Imagine you have a directory filled with files that you are slowly working on, and you want to somehow mark files that you have finished without moving them to a different directory. What is the best way to do this in Opus? Just something that will make them stand out visually - an easy way to tell "finished" files from "unfinished" files...
I considered using the Description field, but unfortunately, Opus populates the field with other info, which clutters up the screen and makes it hard to tell "marked" files from all the rest at a glance.
Ideally Opus would have a "star" column, much like you find in gmail. Maybe it's time for a feature request
If it's a short-lived thing, you could switch the lister to Checkbox mode and tick each file as it's done.
That's no good if you need the "done" state to be remembered though, since it'll be lost when the window is closed or when you change directory.
If you go with a file collection, check that whatever you're editing the files with doesn't update them in a way which makes Opus think they've been deleted. (Some programs delete the old file, then write the new one, instead of overwriting the old file. Opus tries to detect this but it can't detect it in all cases. e.g. Where there's a long pause between the deletion and the re-creation.) When a file looks like it was deleted it'll be removed from any collections, which might get in the way of what you're doing. OTOH it may be fine; it depends on what you're using to edit the files.
If collections don't work with what you're using, you could go for a lower-tech solution and create shortcuts to all the files you want to work on, and delete each shortcut as you're done with it.
You could also use the Description column combined with a Find (Advanced) filter that searches on your "done" tag. Then you wouldn't have to worry about mentally filtering the other data as Opus would do it for you.
Thanks for replying, jon. I considered using collections, but I would really prefer see all the completed files along with all the unfinished files in the same place...
Checkbox mode - thought of that too! I guess I should have mentioned my other ideas. But you're right, the state of the files won't stick around.
I think the Description field will have to do. I wish Opus would not auto-populate it though. Or at least provide an option overwrite what it sticks in there if the user adds a different string...
The user string comes first in the description so if you sorted by that column it'd be really easy to see which files are done and not done. I agree it's not great if you don't want to sort, though.
There should be a User Description column or something which doesn't include the auto-generated stuff.
Agreed. I've sent a request for this, and also for my gmail-style star column idea, which I would really love to see implemented. Imagine if you could add a column like this to the far left of your lister
Agree with that. Kind of "rating" function would be much appreciated in one of the upcoming versions. Something like a "five-star-rating" where you can rate MP3 files for example.
I suppose a 5 star system would work too, but that seems a bit beyond the scope of a file manager (though I think it's in the queue as far as requests go). I use foobar to rate my music, because that way my rating is written to the file itself. In Opus, a file's rating would be written to the descript.ion file or something similar, and would therefore be external to the file.
I'm more interested in something binary - marked or not marked. But to each his own
Something like the email marker in Outlook would be brilliant:
Even if you could just define the background color of the files/folders rather than having a separate column with a colored dot. Similar to what already happens with a single click, except you right click and have "Mark File/Folder As" then several color options in a pop out menu. Kind of like this, but with the above colors on a per file/folder basis:
Another cool one would be sticky files/folders so you can stick them always to the top similar to a sticky thread in the forum. For example if i go to C:\Windows then 90% of the time i go to system32 next which means scrolling down miles.
It would be cool to always stick user selectable files/folders to the top to streamline common navigation paths.
waits for someone to say Opus already does this somehow
Well i'll be darned, thank you leo it's not perfect but it will certainly do the job. I should of known Opus had a setting hidden behind a setting to do something similar.
It works a treat, i guess for Opus to do files in the future the colorization would need to be done on the background instead of the font/file name.
Is there anything similar to the sticky files/folders so i can permanently stick commonly used ones to the top of the lister?
to me the best way to implement this is using file tagging, simply because it's a more general solution, one could create a tag "done" and apply it to files when necessary, then the possibilities of how to display these tags could could be many, using filter, find, special column, tag selection.. etc
having any other kind of marking would be very restrictive,, we need a solution for multiple marks, and to me thats tags
You probably eliminated this idea too quickly. While I feel no need to have the feature you're asking for, I sometimes have a sub-folder "Work in progress" and "Work done" and show all these in flat view. The sub-folder is your indicator of progress; you can even sort the files by this criterion.
You probably eliminated this idea too quickly. While I feel no need to have the feature you're asking for, I sometimes have a sub-folder "Work in progress" and "Work done" and show all these in flat view. The sub-folder is your indicator of progress; you can even sort the files by this criterion.[/quote]
That's how I do it too. A bit low tech but it works perfectly
[quote="sweetfunny"]
Another cool one would be sticky files/folders so you can stick them always to the top similar to a sticky thread in the forum. For example if i go to C:\Windows then 90% of the time i go to system32 next which means scrolling down miles.
It would be cool to always stick user selectable files/folders to the top to streamline common navigation paths.
waits for someone to say Opus already does this somehow[/quote]
Opus already does this
You can define shortcuts you can access in your address bar or from the favourites menu. Define them the Preferences > Favorites & Recent > Favorites List. Or just type /system in your address bar.
You can define shortcuts you can access in your address bar or from the favourites menu. Define them the Preferences > Favorites & Recent > Favorites List. Or just type /system in your address bar.[/quote]
Thanks yes, i have a list of favorites setup however sticky files/folders is much different. It would work just like sticky threads in a forum, always pinned to the top.
Favorites don't appear to work for files just folders, and with thousands of navigation paths and files/folders it's not real practical to add this many items to favorites or remember that many shortcuts.
It could work something like:
The pink ones are stuck to the top, no matter the sorting method to make the most used ones more accessible and visible. For instance in C:\ i would stick:
Documents & Settings
Program Files
Windows
Because when i'm in C:\ that's what i use or where i go 98% of the time, it would save hunting through a huge list of files and folders i rarely or never use to get to common items.
It would help with the OP's problem also, "Right Click > Stick" to add the file or folder to the top of the lister for unfinished or important work. Then "Right Click >> Unstick" and the item would lose it's pink color and fall back in to alphabetical or whichever order with the other regular files.
Maybe it can be useful in certain situations; however, I think it would be confusing if certain files or folders don't follow normal sorting criteria.
I guess you can work around to get almost what you want with some filters or Windows shortcuts, but that would be cumbersome. Or, why don't you put your most used files and folders in a collection?
However, with a proper use of tabs (I permanently have several of them open with different categories of folders), find-as-you-type, folder shortcuts and even GO shortcuts, I never felt that would be absolutely necessary.
Yes, a star column (just one star, personally I don't need a rating column) would be great.
I always use the star column in Thunderbird to mark emails :
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