Options

This page contains options that affect the behavior of toolbars and menus.

• Allow floating toolbars to be docked with the edge of the screen: Floating toolbars (those that aren't embedded in a Lister) can optionally be docked with an edge of the screen to turn them into "app-bars", kind of like the task bar. If this option is on you can dock toolbars by dragging them near one of the edges of the screen. Holding the Shift key down when dragging will override the docking process, which lets you position a toolbar close to the edge of the screen without docking it.

• Alt + click to edit toolbar buttons: Lets you enter Customize mode and bring up the Function Editor for a button in one single action, by holding the Alt key down and clicking the button with the mouse. Having this option on means you can't use the Alt key with any buttons that use qualifier keys to change their behavior.

  • Minimize Customize dialog: If you have the above option turned on then this setting will minimize the Customize dialog automatically, so that only the Function Editor for the button you clicked on is shown. If you click OK or Cancel in the function editor, and you have not either edited another button or opened the minimize Customize dialog, the Customize dialog will automatically close when the function editor closes. This lets you make quick changes to existing buttons without having the Customize dialog appear at all.

• Animate menus: Drop-down and pop-up menus will animate as they open. If turned off, they will appear immediately.

  • Use system setting: When Animate menus is turned on, this option causes Opus to use the current Windows setting for drop-down menu animation. When turned off, Opus always uses a fade effect for drop-down menus.

• Display popup help text: This causes tooltips to be displayed when the mouse hovers over toolbar buttons or items in drop-down menus. The tooltips display the configured description for the button in question - if the button has multiple mouse button functions defined, these will be listed separately within the tooltip.

  • Show shortcut keys in help text: When tooltips are displayed for toolbar buttons, this option causes the button's hotkey (if any) to also be displayed in the tooltip text.

• Lock Toolbars: Toolbars in the Lister will be locked to prevent them from being dragged (repositioned) or accidentally floated. You can also lock or unlock them from the toolbar context menu (right-click on an empty area of any toolbar).

• Save state of floating toolbars automatically on exit: Normally you have to use the Save Floating Toolbars command in the Customize / Toolbars page (on the File menu) to save the position and state of toolbars you have floated. If you don't save the state then the next time Opus runs, toolbars you floated, or floating toolbars you repositioned in the previous session will not be remembered. If you turn on the Save state option then when Opus shuts down it will automatically remember which toolbars are floating and where you have positioned them.

• Simulate middle mouse click with Ctrl + left click: Opus lets you assign three completely separate functions to toolbar buttons that can be accessed with the left, right and middle mouse buttons. If your mouse doesn't have a middle button, you can use this option to still take advantage of this functionality - holding the Ctrl key down when you left-click a toolbar button will be treated as a middle-click instead.

• Slide auto-hide floating toolbars when hiding and revealing: When a floating toolbar is docked to the edge of the screen it can be set to auto-hide - it will move itself off-screen so as to take up as little screen real estate as possible, and reappear automatically when you move the mouse over it. If this option is on, the toolbar will use a slide effect when it moves in and out of view, instead of appearing or disappearing immediately.

Floating toolbar timings

• Reveal delay: Specifies a delay before the toolbar starts to appear. For example, if this is set to 250 milliseconds (250 ms) then the toolbar will only start to appear if the mouse is over it for a quarter of a second, helping to avoid triggering it accidentally when moving the mouse nearby.

• Hide delay: Specifies a delay before the toolbar starts to hide. For example, if this is set to 500 milliseconds (500 ms) then the toolbar will not start to hide until half a second after the mouse has left it.

• Reveal time: Specifies how quickly the toolbar slides when appearing. For example, if this is set to 100 milliseconds (100 ms) then the toolbar will slide in quickly, taking only one tenth of a second to do so.

• Hide time: Specifies how quickly the toolbar slides when hiding. For example, if this is set to 2000 milliseconds (2000 ms) then the toolbar will slide away very slowly, taking two seconds to do so.