Using DO 13's spring-loaded folders correctly

Help & Support
1

Is there a way to enter a folder quickly instead of just viewing its contents? I press the arrowhead widget to list all the files in the folder. However, I am looking for a modifier key that, when held down, would allow me to enter the folder by clicking the arrowhead widget. To me, this would be more intuitive when in that context than having to double-click the folder, which is the old way of doing things.

2

You can enter folders via double-click on the icon or label (or single-click if that’s turned on) the same as in Opus 12.

Or you can expand the folder below the current view by clicking the new arrows.

3

I am finding the current method of accessing folders using the arrow widget quite confusing. When I click once on the arrowhead widget, it only displays the contents of the folder but does not enter the folder. It would be more intuitive if a modifier key and a single press on the widget could be used to enter the folder with a one-click action, giving me the option of either displaying or entering the folder. The current situation is similar to the hover list in version 12, which was not very useful as one cannot perform functions on the files unless one double-clicks on the folder. Hence, it raises the question of why have the arrowhead widget in the first place as it offers nothing more than the old hover preview in version 12. Do you understand my point?

4

That is not true. If the folder has been expanded you have full access to the files and folders and can open, rename, delete, etc. them.

5

Apple introduced the spring-loaded folders feature on Mac to help users move or copy a file to a deeply nested folder efficiently without double-clicking on every folder in the hierarchy. To use this feature, users could hold down the space key as they navigated to the desired folder, even if it was many folders deep. However, in my opinion, the current implementation of this feature falls short of meeting the original objective. The current implication of spring-loaded folders in DO13 affords little benefit. In fact, I would rather just double-click on the folder and be done with it.

6

I'm not sure where you got the idea they are "spring-loaded folders". The feature is called "expandable folders". Folders become expandable in the file display just like they're expandable in the folder tree. It works exactly the same way. It wasn't based on anything Apple have done.

7

I apologize for my misunderstanding. I would like to know if it would be feasible to implement actual spring-loaded folders in a future version under WindowsOS. I believe Apple's approach would greatly benefit DO users for the reasons I mentioned.

8

I'm still not really sure what you mean by "spring-loaded folders". I don't think it's the same thing as what that term means within Opus.

In Opus, "spring-loaded" has to do with drag & drop. Opus can be configured so if you're dragging a file over a folder and wait a moment, the folder expands to allow you to drag it to a sub-folder (or expand it as well, etc.). Spring-loaded is an option on top of that which makes it so that, when you drop the file, all the branches that were expanded while you dragged are collapsed again automatically.

There are separate options for that in Opus for the tree and expandable folders.
E.g. Preferences / File Displays / Folder Expansion / Collapse after drag (spring-loaded).

I'm not familiar with how it works in Apple's world, but from what I've read it sounds like it means something similar, at least as I've found it described elsewhere. However, re-reading your first post makes me think you want something different to that. Does it open whole top-level windows for each folder and then close them at the end, or something like that?

9

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here we go:

10

It looks like if you turn both the following options on:

  • Preferences / File Displays / Folder Expansion / Expand folders when dragging over them
  • Preferences / File Displays / Folder Expansion / Collapse after drag (spring-loaded)

Then you'll have something similar in Opus (but not exactly the same, because we don't have Miller columns)

11

Could you add an option to change the delay (short and long delay for expanding) when the folder expansion is used with drag&drop?

Similar to this:

3 Likes
12

Support the concept of options for the delay

13

A /slow option would be enough, i would say (with the current one being fast). Giving enough time to not inadvertently trigger the function. But much slower (>2 seconds) wouldn't make much sense, since the users don't want to wait too long, i guess.