Save folder view (e. g. thumbnail view) folder specific

I'm missing one feature in Directory Opus: It should save the status of the folder view (Thumbnail view, detailed view ...) folder specific as Windows Explorer does.

You can set specific folders to specific views via Folder Options, Save > For This Folder.

Thanks for this advice. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to work correctly: When I activate Save > For this folder this also affects all subfolders!
However I like an automatic saving more as Windows Explorer does.

[quote]However I like an automatic saving more as Windows Explorer does.[/quote] Automatic would not be my prefered way, but it would be awesome if DO could just ask if you like to update the folder format currently used or just "save for this folder", which then creates a new folder-format - which is quite never the thing I want.

To update a folder format you now need to "save for this folder" and then tinker in the folder-formats preferences with copy and paste to eventually update the folder format you wanted to update in the first place. Finally deleting the temporary fixed-path folder format.

People who don't fully understand the DO mechanics behind end up crazy I guess and even for advanced users, updating a folder format is not a very quick task.

It should only affect sub-folders if you select Save For This Folder And Subfolders, or if you don't close the window & open a fresh one after making the change (since the act of temporarily changing a folder format is carried over to folders which had the same format you were using originally for that window, to allow quick changes without having to re-do them every time you change folder).

[quote="tbone"]but it would be awesome if DO could just ask if you like to update the folder format currently used or just "save for this folder", which then creates a new folder-format - which is quite never the thing I want.

To update a folder format you now need to "save for this folder" and then tinker in the folder-formats preferences with copy and paste to eventually update the folder format you wanted to update in the first place. Finally deleting the temporary fixed-path folder format.[/quote]
I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean here, or if it is connected to the thread (beyond being about saving folder formats). If you use Save For This Folder then it saves whatever the current format is for the folder. If you want to update a format, you'd go to the folder, which picks up the current format, then change and save it, which seems fine to me.

Unless you mean the format you want to update isn't for the current folder in the first place (e.g. because it's the default Local Drives format, say), in which case it is better to edit it from the right folder (if a path format) or edit it in Preferences (for non-path formats). But the main instance of that is when you want to save a new default for everywhere, which you can do via one of the other things in the Folder Options > Save menu.

Is this connected to this thread? I don't know exactly! Sorry if not! o)
So excuse me, I was not specific enough. I was referring to wildcard-path and content-type folder formats.
If one of these type of formats is in use, I'd like to see additional options in the folder-options save-dropdown.

  • Update the folder format (or)
  • Update the content type format

Ideally, any additional columns mixing in from the default format e.g, shall not be considered when updating the format.
As of now, even going the "save for this folder" route and copying/pasting from the resulting temporary fixed-path folder format over to the wildcard-path or content-type format, does screw their settings and also adds inherited columns.

So I sometimes "just" open the folder-options to see my changes to the columns and their altered widths in the list. Then I also open preferences -> folder formats -> my-wildcard-path-format and copy over column-widths by hand, which is something I find an odd thing to do. My collegues also "blacked-out" recently while I was explaining what I do and why I do it like that. Some of us use a wildcard-format in a source-directory tree/mapping (which I added to their config o).

Folder-formats is a real nut to crack! o) Maybe that can help to make it more easy to handle in the future.

Hallo Leo,
I cannot understand your additional comments. IMO the labelling "Save for this folder" cannot be misunderstood and if it doesn't work in that way it seems to be a bug in the software.

Go into one of the affected sub-folders, then hover over the format lock (padlock icon) in the status bar (do not click on it, just hover over it). What does it say?

I can confirm that there's an inconsistent behaviour in the handling of folder formats. What Sempervivum did is this (he described it in the german forum):

  • Change the format of a folder to show thumbnails. Save this "for this folder and all subfolders".
  • Now change the format of the same folder to show details. Save this "for this folder"
    Everyone would expect that the subfolders are now shown in thumbnail mode while the folder itself should be in details mode but the result is that everything is in details mode.
    DOpus should automatically create a wildcard format (or separate formats) for the subfolders in this case.

I don't really know much about this, but my interpretation of something that Leo said above is that the subfolders should temporarily change to details mode. Do they actually stay in details mode if the Opus window is closed and reopened?

Yes, they do. After Leos statement I tried to set the folder views as described above, terminated and restarted DO and after that the subfolders were still in details mode. I consider this to be a bug in DO.

FWIW, I would like to weigh in here and say that I am totally confused about thumbnails (AND lock format and a lot of other things). This is not a rant - not at all. It's an attempt to describe what is happening for your consideration.

I agree with the contributors above that this is a bug. If it's not, achieving what I want to should not be so complex or obfuscated. I am quite simply unable to set thumbnails for only certain folders. I categorically do not want my "regular" folders to have a thumbnails column, and that's what's happening by default when I add that column.

Before I started, I did a number of things. Yesterday, trying to get what I wanted, I managed to break DOpus altogether. Seriously. :slight_smile: I have been using an old configuration forever, so I figured a good cleanout wasn't a bad idea. I uninstalled DOpus and started from scratch.

After configuring my usual colors, toolbars and sundry other preferences I've always used, I went to a folder containing images and added a thumbnails column. I then chose Save>For this folder.

To me, the language, and according to the DOpus Help descriptors, this is what I expected:

Save: For This Folder: The format is saved only for the current folder, it won't affect any other folders. Unquote.

Not so - regardless of anything I have tried, adding thumbnails to a folder and choosing Save>For This Folder adds thumbnails to ALL folders.

To try to ensure that the format stuck to that folder only, I tried "locking" the folder using both methods described in Help in turn. As soon as I activated the button for the images folder, however, the lock was activated for ALL folders. Should that happen? Surely not. Not according Help.

Now, despite only moderate customization (far less than I have done in the past) I have broken DOpus again - toolbars are vanishing, menu items are too. My button for dual display started to show Folder Options, despite the Command being for dual display when I checked Edit. I was unable to get any display for a thumbnail slider on the thumbnail "bar". I had to reset to defaults and start from scratch.

I don't know if anyone can duplicate any of this, but I am staying right away from thumbnails and icons in general as even the Display thumbnails button is now displaying thumbnails for ALL folders. Aargh . A pity, as I was pretty excited about the concept. I have gone back to my original old config file, luckily saved before all of the above.

Regards
Robin

OK I am happy to concede that this an intentional behaviour, as Leo said elsewhere, not a bug. It will just take a little time for me to get used to things not sticking as I expect them to. I imagine it was the Help file stating that Save for this Folder would not affect any other folders that bothered and threw me.

Bowing out graciously...
Robin