Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
Directory Opus 9
MrCrispy:
Nudel, based on your guide to the new features in v9 and your post here, I've also decided to purchase DO when it comes out. It helps that I'll be moving to Vista at about the same time on my home pc. I know I should post questions about the program on your forums, but I'm being lazy and its easier to ask an expert :). Maybe it will help other users here as well. I have one very simple query - is it possible to make DO behave like xplorer2? By that I mean -
- have double click to select a file in the program even though Explorer has single click
- use the standard 'Commander' keys found in many dual pane managers - such as F5 (copy), F6 (move) etc
- have left/right/tab move between the 2 panes
- Ctrl+Shift+<Drive> goes to that drive
These are the commands I'm used to, and they make a lot of sense. Over time, I want to learn more Opus specific features and use them, but in the meantime I want something familiar which doesn't disrupt my work too much. I have a trial version of DO8 and I haven't been able to get it to do these things.
Nudel:
- have double click to select a file in the program even though Explorer has single click
-MrCrispy (April 15, 2007, 04:32 PM)
--- End quote ---
Do you mean to launch a file, rather than to select one? If so then yes, to a degree. Opus ignores Explorer's "single-click" mode, but does have its own option if you want "single-click to select" inside of Opus. So you could turn single-click on in Explorer and leave it off in Opus. (It's off by default in Opus.)
The only problem will be when Opus is displaying a folder via one of Explorer's views. (Opus relies on Explorer to display My Computer, Recycle Bin, Network Places, and similar folders. They are displayed within an Opus window, but Explorer is doing the work behind the scenes.) In those cases I think Explorer's settings will be respected, so things will be inconsistent if Explorer and Opus aren't configured the same way.
- use the standard 'Commander' keys found in many dual pane managers - such as F5 (copy), F6 (move) etc
--- End quote ---
That's easily done. You can create standalone hotkeys via Settings -> Customize -> Keys. You can also assign hotkeys to toolbar buttons by editing the buttons. (Toolbar buttons' hotkeys will also be listed in the Customize Keys dialog.)
Tip: If you try creating some hotkeys in Opus 8, make sure you uncheck the System-Wide Hotkey option, else the hotkey will function even when Opus isn't the active program. (That's useful for certain things but you wouldn't want it for stuff like Copy and Rename for obvious reasons.) The System-Wide Hotkey option is turned on by default for new hotkeys in Opus 8. Opus 9 turns it off by default since it kept confusing people. ("Why does Opus start doing stuff when I press a hotkey in another program!?")
- have left/right/tab move between the 2 panes
--- End quote ---
Do you mean you want to be able to move folder tabs from the left to the right and vice versa? If so you can do that by dragging them. (Drag the tab's icon, not the label. The icon represents the tab while the label represents the folder, and dragging that would be like dragging the folder to another location. Similarly, right-clicking the label and the icon give you different context menus.)
- Ctrl+Shift+<Drive> goes to that drive
--- End quote ---
Easily done through Customize Keys and commands like "Go C:\". You'd have to create a separate hotkey for each drive letter but it's a one-off job and hopefully not too much hassle (unless you've got 26 drive letters).
Over time, I want to learn more Opus specific features and use them, but in the meantime I want something familiar which doesn't disrupt my work too much.
--- End quote ---
Perfectly reasonable! Change Opus's configuration for yourself, not the other way around.
jdd:
You can add me to the long list of DO users that first learned about it on DC.
I'm not sure whether I'd prefer a special DC discount for the upgrade, or a 7-zip plug-in....Hmmmmm. Scratch that, I would definitely prefer the 7-zip plug-in which has been talked about on the DO forum for a long time but never seems to go anywhwere.
Nudel:
Scratch that, I would definitely prefer the 7-zip plug-in which has been talked about on the DO forum for a long time but never seems to go anywhwere.
-jdd (April 15, 2007, 05:34 PM)
--- End quote ---
I'm not sure what's going on with Nosh's 7-zip plugin. I think maybe somebody else had also started on one?
I'm in the process of arranging to take a sabbatical from my day job for a few months, during which I plan to do a lot of Opus plugin work because it's been bugging me that I haven't been able to add certain features to my existing plugins and that there still aren't plugins for certain things. (Multi-page TIFF for example. I've done a bunch of work towards that already but there's only so much coding I can get done at the weekends.)
If nobody has finished a 7-zip plugin by then then I'll make one. The 7-zip API looks pretty simple so it won't be hard.
I also wish Opus had a read-write RAR plugin, instead of the read-only one it has currently. Seems to me the only way to do this, since there is no read-write RAR API/DLL for whatever reason (sigh!), is to call rar.exe or winrar.exe from the command line, which is a PITA but seems to work for Total Commander and others. I wasn't sure how well that would work with unicode filenames, though. Haven't really looked into it enough.
zridling:
Nudel, thanks for the great features page for DOpus 9. We're all grateful. It's almost 6a and I don't have the energy to respond to every point, but as I was going down the list of new DOpus features in version 9, I noticed that most of them were already part of XYplorer 5.x. As for speed, file operations are noticeably slower in DOpus than XYplorer, on both XP and Vista. Dual panes are overrated as with tabs, catalog, or a variety of keyboard shortcuts, I can switch among drives and locations in XYplorer within one click or hotkey. While both programs are highly customizable, XYplorer's UI is more so, and can be configured to look and work just about anyway you can imagine. Anyone claiming a "lot of bugs" in XYplorer doesn't use the program full-time as it's one of the tightest jobs of coding I know of, comparable to Nick Bradbury's FeedDemon RSS reader. XYplorer's dev doesn't merely fix bugs, he's constantly adding new features and tweaks, on a weekly basis.
I use and have registered both, but the biggest criticism I have against Directory Opus is its exhorbitant price and upgrade costs. Similarly, the biggest criticism I've had with XYplorer is its lack of customizable keyboard shortcuts, but that's no longer true with XYplorer's latest beta. A major plus is that XYplorer offers a true Lifetime license; Directory Opus does not. With XYplorer you always know where the program is headed, and hey, even XYplorer's dev, Donald Lessau, responded here! But if high price is the only real gripe against a program, then that doesn't take anything away from its quality, which Directory Opus has in abundance.
It's just that GPSoft is going to keep coming back for more money on a regular basis, and I don't feel they offer a substantial enough discount to registered users. On the other hand, XYplorer doesn't ask for a dime after the initial registration (although I find it really cool that XYplorer retains a small donation link on its site for anyone wanting to contribute beyond the cost of the $30 license). Ironically, I'm more than willing to consistently donate to a vendor who offers me a [true] Lifetime license than to continue buying high-priced upgrades. I've sent far more money in donations to open source apps, freeware, and to a lesser extent, XYplorer, than I ever will spend on upgrades for costly upgrades. It's just how I show my gratitude for being appreciated and trusted as a customer. Goodwill can go a lot further in the long run than a few dollars, and XYplorer is in for the long-tailed long haul.
(Comments are re-enabled on my blog. I apologize. I was getting so many porn/spam comments that I shut it down for a long time and forgot to turn them back on. Just deleted over 9,000 this week alone!)
Once again, thanks Nudel, I appreciate your feedback here and all the hard work you did on your site — you do a great service to Directory Opus! I too, am a tweak-freak and share your compulsion.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version