Sorry if this has been asked, but a quick search didn't help. Can DO be set to replace Explorer when saving an attachment ("Save As" dialog box)? Thanks.
No, Opus won't replace the standard file dialogs, as there isn't a good way to do so in Windows without causing all kinds of compatibility problems.
However, there are tools which augment the standard dialogs and several of them can talk to Opus, e.g. to provide quick ways to select a folder which is already open in an Opus window.
Okay leo, thanks for the prompt reply.
I have long wondered the same thing. Where can I find a list of the tools to augment the standard dialogs and particularly those that can talk to Opus? Thanks.
There is NO replacement-tool for the dialogues! As Leo said and AFAIK, all attemps from different devs ran into problems.
On my old Amiga 3000 I had such a replacement installed, but it seems, that MS needs more than 25+ years to realize 
! Fortunately the new quick access in Win 10 makes it a bit more comfortable.
Sasa, thank you for your reply. Yes, I concede there is no replacement but Leo said: "However, there are tools which augment the standard dialogs and several of them can talk to Opus, e.g. to provide quick ways to select a folder which is already open in an Opus window." My question is what are some of those? I'd like to take a look them. Thanks.
Listary seems to be one that a lot of people use, and it supports Opus explicitly.
I tried Listary once in the past, but it is only an "addon" and does not really work the way file-dialogues should/could work.
We all should write a mail to MS to make dialogues replacable (or to include missing things) .
I'm in! The file open/save dialogs have been a pita since day one. o)
There is Microsoft Connect, a site that can be used to file feature/usability requests: connect.microsoft.com/
Unfortunately, it does not allow to select Windows itself as the target (just SQL-Server or Office etc.). They seem to know how to protect themselfs from a flood of requests.
If anybody has the email-address of Satya Nadell, the current CEO of MS, let us know! o)
@Leo, is this still the case in the latest version of Windows 10 x64?
What specifically is preventing DO from rehooking (aka, bypassing) the current and legacy explorer.exe type open / save dialog boxes?
What's stopping it is there is no proper API for doing it, and attempting to do it any other way has always resulted in failure. Even the OS itself, when it brings out new versions of the dialogs, keeps the old versions for programs which were already using them, and makes the new versions opt-in, due to compatibility problems if you change the dialogs that existing programs use. Anything else is a can of worms. Try to find one replacement project that's still maintained, and I suspect this is why.
Augmenting the standard dialogs is a more realistic approach, and there are now several tools which do that, and most of them can talk to Opus (for quick access to paths in open folder tabs, favorites, and so on).
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Interesting. Thanks for the info, Leo.
Microsoft says it provides a Common Item Dialog API for the newest version of File Open / Save [IFileDialog, IFileOpenDialog, and IFileSaveDialog], but perhaps I'm reading it wrong. I'm not a developer, lol!
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Bb776913(v=VS.85).aspx
There's an API for showing the dialogs. There isn't an API for replacing the dialogs.
Some software which uses the API for showing the dialogs can do all sorts of things to the dialogs, making lots of assumptions about how they work, which will fail if they are different to what they expect.
The file requesters since Windows 95 are prehistoric. There have been a few replacement attempts over the years, but most of them end up not being updated.
The one I'm currently using is Direct Folders. It's not as great as what we used to have on Amiga OS, but it still does the job better than the standard Explorer dialogs.
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There's an API for showing the dialogs. There isn't an API for replacing the dialogs.
Since you can't replace the common dialogs, Is it possible for the Directory Opus Helper Application to "Coach" the standard file open and file save dialog boxes, and improve them real time when they are opened? (no changes to the forms but active monitoring by the Opus Helper service to change them when they are detected.)
For example can it:
- Do a better job of resizing the window and panes after they are opened opened? Maybe to a position saved in the Directory Opus settings.
- Making Collections into "Quick Access" groups
- Controlling Column layouts and Widths on the fly
- Modify windows search filters on the fly
This might be a killer "Version 13" feature. The windows common dialogs looks like they were created in 1995.
I went with Listary, out of the available options.
Apart from the other really good things it can do, it solved an issue that's haunted me for ten years now.
FL Studio has several different file types you work with. Since it runs all its dialog windows off of Windows Explorer, it's all over the ice.
So I've built a favorites paths library in Opus.
And using Listary I've mirrored that static favorites folder in its dialog helper.
No more hunting down locations for items. No more forgetting where something is saved.
Never again. so much good 
