Can status bars be removed completely? I couldn't find any way to do that. Removing all the code for status bar display apparently falls back on some kind of default display of information.
I found a command in the customize dialog to do it, but nothing in the settings to do so.
In the default toolbars, Lister > Status Bar will toggle it on and off. Settings > Set as Default Lister should be used if you want to keep it off.
It does a lot of useful things, though, some of which may not be immediately obvious, so we recommend leaving it on most of the time.
[quote="leo"]In the default toolbars, Lister > Status Bar will toggle it on and off. Settings > Set as Default Lister should be used if you want to keep it off.
It does a lot of useful things, though, some of which may not be immediately obvious, so we recommend leaving it on most of the time.[/quote]
OK, so indeed there is not anywhere in the settings to set that. While you note that the status bar does a lot of useful things, that would depend on the options that one has set up, right? I could put the toggle button on my custom toolbar so it's easy to evaluate the usefulness. I think that if there is no code defining the status bar, then it should be hidden and there should maybe be a checkbox in the settings in the 'status bar' category to toggle it, but that's just me at this point. Thanks.
There's no option in Preferences, no, but that's because you can turn it on and off right from the window it is in, without having to go into Preferences.
You mean with the command under the Lister menu you noted before?
I see that right-clicking on the status bar gives the option "Edit Status Bar...", but as I noted before, and you affirmed above, there is no place in Preferences to turn-off display of the status bar (I still think there probably should be, though).
It would not make sense to have the option in Preferences.
The status bar can be on in one window and off in another. It is not a global option, so it doesn't belong in Preferences.
Similarly, you turn other lister elements on and off, or resize them, within the lister itself: The folder tree, dual display, viewer panel, metadata panel, utility panel (Find Files etc.).
If you had to go to Preferences to toggle any of those it would be a pain, and if you had to have their state the same in every window it would be very limiting.
The option may not be in the first place you thought to look, but there are reasons that place would not make sense, and where the option is placed is logical and consistent with related options, in a menu dedicated to turning panels on and off in the lister.
[quote="leo"]It would not make sense to have the option in Preferences.
The status bar can be on in one window and off in another. It is not a global option, so it doesn't belong in Preferences.[/quote]
I was just suggesting that it could be a global option.
That said, I have been investigating what status bar information is available. I put the status bar toggle on my main toolbar and here is my status bar code (separate bars in each view):
{h!} {sf} object(s) selected {sba} {h!} {rpad}
Drive {dlet} {df} free {dt} used {bg+w=50,f=2,g=3,t=n,c1=#68f040,c2=#f06840}
The information possible in the status bar is limited. While not trivial to implement, I would like to see 'File modified date' (when a single file is selected) added. 'File size' is already available. Having those two things, one could quickly assess if two files in separate views were the same or not, without hovering over a file and trying to remember the pertinent information, or without bringing up the properties dialog for each file.
[quote="leo"]Similarly, you turn other lister elements on and off, or resize them, within the lister itself: The folder tree, dual display, viewer panel, metadata panel, utility panel (Find Files etc.).
If you had to go to Preferences to toggle any of those it would be a pain, and if you had to have their state the same in every window it would be very limiting.[/quote]
Those are clearly not candidates for global preferences. Status bar, though, could be--it depends on what information one likes to see there. May as well get the space back and make the window a little less busy if one never uses the information there.
Of course, there would still need to be a local toggle for status bar, with the global preference as the master override.
But you are making the assumption that a user is using the default toolbars, menus and such. I hide all of those and leave them intact for reference or specialized chores, but my day-to-day use is via my custom toolbars.
(My second day with Directory Opus. I like it a lot, now that I have it configured nicely (it's an on-going thing) according to the way I like to work.)
[quote="TechTony"][quote="leo"]Similarly, you turn other lister elements on and off, or resize them, within the lister itself: The folder tree, dual display, viewer panel, metadata panel, utility panel (Find Files etc.).
If you had to go to Preferences to toggle any of those it would be a pain, and if you had to have their state the same in every window it would be very limiting.[/quote]
Those are clearly not candidates for global preferences. Status bar, though, could be--it depends on what information one likes to see there. May as well get the space back and make the window a little less busy if one never uses the information there.[/quote]
That could be confusing. I have a default lister and then I have several saved listers available via a system-wide hotkey. I work with student records and instructor records. Windows+Shift+S brings up a lister for working with student files. Windows+Shift-I brings up my instructor lister. These not only are different size and such, but I could, if wanted, have different status bar definitions for them.
Then, to go into preferences and globally disable the status bar, which setting takes precedence? Do you want the lister information to preempt the global setting or the global setting to preempt the lister setting?
Perhaps we could make it more complicated by asking Jon (the main Directory Opus developer) to store a "date saved" variable with the various preferences options so whichever was saved most recently wins. But, then, the users would want to see which date all these settings are saved so they could understand why, when one thing was modified, it didn't affect a change change.
I see the status bar as a local-to-the-lister setting. DOpus is a vastly complicated and wonderfully complex piece of software. Adding an option in one place that could (or could not?) supersede a setting in another place will just require more support and hand-holding. To put it another way, there's an extremely low return on investment to implementing such a feature.
On a more useful note, have you thought of turning off the status bar and saving the result as your default lister (Settings -> Set As Default Lister)? Then, when you create new listers, the status bar will always be off, but able to be toggled with the button you created.
[quote="RicFischer"][quote="TechTony"][quote="leo"]Similarly, you turn other lister elements on and off, or resize them, within the lister itself: The folder tree, dual display, viewer panel, metadata panel, utility panel (Find Files etc.).
If you had to go to Preferences to toggle any of those it would be a pain, and if you had to have their state the same in every window it would be very limiting.[/quote]
Those are clearly not candidates for global preferences. Status bar, though, could be--it depends on what information one likes to see there. May as well get the space back and make the window a little less busy if one never uses the information there.[/quote]
That could be confusing. I have a default lister and then I have several saved listers available via a system-wide hotkey. I work with student records and instructor records. Windows+Shift+S brings up a lister for working with student files. Windows+Shift-I brings up my instructor lister. These not only are different size and such, but I could, if wanted, have different status bar definitions for them.
Then, to go into preferences and globally disable the status bar, which setting takes precedence? Do you want the lister information to preempt the global setting or the global setting to preempt the lister setting?
Perhaps we could make it more complicated by asking Jon (the main Directory Opus developer) to store a "date saved" variable with the various preferences options so whichever was saved most recently wins. But, then, the users would want to see which date all these settings are saved so they could understand why, when one thing was modified, it didn't affect a change change.
I see the status bar as a local-to-the-lister setting. DOpus is a vastly complicated and wonderfully complex piece of software. Adding an option in one place that could (or could not?) supersede a setting in another place will just require more support and hand-holding. To put it another way, there's an extremely low return on investment to implementing such a feature.
On a more useful note, have you thought of turning off the status bar and saving the result as your default lister (Settings -> Set As Default Lister)? Then, when you create new listers, the status bar will always be off, but able to be toggled with the button you created.[/quote]
I was suggesting that the global toggle would be authoritative, for if one has decided that status bar information is not useful, one could click the global checkbox and pretend status bars on file managers don't exist. As it is, it's a chore to turn off the status bar and keep it off, when a global preference would easy.
Yes, I did exactly that (default lister saved with the status bar toggled off), and put a toggle button on my main toolbar, and that is working nicely. I've even evolved the status bar I gave in my last post by adding the format lock indicator, now that I know about that. Part of the reason I was suggesting that a global toggle would be nice is because it seemed that sometimes the status bar would turn itself on, but it seems to be working OK now, and it's not a major issue if it does show up from time to time, though I prefer that it would be the status bar that I specified and not some default status bar.
I've been living without a status bar in Windows Explorer for many years. I turned it off because there wasn't any compelling information there to have it visible. I forget what information I wanted. A file modified date would be very useful (that date is available from the OS file system). Oh yes, and a non-OS-file hidden count would be nice. Just having a hidden file count, when there are two different kinds of hidden files/folders, isn't useful to me. All in all, though, the status bar information is really not all that important in comparison to the file handling capabilities, and DOpus is doing nicely in that regard. Now in a program such as a web browser, the status bar is a whole lot more useful: it shows page loading progress and such. Having the total byte count of selected files is nice occasionally in a file manager, but that is usually available by other means anyway.
I think where I started with this, is, well, I noticed that I was able to right-click on the status bar and find an "Edit Status Bar..." option. I was expecting to find an option to turn off the status bar from where that menu choice led me to. I like the clean look without the status bar.
(I know, "too much verbage"--It's way past my bed time and I'm getting punchy.)
I like this idea, too.
Hmm. I never thought about this. Almost every folder I personally play around in would only contain files/folders I personally hid. Although, I can't say I would actually hide any files from myself.
Is there even a "OS-hidden" versus "user-hidden" attribute? I guess you could check for the hidden attribute and then check who the owner is, but that seems cumbersome.
I'm glad you're wrestling the settings to your satisfaction.
There are a number of websites with cool setups. I don't use their configurations verbatim, but I've used them for ideas to help me set things up the way I like. One such website with lots of good documentation is:
If you want, you can skip the Interface Tour and just dive into his Interface Setup. He even has some downloads so you can try out his DOpus stuff. Be sure to take advantage of the Backup and Restore feature (in the Settings menu) so you can always get back to what you had in case stuff you downloaded messes up your installation.
Have fun with DOpus!
I like this idea, too.
[/quote]
Note that the date a file was last modified, is most useful to me (for status bar display) personally. Other users may wish to interrogate the other dates available (in Windows): File create date, and File last-access date. The complete set of dates is, of course, available via details view in the lister.
Hmm. I never thought about this. Almost every folder I personally play around in would only contain files/folders I personally hid. Although, I can't say I would actually hide any files from myself.
Is there even a "OS-hidden" versus "user-hidden" attribute? I guess you could check for the hidden attribute and then check who the owner is, but that seems cumbersome.[/quote]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_attribute
msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 85%29.aspx
Two distinct attributes: Hidden, System.
Windows:
Control Panel > File Explorer Options > View (tab) > Hidden files and folders > Show hidden files, folders, and drives
Control Panel > File Explorer Options > View (tab) > Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)
DOpus:
Preferences > Folders > Global Filters > Hide hidden files
Preferences > Folders > Global Filters > Hide protected operating system files
Windows File Explorer and DOpus give the user the choice whether to see hidden and OS (also hidden) items or not. Usually, one would not want to see those things, but an IT person or power user indeed may want to "muck around" in those. I do regularly, but I do hide those things away most of the time just not to be faced with the complexity. Mostly, I use the hidden items (non-system/OS) under users accounts. When a new version of the OS comes out, I like to look at the underpinnings to see what has changed, so I look at the OS files (that is one scenario).
In the status bar, I was wanting to see a hidden, non-system item count. While I was setting up my DOpus status bar, I originally had the hidden item count displayed, but then removed that because it was not possible to determine the hidden item count from those hidden items that also had the system attribute.
[quote="RicFischer"]I'm glad you're wrestling the settings to your satisfaction.
There are a number of websites with cool setups. I don't use their configurations verbatim, but I've used them for ideas to help me set things up the way I like. One such website with lots of good documentation is:
If you want, you can skip the Interface Tour and just dive into his Interface Setup. He even has some downloads so you can try out his DOpus stuff. Be sure to take advantage of the Backup and Restore feature (in the Settings menu) so you can always get back to what you had in case stuff you downloaded messes up your installation.
Have fun with DOpus![/quote]
"Wrestling" is a pretty good characterization, though "Hide and seek" may be a good one also. 
I bookmarked the site you suggested for later perusal--right now I am doing fine making DO look and behave like the file manager I always intended to develop myself, but alas, never did.