If you’re a Windows XP user, you may be familiar with the “Details” mode. This mode allows you to see more information about the currently open dialogs and windows. If you’re a user of Force Open/Save Dialogs, then you may not be aware that this mode is available to you in addition to the normal “Open” and “Close” modes. In Details mode, all of your open dialogs and windows are listed in a single table, so it’s easy to see which one is the focus of your attention. To use Details mode in Windows XP, first open the “Options” menu and select “Details Mode.” Then select the “Window” tab and click on the “Details” button. You’ll now be able to see all of your open dialogs and windows in Details mode.
The answer to our troubles is a small utility named OpenWide that sits in the system tray and forces these unruly dialogs to behave.
Launch the application after installing it, and you should see a rather ugly new icon appear in your system tray. (You can disable the icon in the setting panel’s Preferences tab).
In the placement section you can set the position on the screen as well as the size of the dialog, which I find extremely useful.
You’ll probably want to change the dropdown for “Initial keyboard input Focus on” from the default of directory to File name, so that you can quickly type in a file name.
The second drop-down will let you choose a particular mode… you could force it to always work in thumbnails mode if you were so inclined.
Clicking the “Test Current Settings” button will show you that the details mode is selected.
Note: This tip will only work for Windows XP users as this utility does Not work on Windows Vista.
Please note that some applications don’t use the common dialogs and instead build their own. This will not work for those.
Download OpenWide from lingo.atspace.com
