HOW TO: Quickly open a dual display showing the current dir

Summary: Add a new Button to your toolbar to quickly split the Lister and open the current active path in both file displays.

The quickest way to achieve this is to set a switch in Preferences which means the usual Dual Display toolbar button does this automatically.

In Directory Opus 9 and above, this happens by default and you won't need to change anything unless you have explicitly set a folder to always be shown when the dual file display opens. (If you've done that but can't remember where the setting is, it is under Preferences - Listers - File Display.)

In Directory Opus 8, the switch is Preferences - Layout - Default Folders - Second file display: Same folder as primary file display.

You can also have different toolbar buttons and hotkeys which open the dual file display with a different starting point.

Here's how to create a button which opens the dual file display with the current directory, regardless of what you have set in Preferences:[ol][li] Enter Customize mode (Settings -> Customize in the default menus).

  • Create a new button by right-clicking on an empty part of the toolbar and selecting New, New Button.
  • Double-click on the new button (or right-click it and select Edit).
  • Set the Function to Go CURRENT OPENINDUAL
  • Set the icons, label, tooltip and hotkey as you desire.
  • Click OK in the command editor and then OK in the Customize dialog.

Along the same lines, it is easy to create a new set of buttons to open a dual display and go immediately to specific paths. This saves you having to navigate (via the Tree or other ways) to favourite folders. For example you could use the command GO OPENINDUAL C:\Some\Path

Further details can be found in the manual or help file for the Go command.

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