Persistent "Open File" Settings

raswaim · Post by **raswaim** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:56 am

Okay, this is a serious nit, but I assume that it's either fairly easy or nearly impossible to do so it won't be hard to evaluate: In file open dialogs, the last used directory is retained on subsequent invocations, but the file view mode (details, sort order) isn't. Is there any way you can add this? The reason I ask is that I tend to keep DPlot open, and run a lot of other processes to generate analysis results into one directory. When I switch to DPlot, I'm almost always interested in the most recent file. Since the open dialog defaults to "List" format, I'm forever going to the format pulldown to select "Details" and then punching the "Date Modified" button twice... Not so bad if you're only looking at a file or two, but I seem to do it about 100 times a day - this simple change might save me from carpal tunnel syndrome someday

.... Thanks - R

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 10:06 am

"nearly impossible" is probably a bit strong. There's definitely no MS-approved way of doing this, and that scares me just a bit. But that "feature" has driven me sufficiently nuts over the years that I need to try it. Thanks for the reminder. Windows 7 users... cross your fingers

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 5:04 pm

Richard,
Sanity check: You're using XP, correct? Please say yes

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 7:41 pm

Richard,
Done, sort of. I'm not thrilled with the way this works, but see no other way. In XP and Vista you can set the view and on XP the sort order (the latter using hidden tricks that don't work on Vista or presumably Windows 7), but as far as I've been able to find out you cannot retrieve whatever sort order is in effect. So the initial sort order is now an option under Options>General on XP. The view is there also just for completeness, but is a bit redundant because that value can be (and is) retrieved.