Hi, I'm testing Dopus and noticed that when I add folders to Preferences > Files and Folder Labels > Labelled files and Folders, that actual list of folders (with assigned labels) is blank/empty when i reopen that section again. However, those folders retain their labels in the tree structure. Is this normal?
It would be nice if those folders I have assigned labels to remains in that list so I can edit them. I do not like to Add > Assign label to a folder > ... to a folder who already has a label assigned to it.
If Preferences / Favorites and Recent / File and Folder Labels / Automatically store labels in the file system if possible is turned on and the labels are stored in the filesystem, they are part of the actual filesystem and not stored in your Opus configuration.
Labels stored in the filesystem can be moved around as the files they're attached to are moved, renamed, copied and deleted, restored via backups, mounted/unmounted on external drives, and so on; including by other programs even if Opus is not running. There's no good way to track that all the time, so it isn't done.
The Preferences window only remembers labels which are part of the configuration itself, where a label has been applied to a path rather than the actual file (currently) residing at that path. (When adding a filesystem label, Preferences will show it in the list to confirm it was added, but it won't be remembered next time you open Preferences, as it isn't part of the configuration.)
The menu for adding labels via Preferences has options to create both types of label. You can also do it directly from a lister (the main Opus window), without opening Preferences, which is usually a more convenient way to add or remove labels from things.
You can use Tools > Find Files > Advanced to search by label if you need to find all files which have labels, or a particular label, including a filesystem search.
Ok thanks for that. This is less trivial than i thought Yes, the list retains only 'paths' to files/folders; not the actual file/folder. This is what caught me out. Much appreciate the deep explaination!
Q1 If I have no interest in this, is there any impediment (especially speed) to turning this off? Q2 If I turn this off, are these settings then available in text format in the Opus config files section?
I have a green folder and I cannot see where it is labelled, and I have Enable labeled storage in the FS (NTFS only) set. So Q3 I think it is stored in the FS (I have NTFS). Any ideas how do I get rid of it?
Ahh. Is this the answer to Q3?
[quote]Much appreciate the deep explaination!
[/quote]
It was indeed deep and I too appreciated it
I guess this is Q4 is the search setup shown in the screenshot above the way to search by label?
If so....Q5 the matches available (red box) to not correspond to the labels I have defined (orange box). I think I am making an incorrect match here..?
Any comments much appreciated....
Q1: Turn it off it you don't want it. That's how Opus used to always work, in fact, but some people wanted labels that travelled with files if they were moved or renamed, instead of labels that pointed to particular paths/names, so now we have the option of both.
Q2: The list of tagged files is stored in XML, yes.
Q3: Select the green item. From the default Operations toolbar, open the menu attached to the Properties button, then use Set Label > Reset. That should clear it.
Q4: Yes.
Q5: Looks like a bug that was fixed back in 2014. Are you on an old version? I can see the status bar indicating an update is available.
/dopusdata\ConfigFiles\colorgroups.oxc has the color label definitions.
/dopusdata\ConfigFiles\foldercolors.oxc has the list of files and folders each label is assigned to (if it is assigned to a path in the configuration, and not stored in the actual file or folder in the filesystem).
Yes, the list retains only 'paths' to files/folders; not the actual file/folder. This is what caught me out. Much appreciate the deep explaination!
