It is very hard to get Opus to always start with my preferences. Changing the column layout in a file list is easy. Getting the changes to affect both file lists in dual pane mode and different "formats" and be remembered after re-starting Opus, is "hit-or-miss". I use >Tools >Folder Options. Then >Save >For All Folders >Replace All. Then >Save >For All Folders >Custom Only. Then >Settings >Set as Default Lister. Then >Settings >Import and Export >Export ...
Example:
I changed the columns (added, deleted, moved and sized) and tried to apply it to all folders. When I restarted, it remembered the added columns and the new sizes, but forgot about the deleted and moved columns. After a dozen tries, it finally works. It took another 4 tries to get it to remember to sort both folders by "Ext" when I start it.
I just tried moving the "viewer pane" from side to bottom. The source folder pane started showing the "author" column again and moved the "Title" column back to the left of "Pages". Fortunately, I decided I prefer the viewer pane on the right side, and was able to get back there.
I got it working now, but if there is an easier way to permanently change things like column layout, I am very interested.
I am definately buying Opus, in spite of this weirdness.
Also, if you've taken a peek at any of the options in the Layout page in Prefs and have started using saved layouts, the recent topics below might be of some interest to you:
The FAQ which Nudel wrote and Jon has referred you to is all-around handy and almost 'required reading'... but doesn't mention how the use of layouts can conceal Folder Format settings that should otherwise take effect after opening a new lister. Basically, the initial view/format settings tied to a saved layout override the general global folder format settings; that is... when you open a new lister via a saved layout (Settings->Lister Layouts - or if you've configured double-click on desktop or tray icon to load a lister layout).
I've been using DOpus for about a year now, and I still get confused about that stuff. I was just trying, not 10 minutes ago, to change my column view settings. I kept getting it set just right, closing the lister, and opening a new one to find the one column that I was trying to get rid of was still there. Frustrating! I should be able to do this by now.
Then I thought of this thread, and decided to have a look at it. Steje's answers about "Layouts" didn't seem to apply to me, as I've never had any call to define any layouts. I went back to DOpus and had a thought: I open a new lister by double-clicking the desktop. That opens up a lister to a specific folder that I chose long ago. It opens my "Default" lister. I even have a button on my toolbar to set the default lister. I said to myself: "That's what's doing it!" I thought that when I set the default lister (with "Settings...Set as default lister") that it was saving my favorite folder, the folder format, and the size of my lister. Nope. It doesn't save the folder format, it saves everything else, INCLUDING the columns. If you have your "Default" lister saved, you can change every folder format definition in all the preferences you like, but the columns you open in your default lister won't change. Follow me?
You need to set up your folder formats how you like them, navigate to the folder that you like to always open (if that is indeed how you like to open listers, with the same folder showing every time), set your prefered folder format for your favorite folder, then update your default lister. Next time you open your lister, your "default" will open, with the correct columns, and you won't feel frustrated anymore.
I hope I explained that well enough. Lots of DOpus specific terminology can be overwhelming for a newcomer.
--chriscrutch
P.S. to Steje:
Re-reading your post, I now understand perfectly what you were saying, but before I knew what was going on, I never equated "Set as default lister" with "opening a saved layout." Makes perfect sense, now, though!
Or turn off everything in the top half of Preferences / Layout / Opening Listers and then configure things how you want them using Preferences / Layout / Default Settings and Default Folders, and Preferences / Folders / Folder Options.
That's what I do and I like it because everything is set explicitly by me, rather than settings updating automatically/implicitly.
Does there exist some definitive list of what layout/style/folder format/theme/whatnot refer to?
Sometimes I am a bit confused; fe. only layout saves current paths and tab groups- style doesn't, so when I want to save style with current paths and tab groups, I have to use layout.
I think it could look like:
Style:
I hope the folder formats include the columns, that's what I use them for! What I meant was that, instead of saving the fact that folder XYZ is set to one particular folder format, it saves exactly how the lister looks. Therefore, when you change the columns that are in that particular format, then open the default lister, the old columns are still there. Default lister settings save the exact look of the lister, not the fact that you want this folder to open with, for example, the settings from the "custom" format.
And now that I understand that, there will be much less confusion on my part.
Well ok... there's a very logical ordering to how the Layouts, Styles, and Folder Format options work. Themes are another matter as far as I know and ONLY impact background, menu, and toolbar images and coloring and such things available in places like the Prefs->Display page...
In (not so) short...
Folder Formats:
Are global settings that affect the look of the file display area of listers. Things such as the view-mode (thumbs,details, etc), sort order, columns displayed, automatically applied show or hide filters, and the various other things cleary defined on the Folder Format dialogs and in the manual. I don't think many people have so many questions about what these do, so much as confusion as to why the options they set here do not always seem to 'kick in' the way they expect. That said, before we eben talk about other feature like Styles and Layouts that can seemingly override Folder Format settings, thereare some gotchas right in the Folder Formats/Folder Options mechanics that cause people to NOT see what they think they should see - with the usual culrpits I think being either 'Content Type Detection' or the 'Include columns from other matching formats' options which Nudel explains well in his Folder Formats FAQ.
Styles
While folder format settings are 'automatically' invoked by either navigating to a type of drive or a folder you've saved a particular format for, or by content type detection... Styles are used to 'temporarily' alter a listers format settings with the click of a button, regardless of whatever folder you're currently in might have for 'saved' format options. In addition to saving the same view-info as Folder Formats, there are yet other things that Styles save for you such as single or dual pane lister windows, or the viewer pane, or particular folder tabs (yes Xyzzy... Styles do this as well as Layouts...). And speaking of Tabs, Styles can be configured in such a way so as to either leave the existing folder tabs you've got open in place and just change the Folder Format settings, or to open additional tabs, or to open additional tabs and CLOSE whatever tabs you've currently got open.
Layouts:
Layouts generally do all this and yet more... Among the various ways Opus lets you actually open a new lister, none of the methods above are directly used. When you double-click on the desktop, or the tray icon, or click on a shortcut to Opus from your Quicklaunch bar... Opus is loading either the 'Default' Layout, or one which you have saved in Preferences and have configured to load. Layouts store all of what both Folder Formats and Styles allow to be configured, and override BOTH on the initial opening of the lister. This means if you've saved a folder format for a particular folder (D:\My) and set it for thumbnails view-mode... if you've also set that same folder to be a tab which opens in whatever Layout you use to open Listers (maybe unkowingly via the 'Default' layout/lister) but the folder tab is set to open in Details view-mode, then you will NOT see that folder in Thumbnails initially. The saved layouts 'Details' view takes precedence... but it's just when the lister is initially 'opened'. If you navigate away from the folder, then back into it... the Folder Format you saved should kick in and show you Thumbnails.
