Plugins & Media Capabilities

Notes

• This page does not list all viewers. Directory Opus can hook into 3rd party preview handlers, browser plugins and ActiveX controls (in addition to viewers specifically designed for Opus itself) so this list will obviously never be complete.
• This a list of things which integrate into the Directory Opus user-interface. That is: a) Viewers which allow Opus to display the selected file in its viewer panel and/or as thumbnails. b) Virtual file-systems which allow Opus to treat archives and FTP sites as directories. c) Metadata readers and editors which let you see and change detail about files.
• Directory Opus can also launch and automate standalone third-party programs but that is not the subject of this list. Such a list would include almost every program that provides some kind of command-line interface, scripting support or shell extension.
• See the bottom of the page for explanations of the different columns.

Categories

• Archives
• File-Transfer
• Web, Flash & E-Mail
• Documents:
  • Office & RTF
  • PDF / AI / EPS
  • Text-Files
  • AutoCAD
  • Other (DjVu, RVF, PostScript, XPS)
• Audio
• Video
• Images
• Fonts
• Miscellaneous (EXEs, DLLs)
• Special

Column meanings

• Opus Versions: Some plugins/features require newer versions of Opus. Some plugins became obsolete with newer versions of Opus. Where '~' appears in version column it means the plugin/feature was in that version but was significantly improved in later versions. Where 'A' appears it means an alternative plugin exists for that version which performs a similar purpose.

• Type:
  • 'Opus builtin' means features which are part of Opus itself.
  • 'Opus plug-in' means a component designed for Opus. Several plugins are installed with Opus while others are available separately.
  • 'Preview Handler' means a component designed for the Windows Vista and Office 2007 viewer plugin system, which Opus also supports. Preview Handlers often work just as well as native Opus plugins.
  • 'ActiveX' means an ActiveX component, usually designed for use within Internet Explorer, which Opus can also use within itself.

• Bundled: Support for many formats is built into Opus or provided by plugins which come bundled with Opus. Support for other formats is provided by plugins which you can download separately. Filter on the "bundled" column if you're only interested in what you get out-of-the-box or what you can add-on separately. Turn on the Author column if you want to see which plugins are made by third-party authors.

• x64: The x64 column indicates the plugins/features supported on the 64-bit version of Opus. Everything is supported on the 32-bit version but some plugins do not have 64-bit versions.

• Cost: Almost all of the plugins/features are free (assuming you have paid for Opus itself) but a handful of them cost extra at the plugin/feature author's discretion.

• Unicode: Plugins which support Unicode are able to handle file paths with "international" characters. Lack of Unicode support is usually not a problem as Opus will attempt to pass those plugins the "short" version of the file path.

• Streams: Plugins which support Steams are able to handle files within archives (Zip, RAR) and on FTP sites. That is, you can view a file from within an archive or FTP site without having to extract/download it first, if the plugin supports it.

• USB: The USB column indicates which plugins are safe for export to a portable USB copy of Opus. Plugins which flag themselves as USB-safe must not modify the registry and must store their configuration (if any) in a specific way that allows it to travel with USB copies. When you do a USB export you will be asked which USB-safe plugins you wish to include. You can manually copy "unsafe" plugins after doing a USB export if you know they are safe or don't care that they may modify the registry.

• Translated: Opus itself is translated into several different languages and the same is true for some of its plugins. Many plugins do not display any text beyond their name and description in the plugin list, so lack of translation is usually not a big deal. Most of the plugins that have complicated GUIs have been translated.

• Where '?' appears in a column it means the feature hasn't been tested. Such columns have been color-coded & filtered based on educated guesses.

Purposes

These things may appear in the Purpose column:

• View: Lets you to view files in the preview pane and standalone viewer windows.

• Thumb: Generates small images for display in Thumbnails and Tiles modes.

• Convert: Enables conversion from the format(s) it handles to BMP, GIF, JPEG or PNG.

• Edit: Allows you to edit files in the preview pane (e.g. using an embedded text editor).

• Metadata: Extracts data from files for display in Opus columns and tooltips. This data can also be used when renaming; for example, you can insert the time a picture was taken, or the title of a piece of music, into filenames.

• Metadata Edit: Allows you to view and modify metadata in the preview pane.

• Virtual File-System: Lets you browse things like archives and FTP sites as if they were normal directories.