when I sort a lister I usually want to see the items at the top of the list and invariably find myself using the scroll bar to get to the top of the lister, as it has "followed" the currently selected row and is somewhere in the middle.
probably a setting to make it do this by default or maybe hold shift+ctrl down when doing column click to make it jump to top of lister
Turn on Prefs - Listers - File Display: Reset focus entry when sorting file list.
Either I don't understand what's being discussed here or it doesn't work for me.
I have Prefs - Listers - File Display: Reset focus entry when sorting file list checked.
I start Opus, display a folder (sorted by name), page down several pages and click the Modified column header.
The files sort, but the scrollbar doesn't move, so I'm now seeing the middle of the list of files as far as date sequence is concerned.
Opus 9.5.2.0
WinXP SP3
That's what's meant to happen. If the focus entry is "reset", it is changed to keep the same relative scroll position, so that the list doesn't scroll. If the focus entry is "not reset", it will most probably move when you sort the list, and so the list will scroll to keep it visible.
OK, but what I'd really like to see happen and my interpretation of what the original poster wants to see happen is for the lister/scrollbar to go to the top of the newly sorted list as if the folder had been entered with the Modified column the default sort column.
If that can't be done, so be it, but I don't think Prefs - Listers - File Display: Reset focus entry when sorting file list is relevant to the desire being expressed here.
Yeah... kind of agree. But as stated, that's just the way that option works, though it's really not "apparent" from the option name... as it doesn't indicate what it's resetting the focus to (i.e. based on current relative scroll position).
I think what both of you guys are looking for would best be served by perhaps breaking the existing option into a few 'sub-options' like keeping the current setting Reset focus entry when sorting file list as a checkbox option but then followed by some radio button sub-options:
...yeah, something like?
Steje's proposal looks OK to me. A separate option would be OK with me also. I've submitted a request 370003014745. In that request, I also suggested that when the list is repositioned as requested any existing selection should be removed to avoid accidentally acting on this probably no longer visible selection. I stated that this second part of the suggestion is secondary to the main desire for repositioning the list.
There is a work-around for this annoyance.
If you select multiple rows or all rows (Ctrl+a) in the lister, the scrollbar will move to the top (or remain at the top if that was the initial position). It's not ideal because the selected rows remain selected, but it works.
Cheers!
Don't see why you would bother doing THAT rather than just hitting either the Home or the End key (depending on where you would want to be).
13 years later in 2023 I'm searching for this exact issue. I have a drive mapping with a long list of folders in a movie collection, over 800, a new movie gets added to my collection via automation. I click into the movies folder and select the modified by collum to find what's newest at the top, and the lister scrolls to halfway down the display because the top file was created ages ago.
I can't see the option mentioned here Prefs - Listers - File Display: Reset focus entry has the preferences interface changed so much and what would it be now? Isa there another way to stop this jump down half the page now in 2023?
Type reset focus into the search field at the bottom-left of Preferences and it should find the option.
Opus 13 also lets you middle-click a column header (after left-clicking it to change the sort order) to quickly scroll to the top, if the option is off or doesn't help in a particular situation.
Perfect, thank you so much for that prefs search tip, and after applying it works. Much appreciate.
Middle click a column header? You consider two user actions instead of one "quick"?
Opus needs to jump the display to the top when clicking on a column to filter that column. That's the only reasonable action. The middle mouse button on the column should be used to restore to previous scroll location, or maybe jump to first item in the filtered list.
It should auto jump to have the first filtered entry at the top of the view, considering if folders are always above files option is enabled. Because if it jumps to the top but there are a bunch of folders at the top anyway, it doesn't help.
Quicker than any other method, if the option I mentioned is off because someone doesn’t want it to happen automatically / all the time.
If you want that, turn on the option I mentioned.
I don't think I'm getting what I want from that option.
When I click on my labels it goes ascending, but anytime I have to move the scrollbar to see the first option in the list it just created, there is something wrong with how it's jumping.
Maybe 'group' behavior is something I should look at for this, instead of trying to strong arm these columns into being something they are not. I will revisit this issue when I know more about groups; maybe I'm misinformed here.
Actually, when a column was clicked, having page up/down jump the display to next/prev item type in the list would be excellent.
See my labels (or status) in the pic. I click to make them ascending. If I could push page up and it would jump to the first 'application' entry. Push page down it would jump to the first 'library' entry. Cherry 
