Greetings, is there a way to change the default selection rectangle (the one that only encapsulated a single file or folder, not one developed through dragging a box). Mine appears somewhat faint and is often hard to spot. I would like to have a background color so that i can easily see where it is or isnt.
Thanks!
Prefs / Display / Colors & Fonts is where you set the colours.
Prefs / Display / Options is where you can specify how/if they are blended with other colours (which is probably what's making them appear light).
Also, Prefs / Display / Fields is where you set the background colour used by the sort-field. You can turn it off, change it and also apply colours to other fields, as you wish.
Thank you for the fast reply. However, i dont see this particulr option. Perhaps if i am more clear:
When moving the arrow keys up/down in a lister, a rectangle surrounds the non-selected files/folders and includes one and only one line. It is transparant, but with a small, seemingly dotted frame. I wish to change this to either a darker rectangle or a shaded box.
Is that possible?
Several times I've started to write a response here but I keep stopping myself because I cannot understand the logic behind your question. If the dotted rectangle you're referring to is what I think it is, then as far as I know there's no option to change its appearance.
@ Leo & John
I believe he is talking bout the "marching ants" focus selection rectangle (or in this case unmarching ants).
I believe Opus takes to color wheel inverse of whatever the lister background color is set too. So if your lister background color is the default white, the focus selector uses black "unmarching ants". I have recently been working on an Opus theme which uses background lister images comprised of many shades of gray. I have noticed that the focus selection rectangle unmarching ants attempt to match the color wheel inverse of each pixel in the image (not the background color stored inside the theme. This has the net effect that the ants are a different color as they contrast with different pixels of the background image.
I've been meaning to file a feature request to have Opus just contrast the focus unmarching ants with the specified file display background color (which is still stored inside the theme even if a background image is actually used).
I should also note though that once you press any of the cursor keys, the focus rectangle will also display the file/folder selection background color.
JohnZeman said [quote]Several times I've started to write a response here but I keep stopping myself because I cannot understand the logic behind your question.[/quote]
Seriously?
kenalcock said [quote]I believe he is talking bout the "marching ants" focus selection rectangle (or in this case unmarching ants). [/quote]
Indeed, the "unmarching ants" of the "focus selection rectangle".
Something like a thicker line, the ability to control its color, its persistence, or even the background shade.
Switching from years and years of TC loyalty I am finding a few of the Opus features cumbersome---most notably the outright peculiar inability to lock tabs...and, yes, i have read through the various posts bearing on this subject. This is another. I am used to selecting with the RMB and moving the file selection rectangle mostly with arrow keys but also with the LMB---in getting focus on either the left or right pane or in moving the file selection rectangle to a particular file/folder (without selecting it). As far as I can tell, i can only move the focus selection rectangle with the arrow keys and not with the LMB (or the RMB for that matter). Changing the unmarching ants to a shaded rectangular background or even a thicker line of ants in a less saturated and brighter hue would at least for me make looking for the file selection recatangle less disturbing.
I have found also that these unmarching ants often fail to appear when for instance losing and regaining focus. I admit though I havent scanned the posts for this type of problem.
I haven't noticed that behavior, but i will play around with it and see.
Many thanks to you all!
Can you post a screenshot of what the rectangle looks like?
Opus draws the focus rectangle using the standard Windows GDI function that just about every program uses. The difference is probably that Opus lets you set different background images and colours and the xor drawing method works better on some colours than others. Maybe try using a lighter or just different background colour and it should be easier to see.
Maybe there's merit in experimenting with different ways to draw the dotted rectangle, though.
I don't really see why it is peculiar that you cannot lock tabs. Sure, it's a perfectly reasonable feature request, but the lack of it doesn't seem peculiar to me.
Selecting files the way TC works does seem peculiar, though 
, at least in comparison with the standard way that file selection works in Windows.
Why do you want to move the focus rectangle using the mouse? The purpose of the focus rectangle is to enable keyboard navigation/selection so it seems redundant when using the mouse. (Sorry if I'm misunderstanding here, I probably am!)
Opus, in Details mode, should behave the same as Explorer, and almost every other Windows app, in terms of file selection. (Plus in Opus the middle mouse button can be used to toggle individual files without having to hold down Ctrl, which is non-standard but also a non-confusing bonus since the middle button doesn't usually do anything in other programs.)
If you switch Opus to Power mode you can configure what the mouse buttons do, up to a point, via Preferences and you can make things quite non-standard if you want, but Details mode is there if you want the Windows standard file selection behaviour.
Sounds like you're using Power mode and have Always in Keyboard Mode turned off in Preferences. (I think it's under Listers / Power & Details mode.)
[quote]I don't really see why it is peculiar that you cannot lock tabs. Sure, it's a perfectly reasonable feature request, but the lack of it doesn't seem peculiar to me.
[/quote]
Thus far i havent fully explored Opus alternatives, but I'll explain what i am used to in hopes of making it seem less peculiar. I have a set of tabs in TC for the left and right panels (yes, sadly, there are only two...but that isnt the reason i searched for TC-alternatives). In the left i have a set of tabs representing folders either local drive, on my share, or somewhere on the network that i use frequently and dont want to navigate to find. On the right i have a set of tabs that i use frequently also, but these are "project" tabs that contain parent folders that each contain programs, data, documents, etc. for a number of current projects. I use the same file structure for all projects, so the folders within each project are identically named (what i was unable to do in TC was to open a 3rd panel upon switching to a "project" tab that would contain one tab for each of the folders i have subsumed within each project tab.) I can quickly move among tabs or across panels to keyboard my way to the files that i need.
What i like is that I can open a folder within one of these tabs, but it wont remove the original tabs unless i explicitly close it. I can add tabs (and if there isnt enough room they move to two levels) but unless i explicitly lock these add-on tabs, they can be closed with a click or keystroke without warning.
In one panel i can easily send the folder under the cursor to a new tab within the same panel or to a new tab in the orher panel and so forth. I dont like the Opus way of replacing existing tabs. Say, double clicking on a folder replaces the current folder with the one double-clicked. I would rather tabs persist because i put them there to save my fingers...so folders and archives should open in a new tab.
Before i get too far away from the tiny unmarching ants discussion I'll bring up a command that works similar to the TC way of opening the current folder in a new tab in the opposite panel:
Go fromsel newtab OPENINDUALThe problem here is that the folder opened isnt marked by the tiny unmarching ants but rather must be selected. I rarely use the mouse for anything other than selecting noncontiguus files/folders. So needing to first select the folder that i want to open in a new tab and then executing whatever keys i bind to the operation (e.g., c-right) involves an extra step. All i really wanted was what was marked by the tiny unmarching ants. Perhaps there is a command that does this---instead of fromsel? I admit, the commands are not siomethign i am used to and i am just beginning to see how to link multiple commands together.
But even for instance if i want to switch to a lister and "select" a file to then change the description for it, where in TC i can click on the item and the command to change the description works on that item. In Opus it seems that i can click on the item in the lister, but prior to executing the command to change the description i have to move the unmarching ants onto that item. Otherwise, the item that i clicked on is ignored and the command to change the description operates on whatever the selection rectangle is on, usually the first item in the lister.
At any rate, that brings me back to the unmarching ants. I cant see them very well and would like to have something along the lines of a solid "reverse video" like cursor or just something thicker and more visible.
see: the attached image AntsAndSelection001.jpg which shows a small section of a lister where there are 5 folders visible, one ("BOP") is surrounded by the tiny unmarching ants, another, ("CEN"), is selected and highlighted in blue, and the remaining three folders are deselected.
In spite of all this i am wonderfully impressed with the speed of Opus vis-a-vis TC. That is the main reason i switched. I think i can find a way to duplicate all i have done in TC and then begin adding Opus functions.
I will open this in another post if necessary, but one of the things that i am struggling with is not having my "favorites" accessible by hot keys. In TC i have a keystroke (alt-pgup) assigned to open a pop-up list of "favorites". Each favorite item is attached to a single key (a la "&" in the name) . And these can be repeated within subgroups so that i could have a popup list with titles "&Alpha" and "&Beta" so that "A" and "B" open up a sublist for either. Nested within each sublist i can have "&DOC","D&AT", "&PGM". This way, I can open up the parent folder i need, say "Beta" wich opens up a sublist of folders, and i can select one of them with a "D", "A", or "P" the same way i can open the subfolders in Alpha with a "D", "A", or "P" that is without having to assign each item including sub-items within the favorites list with a different hotkey. I use this probably more than any other keystroke. I digress.
I am very thankful for the dialogue.
--
David
Leo didn't say the idea of locking tabs was peculiar, he said it wasn't peculiar that currently that feature does not exist.
You should be in Details mode rather than Power mode then. In Details mode, to go into a folder all you need to do is cursor down to it and hit enter. Since you say you use the mouse to select non-contiguous files anyway, it doesn't sound like you need the flexibility that Power mode gives you.
Maybe you have something wrong with your monitor or your eyes, but to me the focus rectangle in that screenshot is perfectly clear.
(although I can't see any ants, unmarching or otherwise - so if there's something else that should be visible in that picture I agree I can't see it either )
Sticky tabs:
I would use toolbars with buttons for the folders on them. It sounds like you want something quite temporary so this isn't totally ideal -- you have to enter customize, drag folder to toolbar, exit customize; instead of just right-click a tab and choose "Lock" -- but it's something you can use for the time being if you need to keep a set of things you can click on to quickly go to certain folders.
Currently Opus tabs are the same as tabs in Firefox. They just represent a browsing window -- allowing you to have several windows within the same top-level window -- and not a particular folder/webpage. Tabs have the name of their current folder on them, but so does the main Opus window. 
Tabs themselves are a relatively new feature in Opus and several people have asked for sticky tabs so I hope we'll see it in a future version. I would probably use it myself every so often.
Selection using cursor keys:
Like Jon says, you should use Details mode rather than Power mode. In Details mode the file selection follows the focus rectangle which is exactly what you want.
Focus rectangle visibility:
Very easy to see in your screenshot here. Are you using an LCD monitor via analog connector (VGA rather than DVI) or not running at its native resolution? If so it may be blending pixels together which results in the dither pattern (one pixel on, next one off, etc.) being merged together into a blur that is hard to see.
If you're using an analog connection but also using the native resolution you may just need to adjust the monitor settings so that the width/height and x/y offset are correct. This tool can display some test patterns which help. It is well worth doing because everything will look more clear and crisp, in addition to fixing problems with dithered pixel patterns.
The same issues can apply to CRT monitors (especially if you're driving them at a higher than optimal resolution) but to a lesser degree.
Using a DVI cable, if it's an option, is always the best and easiest way to solve the problem. Running TFTs at anything less than their native resolution is generally not a good idea, although it depends how good they are at scaling. I think most TFTs won't let you exceed their native resolution, but CRTs do often let you drive them at higher resolutions than they can really display.
Favorites & shortcuts:
These do work although there's a cosmetic issue where they don't get turned into an _ unless they're the first letter (which was reported to GPSoft a few days ago). More info in this thread:
Okay, thanks for all the feedback.
David
[quote="jon"](although I can't see any ants, unmarching or otherwise - so if there's something else that should be visible in that picture I agree I can't see it either )[/quote]Jon, I know you folks do things differently down under (water swirls backwards going down the drain and all that). But marching ants is a fairly common term above the equator.
See Marching Ants
But all that said, the unmarching ants are quite clear in his screen grab (clearer than they are against my multi-colored background image).
FYI, Opus only has unmarching ants, since they are not moving.
I can see them too but they simply are less visible compared to what TC enables. See the pic from the config..color which shows a thick, red rectangle as opposed to the marching ants for the file selection ("cursor"). Here the selected items ("marked" items) are highlighted, but this can be reversed.
A thick, red, completely non-standard on Windows rectangle
Just about every application, from web browsers to text editors, uses the dotted line to indicate focus.
I agree, but that doesn't necessarily mean its the best
way.