I'm trying to decide between XYplorer and Directory Opus. I like the way XYplorer looks a lot but I know Directory Opus is miles ahead in terms of customization and features in general. I'm currently using the evaluation version of both while I decide which one to purchase. I really want it to be Directory Opus because of the customization, 64-bit support, multithreading, and many other things.
I have a few questions so that I can get settle on Directory Opus. I would really appreciate any answers you guys can give me.
Rather than have the window panes side by side, how can I make them on top of each other like in XYplorer?
In XYplorer, I can go to Window -> Show Info Panel to have a new panel be positioned at the bottom where I can see the properties, version, meta, etc of whatever file/folder I have selected. In Directory Opus, you can see the same information by going to Properties. Is there a way to have a similar properties panel toggled on/off in Directory Opus?
In XYplorer, when looking at the columns that have date information (such as last modified), I can change it to many different formatting options such as showing the "age" (e.g. 1 month, 14 days). There is also a way to have a cool graphic next to the date/time info. How can I set that sort of option in Directory Opus?
For some reason in the folder tree in Directory Opus, everything is a subcategory of "Desktop". Can I change that?
In XYplorer, the file tree has those cool lines and +'s that you can click on. The lines are to represent which subfolders are part of which root directory to avoid confusion. Is there an option to do this in Directory Opus?
In this post here, I really like the style of the storage space display among other things. How difficult is it to learn how to do make such a customized display? I've looked through the options but it doesn't seem clear cut. How do I make my style looks like this?
I'm so sorry for all the questions! I love the vast customizability of Directory Opus so I figured I could simply customize it to my likings and make it look more like XYplorer in areas. Any help and/or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!
Hi! I will try to help you. But since i have my DOpus customized to death, im not sure where the original options/menus are, but:
You can have the listers display side-by-side or above each other. So YES you can do what you need.
You can display a metadata pane or viewer pane to the right or under the file listers.
The columns in DOpus are scriptable, you are able to display nearly anything you need, but even with default options you can customize the date format. You can have bars displayed also, if you need visual representation of things. Even display the graphical bars behind the text dates so you have it all in one column.
Settings - Preferences - Folder Tree anything you need the tree to display is there.
Yep, you have those lines and +'s, with customizable colors.
I think you mean "My Computer". It is possible to display remaining space with bars. Not like those little lines, but it comes close. Like this:
I will show you my own custom setting, i will try to display many of the things you are curious about. I was trying XYplorer but DOpus is like the godfather of all explorers, so if you would ask me i would say get DOpus, because in the long run it will be more beneficial. If in the future you will need a special rename script because you start working on other things, you change your mind and decide you need everything customized to the teeth, DOpus is the winner. And i am mainly into colorful and dark style displays, you will see what i am talking about, so here is my screenshot:
The metadata panel may be what you want. You can turn it on via the button two to the right of the one mentioned above. (Or via the Lister menu just to the left of it.) The button next to its close button toggles it between right and bottom layouts.
Showing age in days, months etc. could be done using a fairly simple script. If you'd like that, please make a separate thread for it. I'm finishing some other work off today but should be able to do it later this or next week. (Thinking about it, there may already be a script to do this on the forum as it seems familiar.)
Edit: Existing script for this is linked in the reply below.
I don't know what you mean by "a cool graphic" here, as I'm not familiar with XYPlorer and most of the references to it are lost on me, so I don't know if that can be done. More detail is needed there.
The relative age graphs may also be of interest, if you want a quick visual way to compare the ages of files relative to each other in a folder. (e.g. Columns > Date & Time > Modify (Relative).) You can also make the graphs appear behind the normal date columns via Preferences / Folders / Folder Display / Show relative graphs behind modified date columns.
That is how the Windows shell defines things, but you can change it to a degree via Preferences / Folder Tree / Contents, Start Folder Tree At: Drives, or This PC, depending on what you want.
Preferences / Folder Tree / Appearance, either the Tree Style or the Highlight path to selected folder settings (or both), depending on exactly what you want.
It depends which aspects of that screenshot you're interested in. Which thing(s) do you want to change but can't find? (This would probably be better asked in that thread, or a new thread.)
As a general rule, please ask one question per thread to help people looking for answers on the forum, and so conversations don't turn into spaghetti if there's lots of back & forth about multiple issues. Multiple questions in a thread also means we can't easily track which questions, feature requests or bug reports are still outstanding.
You guys are awesome! Thank you for all the effort you put into your responses.
Regarding your responses:
2.Is there any way to have tabs in the Metadata pane similar to this?
3. Are there other options for the visual way of comparing ages or are we stuck with the colored rectangle? Also, where exactly do I go to find the display options for columns like Modified? I thought it would be under "File Display Modes" but I couldn't find anything there.
5. Is there any way to change the color of the "Highlight path to selected folder"?
6. Regarding the bars in the post I linked to, how was that poster able to accomplish having those bars?
These are the bars I'm referring to:
To be honest, I have a ton of questions. Are most of the screenshots on these forums things that people have downloaded or are they mostly personally customized? I have 0 idea how people are able to completely customize everything. I can't even find options for customizing most of these options.
And one last thing regarding the scripting: if I use that script for showing the approximate age of folders/files, will it show up as an option to choose from in the display options so that I can go back and fourth between the script and other display options on the fly? Or would I have to reload the script every time?
Sorry for all the questions! Next time I'll post multiple topics
Instead of trying to turn Opus into another piece of software in one hit we would normally suggest you try it out as it was designed to be used, and configure it as you go.
Opus has a number of concepts that you won't find in other file managers and if all you do is try to set it up to mimic those you'll be missing out on a lot of the point of using Opus in the first place.
I just want it to look visually appealing and feature-filled like everyone else's. The problem is that I don't know how to customize it like everyone else. The settings menu is difficult to navigate if you aren't used to it.
I don't necessarily want it to look like the other file explorers out there because Directory Opus has them beat in nearly every way, but there are a few visuals that I would love to figure out how to incorporate.
Crusher21, I indicate you to read the DOpus help manual. It was the first thing I did when I started testing it. The "Preferences" and "Customize" categories explore the main customization options.
