If I select a group of files to view (View In Directory Opus) and one (or more) of those files is not a photo file, the operation fails. This is true even if all the other files ARE photos.
Would it be possible to just ignore the file(s) that are not photos and show the ones that are? Another option might be to display an error when the non-photo file is encountered in the selected list and allow it to then be skipped using the same mechanism that we use to move to the next photo.
Which types of files are involved?
The only place with "View in Directory Opus" I can think of is the right-click context menu on files, but if I select a mixture of image and non-image files and right-click them, the option isn't there.
Leo,
Yes, that is correct - and THAT is my issue. If I have a bunch of files that are mostly picture files, it easy to select the contiguous group of files - as compared to using the control key to select individual files to group together. If ANY of the files in the selected group is a picture file, that option should appear and if I select to view the pictures, DO should either just show the picture files in the selection or display some message (Not a Picture file) as I move through them in the viewer.
"The operation fails" is quite different to the operation not being offered or started at all. 
Context menus only show items that apply to all selected files/types. You'd have to add the command to something like All Files/Folders to make it appear in a context menu in all situations.
The Show command (e.g. within the Slideshow button-menu on the default toolbars) is always available, however.
Leo,
OK, I looked at the Show command within the Slideshow button. It shows all file types. I only want to show IMAGE files. is there an option I can add to that command in the SlideShow button to only show image files within the list of selected files?
If not can you show me a way I can create a button (or better add a new option to the context menu) to accomplish what I want?
One simple solution is to add a command to deselect non-image files before running the Show command.
Select ~grp:Images DESELECT will deselect all selected filetypes that arent in the Images filetype group. If you go into Customize mode you can edit the Show Pictures button and add it above the Show command:
Jon,
Yes, that did the trick (so to speak).
Is there a way to add that command to the context menu options if there is a picture selected? Or a way to modify the current context menu option that offers to view in DO so that it performs the removal of non-image files before it decides to appear as a context menu option?
You can add it to the All Files filetype context menu as Leo suggested, then it will show up for everything.
Jon,
I spoke too soon. That does NOT work. It does, indeed, remove all the non-image files, but it also ignores the Selection and starts showing all the image files in the folder, whether or not they were in the selection.
Where have you added the command?
What's selected when you run it?
Leo,
I have moved the Slideshow "button" to the top line of DO (to the right of the pull-down menus). I put the two statements given to me (above) into that button:
select ~grp:images deselect
Show autofilelist
I select some files in a folder then click on that button. It shows me the JPG files in the selection THEN starts showing me other JPG files in that folder.
Note that the files are no longer selected when I exit the command - can I leave them selected?
After viewing your most recent reply, I did some further testing. If I just selected a few files including some JPG files and some others, THEN it worked correctly. However, if there was just ONE JPG file in the selection, it showed that file, then continued to all the other JPG files in that folder.
Remove "autofilelist" if you only want the selected items to be included in the viewer's next/previous list.
(Edit: This only makes a difference when there's only a single file selected.)
Leo,
Thanks. Is there a way to not erase the selection after doing this?
Add a line with @nodselect at the top of the command.
Leo,
Using @nodEselect works, kind of. It leaves the image files selected but since the other files are cleared by the deselect clause, I am guessing they override the nodeselect??
Yes, since the command is explicitly deselecting those files.
You could use scripting to filter the commands sent to the Show command without affecting the selection. Seems a bit complicated just to view some files, though.
I'm not sure what your workflow is but it sounds like you just want to view one image at a time, while retaining your file selections? In that case, maybe checkbox mode would be worth trying. It would let you select files via the checkboxes and view individual ones by double-clicking them (you could also use the context menu on more than one file at once without disrupting their check state).
Jon,
I have a folder called PICs and it contains (you guessed it, pictures). The photo software I use ON1 Photo Raw, can use raw files (camera format - RW2 for me). It also saves sidecar files when it processes a photo. One sidecar file contains info about the editing that was done on the photo (editing is nondestructive so it needs that info to reapply edits to make changes). There is also a file with other information (XMP extension). And there is sometimes a file that it uses if it is doing complex operations like layers. So a group of contiguous files (sorted by date) will have a mixture of raw files (RW2), JPG, and the others mentioned above. I want to be able to select a contiguous group (30 - 50 - 100+) of files and just see the pictures in that group. I often will then want to move that group elsewhere but only if all the pictures look good. That is why I want to look first and move afterwards. It is not difficult to reselect the files again manually, though I have to make sure I have the same files as those used in the view. So it would be NICE to be able to keep the selection. Is there a cmd like "Save the Current Selection" and another command that can restore the saved selection? I would think that would be a useful feature. No?
I don't think there's an easy way to save/restore selection at the moment, although a script could do it.
But the Select SIMILARBASE command will select all files that have the same base names (ignoring file extensions) as those currently selected. Perhaps that could help? That way you could ignore the sidecar files completely until you're ready to move the images.
Jon,
Sorry, I am confused. By base name I assume you mean the part of the filename to the left of the extension. That base name is different for each picture filename - but is the same for all related files (JPG, XMP, etc.). So it sounds like the base name would only get me ONE picture. I want to select multiple picture file sets so I can see a lot of pictures at once and ignore all the non-image extensions.
