for example, when clicking on a Zip file (which is nothing else than a cmpressed directory, really) in the lister, I get a beautiful preview of the tree structure contained in that Zip file:
I can even double-click on a file inside the Zip-package and get a preview of that file.
So, why is it that when I click on a simple folder in a lister, I do not get a preview of that folder's contents in the "preview" pane!? The preview pane simply stays empty -- what a waste!
David.P
PS: I am aware of the fact that the tree would give a preview of the folders contents. But I'd rather NOT use the tree. Actually I'm happy that I could get rid of that tree altogether using DOpus.
You must have the MultiView plugin setup as the Zip preview is not native to Opus.
The viewer pane is intended for viewing files rather than folders but I guess it could also show folders... But then you've got a three-pane file manager and people will expect the 3rd pane to have the full features of the other two which would probably be a lot of work to implement. (It's not just the GUI either; internal commands, arguments and status bar codes would have to be updated to handle three file display panes.)
In your screenshot you only have one file display so why not use a second file display if you want to view two directories at once? You can set up double-click actions on directories (and zip files) so that they are opened in the second pane. It's not quite as nice as just single-clicking on things to see inside them but I find it works well enough. (I think there's already a feature request for a single-click "second pane follows first pane's selection" mode.)
I think it would be enough really to "pre"view the folder in the preview pane, not to have a second folder pane with full functionality. Same as you can only view files in the preview pane, but not edit them there.
How can I do that? Would the preview pane still be operative that way? I don't really need to view two directories at once (even less since I can use tabs) -- and I need the full left monitor width for the lister. I'd only like to see what's in a folder the same way that I can see what's in a file - when browsing files and folders.
I've been meaning to try this... I have a 'go foldercontent' on my 'folders' context menu, but you have to surf the menu to get to it. A Menu Button or Menu on a toolbar allow you to quickly see the selected folder's contents by clicking. I was able to put 'go foldercontent {filepath$}' on a button, which creates a list of the contents on a toolbar for the selected folder, but it behaves very erratically, and I don't think it is meant to be used that way.
By default, if you hold Ctrl and double-click a folder it will be loaded into the dual display.
You can change which key and/or mouse button is used via Settings -> File Types -> All Folders -> Events. In my case I have it set to do this when I double-click folders with the middle button, without needing any keys held down.
The preview pane would still be there in addition to the dual file display. The two things are separate and independent.
Oops -- just saw that for some reason I forgot to answer on this thread...
Sorry about that.
No, what I'm asking is quite different from a second folder lister.
Primarily, a second lister is not linked to the first lister such that it instantly displays the contents of the folder that is selected in the first lister. What's more, a second lister takes up a lot of space while at the same time the preview pane stays empty, wasting even more space.
All I'd like to do is use the preview pane in a simple but useful way, PRE-viewing a folders content. If I'd actually want to do anything to the files inside the folder being currently previewed, I'd just have to plain open that folder as usual.
The only point of this feature idea really and simply is adding the format "folder" to the formats supported by the preview pane!
Hello, I do agree that the it would be best if the Preview Pane did NOT show anything that resembles the file view area, and also that plugins shoult not be able to have the ability to detect folders and show something from them.
However I can also see how it seems somewhat unexpected that the Preview Pane will show almost anything, from images to pdfs to txt to movies to ZIP file contents, but not any info on folder contents whatsoever.
So even though it might be unlikely this will be done, I wanted to mention that DOpus already shows a popup when hovering over a folder with the mouse pointer. So this already IS a simple contents preview.
However this function is limited:
in only shows the first couple of files and folders per folder.
it requires moving the mouse to the desired folder
Wouldn't it be an idea to show this information in the Preview Pane? The amount of folders/files shown could be defined by the height of the Preview Pane, with fewer limitations as to the amount of items shown. I would really appreciate a quick peek into folders because otherwise I always have to actually open them, and close them again. It is a lot of clicking, when all the user wants is just a peek.
Oh and I am aware this thread is very old, but it seems to me its contents is still relevant and should be referred to.
thank you Jon