How to change column layout permanently

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mczerski
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2021 3:07 pm

How to change column layout permanently

Post by mczerski »

I have searched the forum to find a satisfactory answer to my question, but to no avail. Sorry, if I have overlooked an answer on the forum. I wish my custom column layout to be used in all searches and with all filters. Your reply will be – as alyway – welcome. Best redards
void
Developer
Posts: 19839
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: How to change column layout permanently

Post by void »

What version of Everything are you using?



Everything 1.4 should always keep your current column layout.

Please make sure Everything is installed correctly:
  • In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
  • Click the General tab on the left.
  • Check Store settings and data in %APPDATA%\Everything.
  • Uncheck Run as administrator.
  • Check Everything Service. (Please make sure this is tick-checked and not square-checked)
  • Click OK.
  • Exit Everything (right click the Everything tray icon and click Exit).
  • Restart Everything.


Please try setting your default column layout in Everything 1.5:
  • In Everything 1.5, from the Tools menu, click Options.
  • Click the Home tab on the left.
  • Set Columns to your desired properties.
  • Click OK.
Use Alt + Home to restore your default columns.
You can set the column layout with bookmarks in Everything 1.5.
You can temporarily add to your current columns with filters in Everything 1.5.
serrato
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2024 10:22 pm

Re: How to change column layout permanently

Post by serrato »

Hey Void, sorry to necro this post, but is it possible to set columns for specific folder types?

Windows' default File Explorer has a few types of folders, e.g. a folder with music files will set this (or you can do it yourself) folder to be of "music" type. This will preset the columns to have title, number, album, composer. For any other type that has a mix of files, it'll be just the general type of folder that only has name and size I think.

So I was wondering if we can do the same in Everything. For example, in one tab I have say a folder or search with only videos in them - so I have many columns that relate only to video like video bitrate, audio bitrate, codec, etc. These are irrelevant to a situation where I am in a pictures folder/search/filter for example. But since the columns remain, they take up a lot of space.

Would it be possible for Everything to also read what type of folder I am in? E.g. in options I could define that folders that have been set to music in explorer, should have so and so columns. This can be saved as the music template. Likewise something for video folders and document folders etc. It'll essentially be the same as Windows' approach except Windows only has a few options while Everything has basically everything heh.

Just to clarify, by folder types I'm talking about how you can go into right click -> properties of any folder, and in a tab called Customize, you can "Optimize this folder for" and select through a drop down between general, documents, music, pictures and video. I guess it had more options than I recalled but anyway, it'll be cool to have Everything identify a folder type that way. To list the behaviour more clearly:

1) identify which type of folder one is in
2) if user has defined custom column layouts for folder types in options, use them
3) if not, use some default predefined layout that is appropriate for that folder, the same way Windows has a basic "music" or whatever type, which has some expected columns like name, size, title, album, composer, but doesn't have the rest of the metadata like bitrate, which the user can modify himself in options (and thus make a custom layout).

Reason I'm limiting it to identifying the folder type in (1), instead of trying to figure out dynamically which files are in view, is because perhaps there is a situation where you are filtering different types of files and in that case, you want a consistent layout, not one that keeps changing. In that case, I think the best is to just use the user's default home layout if defined. In my default home layout I have all these relevant columns, which may or may not be useful for some files, but the mix ensures I am in a "power state" to temporarily deal with the longer view, since it's only a short while I need to tolerate that and it's better I have all the info I need rather than losing info due to dynamically changing columns. In the end this too can be in the options if someone prefers it.

I realise it's a lot of work but lemme know what you think :P
mczerski
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2021 3:07 pm

Re: How to change column layout permanently

Post by mczerski »

void wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 12:27 am What version of Everything are you using?

Thank your for your extensive reply.
I am using 1.5.0.1390a and will trest your piece of advice. I do hope, your guidelines will help me solve my issue as your advices have always occurred excellent so far! However, if tests occured unsuccessful , I’ll get back to you. Otherwise, every user may follow your guidelines and assume that your advice was really good.
tuska
Posts: 1381
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:14 am

Re: How to change column layout permanently

Post by tuska »

2mczerski

This example may help, see point 7. Everything: Lesezeichen (u.a. Standardansicht / Default view)
7.3. ... 1. Name: Everything - Standardansicht/Default View ALT+Y -> Step-by-step instructions
⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺
Google Translate: German/Deutsch -> English - Note: Sometimes it helps to click on the spoiler a second time.
Google Translate: English -> Deutsch/German - Anmerkung: Manchmal hilft es wenn man ein zweites Mal auf den Spoiler klickt.
⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺
serrato
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2024 10:22 pm

Re: How to change column layout permanently

Post by serrato »

mczerski wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 8:07 pm
void wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 12:27 am What version of Everything are you using?
Thank your for your extensive reply.
I am using 1.5.0.1390a and will trest your piece of advice. I do hope, your guidelines will help me solve my issue as your advices have always occurred excellent so far! However, if tests occured unsuccessful , I’ll get back to you. Otherwise, every user may follow your guidelines and assume that your advice was really good.
Oh btw, when I was having similar trouble of the column layout not working, I realised that all my tabs were following whatever was last set. In other words, if you have one tab, and you set some columns in it, then the next tab you open will follow this. In my case, since I had many tabs, I basically had to go in each tab and select the columns I wanted. I could alternately save the search terms and just open new tabs and paste the search terms again.

But yeah, keep track of your "original tab" before you began opening new ones. Every new tab follows whatever was set when there was only one tab, or what was set for ALL tabs (like I did). Once I had all tabs the same layout, a new tab followed the same pattern. And you can of course change this behaviour in options.

P.S. Void, there's something wrong with the quote system, it is missing one last closing tab I think, so I had to add the closing tab above so my response wouldn't be part of the quote.
void
Developer
Posts: 19839
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: How to change column layout permanently

Post by void »

Hey Void, sorry to necro this post, but is it possible to set columns for specific folder types?
Tricky to do because Everything currently doesn't have an "active folder".
I have on my TODO list to explore different ways to do this in Everything 1.6.

If I find a suitable way to do it, I will look into showing columns from the active folder.

Thank you for the suggestion.


I realised that all my tabs were following whatever was last set.
Easiest way to manage is to set your Tools -> Options -> Home -> Columns.
New tabs will use this column list as the default.

new_tab_command_line gives more control with -columns


P.S. Void, there's something wrong with the quote system, it is missing one last closing tab I think, so I had to add the closing tab above so my response wouldn't be part of the quote.
Your quote is fine.
Quotes can be nested.
Two [/quote] tags are needed to leave the inner and outer quote.
mczerski
Posts: 65
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2021 3:07 pm

Re: How to change column layout permanently

Post by mczerski »

Thank you, Serrato and Everything, for your valuable replies.
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