~~Title: Locking the Format ~~
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Opus lets you **lock** the format in the file display. When the format is locked, automatic changes to the format are disabled - the display format won't change at all as you navigate from one folder to another, unless you manually change it using the [[.|Folder Options]] dialog.

==Toggling the format lock==

Right-click the {{:media:13:info.png?nolink|}} information icon on the status bar, and choose **Format Lock** from the context menu to toggle the lock. You can also use the **Format Lock** command from the **Folder** drop-down menu in the default toolbars.

==Padlock icon==

When the format is locked, the information icon on status bar turns into a {{:media:13:tab_-_locked.png?nolink|}} padlock icon instead.

When the format lock is on the current folder format is preserved. You can still make manual changes using the [[.|Folder Format]] dialog (or by clicking the column headers in details mode, etc.), but it won't automatically change again until after you turn the lock off.

==Turning off the lock==

Click the padlock icon, or use the **Format Lock** menu commands, to unlock the format.

==Showing the padlock all the time==

If you find you use the format lock feature a lot, you can turn on the **Enable format lock padlock icon** option on the [[:preferences:preferences_categories:file_displays:status_bar|File Displays / Status Bar]] Preferences page. The {{:media:13:info.png?nolink|}} icon will change to show the padlock permanently, and you can toggle the lock on and off simply by clicking it.

==The status bar icon can be removed==

The information icon (or its padlock equivalent) are generated on the status bar using the `{fl}` code. Since the status bar is configurable via Preferences, it's possible this code can be removed - in which case the icon won't be visible any more. You can still use the format lock using the menu commands mentioned above.