XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

What other productivity software are you working with...
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manmeetbhangu
Posts: 45
Joined: 12 Feb 2014 19:29

XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by manmeetbhangu »

Hi
I have been using XYPlorer for more than 3 years and I am damm happy about it. I have a lifetime licence and eagerly await the next update !
Recently, I wanted to rename a lot of files with incrementing prefix. I googled it and I found another file manager "Directory Opus". Never heard of it before but when I googled more, lots of people has good praise for it.
Has anyone used it recently and extensively. How does it compare to XYplorer?
Regards
MB

admin
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Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by admin »

You can use XYplorer's Batch Rename function to rename a lot of files with incrementing prefix. Example for pattern:

Code: Select all

<#001>-Name
Never heard of that other software.

pat55
Posts: 287
Joined: 15 Mar 2016 22:27

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by pat55 »

Never heard of that other software.

Really - it comes from AU and does not have paper folders.

RalphM
Posts: 1932
Joined: 27 Jan 2005 23:38
Location: Cairns, Australia

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by RalphM »

You must have missed Don's sarcasm...
Ralph :)
(OS: W11 22H2 Home x64 - XY: Current beta - Office 2019 32-bit - Display: 1920x1080 @ 125%)

Asta
Posts: 42
Joined: 02 Jan 2016 15:59

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by Asta »

Directory Opus has the advantage of offering a double tree but the disadvantage of being much more expensive than XYPlorer.

Dustydog
Posts: 321
Joined: 13 Jun 2016 04:19

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by Dustydog »

My two bits: I didn't find it any deeper in a useful way after my evaluation, and I didn't like the interface as much - I personally found XY to hide its complexity more gracefully while being immediately approachable. I like its use of screen real estate and love its feature set. I'm amazed at the rapport Don has with his users, his development cycle, and the sheer usefulness of the features he consistently provides. And as mentioned, XY's pricing and licensing is amazing; Dopus, not so much - at least not in a good way. Each has features the other doesn't - but I'd never switch, price irrelevant.

And renaming! The batch rename is very intelligently designed, easy and elegant. Also a simple find/replace is sometimes handy and the quickest solution. Then there's a context menu with some common renaming tasks on it. And finally, the regex rename is absolutely rock solid, bug free, learn regexes, you'll use it daily, beautiful. And, ofc, move on rename is supported. Combined with the flexibility of his search dialogue to select the files you want to rename...it's a great combination of features. I haven't used, for example, my pre-XY favorite, "Bulk Rename Utility" for ages - it's very lonely.

Enternal
Posts: 1174
Joined: 10 Jan 2012 18:26

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by Enternal »

For me, I like both a ton. I actually own xplorer2, XYplorer, and Directory Opus.

xplorer2: My least favorite by far. The developer is stuck in his own world so it's really hard to convince him of anything and the software itself does not look good and also does not feel "right". Is portable but does not come with any other portable features such as custom file associations. Functional but very boring.

XYplorer: Pure awesome. Very easy to use, looks good, portable, and responsive developer. Portability is freaking awesome in XYplorer as you can even choose custom file associations that can work portably which is really neat for USB drive usages with your own tools. Basically you can take the file manager with your own pre-configured favorite apps and do your business on any computer. Functional just like xplorer2 but VERY FUN TO USE and LOOKS VERY GOOD.

Directory Opus: Also awesome. In terms of interface customization, it's waaay above XYplorer. So you can also make it look however you want it. It functions really well too due to multi-threading support. Personally it's quite ahead for browsing images (though XYplorer is not too bad at all while xplorer2 is horrible horrible horrible). In terms of portability and other functions related to portability such as File Associations (Opus does support this) and File Icons, not as much compared to XYplorer but decent enough.

It sounds weird but I actually use both Directoy Opus and XYplorer side-by-side daily. I love them both very much so I always switch between the two depending on the mood haha. However, most of my customization I have done with shortcuts, catalogs, custom buttons, Papers for various uses, and more are in XYplorer. So basically XYplorer is my primary.

@pat5
Directoy Opus has "Collections" which are the same functions as Papers in XYplorer. xplorer2 also have "scraps" which are basically the same as well. xplorer2 came with this feature first which I then requested of Don to implement this feature (thanks Don!).

Dustydog
Posts: 321
Joined: 13 Jun 2016 04:19

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by Dustydog »

There was no need for my previous wall of text preaching to the choir. I don't know why I do that, tbh.

Thank you for taking the time to share what you like about each. I personally wasn't too interested in the UI customization in DOPUS - it seemed like everyone was obsessed with it, and it struck me as more of a waste of time than anything else. I do think multi-threaded, 64-bit, can use any ActiveX language for scripting would be useful; and they've got a great community as well. But Don's scripting is generic enough, and powerful enough, that things beyond what I can really expect XY to do, or Don to add, would really require me to program my own utility. (You've gotten me motivated to automate far more, Don, ty!) Or use something already out there but specialized.

Was good to hear that someone who's really gotten to know them all still endorses XY as his primary.

manmeetbhangu
Posts: 45
Joined: 12 Feb 2014 19:29

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by manmeetbhangu »

admin wrote:You can use XYplorer's Batch Rename function to rename a lot of files with incrementing prefix. Example for pattern:

Code: Select all

<#001>-Name
Never heard of that other software.
Perfect !!!

Thank you a lot.

PS: Sorry, I was not able to reply earlier. Seems like I forgot to check "notify me when a reply is posted" option. So didn't know you replied.

pat55
Posts: 287
Joined: 15 Mar 2016 22:27

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by pat55 »

"Directoy Opus has "Collections" which are the same functions as Papers in XYplorer. xplorer2 also have "scraps" which are basically the same as well. xplorer2 came with this feature first which I then requested of Don to implement this feature (thanks Don!)."

I gave up on xplorer2 - also. Paid full fare as you did.

I am also very interested in Opus 'collections' - How are duplicate names (content differ - both are wanted) handled?
Is this handled in a text file as in XY?

Don't like the subscription thing with anybody from Photoshop to M$ Office. (Have CS6 and Office 2010)

What are the typical costs to update to latest edition?
How often does this occur? Every year, few months or?
It appears to be an inside secret :-)

pat

Enternal
Posts: 1174
Joined: 10 Jan 2012 18:26

Re: XYPlorer vs Directory Opus

Post by Enternal »

I also gave up on xplorer2. Paid full price for it and never felt satisfied. The developer is annoying too, to be honest.

Opus's "Collection" are not handled as pure text like XYplorer. It uses xml instead just like every of its configuration files except for image caching for obvious reasons. So it isn't as easy to edit directly line by line but at least it's standard.

How are duplicate handled? Similar to XYplorer and Windows Explorer. Duplicates can never be in the same folders anyways so it won't matter. However, just in case things go wonky, in xml, it also stores all three dates of the file and the size to help compare.

I don't like how it handles zombies though. It will automatically remove zombies unlike XYplorer which gives clearly shows you it (0 size) so you can double check to see if there's something wrong with the path. In Opus, you can change the time Opus will wait before deleting the zombies but you can never fully disable that.

The typical costs to update? I don't really remember but you pay for every major version. Which comes out usually about every 2 to 3 years. Typically 3 years.

Overall, I'm a heavy user of XYplorer and Directory Opus. xplorer2? Pfft. That thing can go away.

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