My default lister arrangement is dual pane, each set in "details" mode. Yet when I'm using Opus 9 to explore my directories or an FTP site, I often see that one pane or another will, seemingly on its own, switch to Power Mode. I gather Opus REALLY prefers to be in Power Mode. I've tried to get used to this, but I really don't care for it. I especially dislike the way Power Mode allows you to select files just by click and dragging the mouse over them. This is dangerous for a quick and dirty drag and dropper like me.
My next thought was to configure Power Mode to work as much like the Details Mode as possible, setting the left mouse button to auto-deselect for instance. But I can't figure out how to disable this business of marking files with a mouse drag. Because Power Mode looks similar to Details Mode, I've had to switch on the "display grid line" feature of Power Mode to alert me to when Opus 9 has switched into this mode. This cuts down on accidents, but I hate having to manually switch the pane to Details mode every so often.
Is there any way to completely disable Power Mode?
If you just want to use a particular folder format for all folders, without it ever changing,
please read this FAQ (Quick Guide): [Folder Formats: Quick Guide)
As far as I know, Power Mode isn't the default for anything. Opus doesn't prefer it, it must've been assigned via preferences or folder formats, I think.
Leo and Christiaan, thanks so much. What has me confused is that "Enable Folder Content Type Detection" is OFF. Always has been. I haven't messed at all with the default listers for various file types, yet I just discovered that by default Opus is set to open Network, Local, and Zip drives in POWER mode. I've now changed all those to Details mode, and that seems to have done the trick. Thanks again.
Content Type Detection will make Opus use different formats when you open folders containing different types of files (e.g. music files).
If Content Type Detection is off, or the contents of the folder do not apply, then Opus will use one of the more generic formats, i.e. the formats for Network, Local or Zip drives depending on the type of drive in question.
Turning off Content Type Detection does not turn off the entire Folder Formats system; it only turns off the Content Type part of it.
So if, in the past, you changed the Network Drives format to use Power Mode, it will still cause Power Mode to be used even if Content Type Detection is turned off.
Leo, thanks for the explanation. Just to be clear, until just now I never adjusted the Content Type Detection or Folder Format options. I certainly never set Opus to switch to Power Mode when exploring a Network or Zip drive. Power Mode just seems to be the default mode for exploring such drives. To change that apparently involves digging into the bowels of the preferences.
Power Mode is definitely not the default, I just double-checked on a virtual machine with a fresh installed of Opus.
By default the Local Drive, Network Drives, Removable Drives and ZIP formats are not turned on at all, and if you edit them they (and all other formats, except for the Images content-type format) are set to Details mode.
The settings must have been changed on your system at some point. If you didn't do it explicitly, perhaps you imported someone else's configuration? (e.g. Some of the themes in the forum include entire configurations instead of or as well as theme files. Personally I don't like it, but we put a warning on those posts and let people decide whether they want to import someone else's entire configuration.)
Or maybe you cycled through display modes and thought you'd got back to Details but were in Power instead (they usually look the same as it's the behaviour that's the main difference) and then saved that format for all folders? Still wouldn't explain why things like the Network Drives format were turned on if you've never ventured into that part of Preferences, though, unless someone else's config was imported.
Anyway, problem solved so that's good, but Power Mode is definitely not the default for anything unless I'm missing something or it was changed at some point in the past and I've forgotten about it.
Ah, that's it! Soon after installing Opus I DID try someone else's configuration theme for a short while. It never occurred to me that changing Opus' appearance might change folder preferences and such. Yikes. That's scary. That goes beyond the sort of purely visual modifications made by the likes of Windowblinds and such. I must have missed the warning messages in my enthusiasm.
There are themes, which only affect visuals, and then there are complete configuration backups which affect everything.
Some of the posts in the Themes forum contain both. A complete configuration backup can change more aspects of the program but obviously has the drawback that you get the author's non-visual settings as well.
If anyone notices a configuration-backup post in the Themes forum (or anywhere else for that matter) where we've missed off the warning, let me know and I'll edit it.
It was my misfortune to install KingofDaClick the first day I downloaded Opus. I assumed that the warning message about backing up the odc file was just a stock warning used for all themes. There is certainly nothing in the theme description suggesting just how deep (unnecessarily deep?) are the configuration changes.
Maybe the warning message about installing themes could mention the affect on many, if not all, of Opus' preferences? That would alert theme adopters to check all their preferences after installing a given theme.
Leo, thanks for helping me diagnose my problem. Setting my preferences back to normal, while retaining some elements of the new theme, was an great introduction to some of Opus' power and intricacy.
Again - what you installed was not a theme, but a full configuration backup. Installing actual themes is quite safe, all that is modified is display settings. If you install a full configuration file then obviously your existing configuration is going to be overwritten.
Jon, thanks for clarifying the distinction. Would it make sense then -- if only to help new users -- to offer these configuration packages in a download section called "Special Configurations" or some such? The package I installed is currently listed in the "Themes" section -- as the top-most file no less.
I've changed the warning on the posts with configuration backups. It's now more explicit about what they'll do and explains that themes (.dlt files) and configuration backups (.ocb files) are different things.
I think a separate configurations forum would just mean we'd have two posts for each of those "themes" and people downloading them still might not know what they're getting into. Hopefully the improved warnings make things clear now!
All threads are sorted by last post date*. The reason the thread you downloaded from is at the top is because it's the one someone posted in most recently.
(* Except the few threads which an admin has made "sticky," like the one nobody seems to read at the top of the Rename Scripting forum. )
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