I decide I want to change c:\3 to be a specific format. If I click on the "Folder Formats Menu" and choose a "Favorite", then the current folder (c:\3) is displaying my new "Favorite". Now, if I go to any other folder they are also displaying what I choose for c:\3 - this is somewhat confusing, as the terminology used leads me to think it should be applied to the current folder, but it appears to be binding it to the current lister ?

Also, the same confusion arises in the "Folder Options" dialog. Again, say I go into c:\3, goto folder options, the dialog will say 'c:\3' Folder Options, again implying that it should just be affecting the current folder. However, again, if I choose "Reset Page" and choose a favorite, or just manually setup columns etc.. then press ok, it is not only applied to the current folder, but as before it appears to be bound to the lister. This starts to get me very confused as it just doesnt seem logical.

The only way I can seem to get it to work how I imagined, is to goto c:\3, folder options, setup my columns etc.. "Save for This Folder", and then CANCEL out of the folder options dialog.

The way I would expect it work is as follows...
If I choose a format from the "Folder Formats Menu", then this format should be applied to the current folder ONLY
If I define a view in the "Folder Options" for a folder, and Press OK/Apply, again it should be applied to the current folder ONLY

To actually commit and save either of the above (ie save them into Folder Formats > Path Formats) there should be a button available "Save folders current view" which would essentially do the same as Folder Options > Save the current folder format > "Save for this folder" / "Save for this folder and All Sub-Folders"

Have I actually got the correct understanding on the mechanics of how this all works, or am I missing something ? as the way it currently works (for me at least) I find can be quite confusing.

(Yes, I have read "HOW TO: Understand and Configure Folder Formats", but im still none the wiser!)

2

I think the confusion has arisen because you're thinking of formats as belonging to the folder, whereas fundamentally a format belongs to the Lister. When you make an immediate change through the Folder Options dialog, what you're actually doing is changing the format in that Lister (or more specifically, in that file display).

You can think of the list of folder formats in Preferences as a list of rules that are applied automatically - when you navigate to a folder matching a folder format entry, the format in that Lister is changed automatically.

When you make a manual change to the format in the Lister, that change will persist in that Lister until you or something else changes it again.

3

So, say for example, as above, I just want to change the format of c:\3, what is the best method for me to apply my format just to c:\3 and NOT effect the views of all other folders?

4

What you're doing now won't affect the views of other folders in general - it only affects them in that Lister.

If you add a path format through the Folder Formats page in Preferences you can define a format for c:\3 without modifying the view in the current Lister.