Folder Format Questions

Something I can't work out. I open DO, and hover over the padlock - it says 'current folder format comes from Lister Layout openlisters'. Ok, pretty confusing (openlisters???), but it gets better. I go back to the parent folder, and close DO. I open DO again, and when it opens to the parent folder, I go back into the same child folder. This time, the padlock says 'current folder format comes from default format'. Ok, much better - at least default format is an entry in the folder formats dialog - but it does get even better. I click a column to sort by it, padlock still says 'default format'. I go up to the parent folder (with the up button on the toolbar), and then go back into the same child folder. This time, the padlock says 'edited by user'. I then go back to the parent folder, close DO, and when I open it again, go back into the child folder - this time it changes back to 'default format' (in fact, when I changed the sorting order previously, the only way to get that folder to return to 'default format' in the padlock is to restart DO).

So, the questions:

  1. Why does the folder format keep changing depending on whether DO opens in the parent folder first, or the child folder first, and what column is being sorted?

  2. Why does DO list formats that are nowhere to be found in the folder formats options? ie openlisters and edited by user.

  3. Why does a restart of DO magically change the folder format back to 'default format'?

Formats can be stored in layouts. "Openlisters" is the layout automatically created and used if you have set Opus to automatically save and restore the current window state when you exit and restart it.

Restarting Opus doesn't do anything magic, but I suspect the difference is you closed all windows and then (after restarting or not) opened a default lister. That will be different to exiting & restarting with windows open and Opus configured to save them into a temporary layout.

If you modify the format in some way and then change folders, to another that uses the same format, your changes are kept. Otherwise you would have to keep re-applying the same change if you wanted to stay sorted by date (for example) while checking things in different folders. Folder Formats: Detailed Guide explains in more detail.

But the main thing is to not worry about the diagnostic information in the tooltip if it's just confusing things more. Ask here if you need help doing something, and we can interpret the diagostics for you.