Each clause has a type which specifies exactly which attribute of a candidate file that clause will match. The clause type is chosen from a drop-down list. A sub-clause is created by selecting Subclause from the same drop-down list, but sub-clauses are described on the Defining a Filter page rather than here.

There are a number of clause types that apply to all types of file and folder.

Attributes

Lets you match based on the file's attributes.

In the example above, the clause would match only if the file's R attribute were set, and E and C attributes were not set. Supported attributes are:

LetterAttributeDescription
RRead-onlyThe file can't normally be overwritten or deleted. For example, if you set a .txt file to read-only and then try to edit it in Notepad, Notepad would not be able to save over the existing file. Read-only files can still be deleted to the recycle bin as normal.
AArchiveUsually used to indicate that a file needs to be archived. The A attribute is normally set automatically when a file is saved or edited, and backup tools can use this to tell that a file needs to be backed up (and they would then clear it automatically after doing so).
HHiddenMarks the file as "hidden". When a file is set to hidden its icon will be faded, but the file itself is not necessarily hidden from the display. You can configure whether Opus shows hidden files and folders through the Global hide filters options in the Global Filters Preferences page. The display of hidden files can also be controlled on a per-folder basis using the Folder Formats system.
SSystemGenerally used in conjunction with the H attribute to mark files and folders that "belong" to the operating system. By default, files marked H+S will be hidden from the display, although you can enable the display of these items by turning off the Hide operating system files option on the Global Filters Preferences page.
EEncryptedThe file is encrypted. Only NTFS supports file encryption - FAT/FAT32 formatted disks don't offer this feature.

When a file is encrypted, only the users who have been associated with the file will be able to decrypt it - for example, if your laptop is stolen, the thief might have access to the files on the hard drive, but without your login password would not be able to decrypt the data.

If a folder is set as encrypted then all new files created in that folder will be encrypted by default. This option is exclusive with Compressed (you can't both encrypt and compress the same file).
CCompressedThe file is compressed. Only NTFS supports file compression - FAT/FAT32 formatted disks don't offer this feature.

If a folder is set as compressed then all new files created in that folder will be compressed by default. This option is exclusive with Encrypted (you can't both compress and encrypt the same file).
OOfflineIndicates that the file is "offline" - that is, it resides on a network or other computer and will only be copied to your computer when you try to access it. This is most commonly used by cloud storage services like Microsoft OneDrive.
INon-IndexedThe file's content will not be indexed by the system (for searching), only its name and other metadata.
PPinnedThe file is "pinned" - that is, marked to remain permanently on this machine rather than being moved to offline storage. This is most commonly used by cloud storage services like Microsoft OneDrive.
Availability

Lets you match based on a file's offline status (for cloud storage).

Contains

Searches files for the supplied text string.

The contents of files will be searched to see if they contain the specified string. This works with text files and other files (e.g. Word documents, PDFs) for which the system has an IFilter installed.

Because searching files can be a time-consuming operation, Contains clauses are "deferred" and processed as the very last step before a file matches a filter.

The options that affect the search are:                                             

Date

Compares the file's timestamp, but only looks at date and not the time.

The parameters that affect a Date comparison are:                                             

Date/Time

Compares the file's timestamp, comparing both date and time.

This is similar to a Date except that both the time and date portions of the timestamp are compared - you specify both a date and time to compare against. Within is not an available comparison type for Date/Time clauses.

Description

Compares the file's description (if it has one assigned to it). The search options are the same as for a Contains clause (except for the Assume UTF-8 option).

Document

Lets you filter on various document fields, applicable to files like Office or PDF documents.

A drop-down lets you select from the various document fields to compare against:

The document fields that take a string parameter to compare against (which are most of them) support standard wildcards for the search.

Filter

This lets you refer to another pre-configured filter (one listed on the Filters page in Preferences). For example, you could have a standard filter that excludes certain types of files that you never want to process it, and then refer to that in other, more specific filters that you create later on. Referencing another filter saves you from having to duplicate all those filters' parameters, and also any changes you make later to the referenced filter will automatically have effect on any filters that use it.

Full path

This lets you match a file or folder on its full pathname (which includes its own filename).

For example, C:\Data\Pictures\*\*.jpg would match any file ending in .jpg that was located in any sub-folder of the C:\Data\Pictures directory.

Wildcards in Full path clauses are applied to the string as a whole, rather than on individual path components.

Image

Lets you filter on various image-related fields. All recognized image formats are supported.

The drop-down lets you select from the various fields you can compare on:

The image fields that take a string parameter to compare against (for example, Camera make or model) support standard wildcards for the search.

Label

Matches a file on the basis of its assigned label (if it has one).

A drop-down control displays a list of the configured labels for you to choose from, or you can type in a pattern to match label names by wildcard.

Location

This is similar to Full Path except it only considers the location (path) of the file, but not the filename. This can be particularly useful when searching File Collections, as it lets you filter for files based on their real location on disk.

Music

Lets you filter on various music-related fields. All recognized music formats are supported.

Use the drop-down to select from the various fields you can compare on:

The music fields that take a string parameter to compare against (for example, Album or Genre) support standard wildcards for the search.

Name

Compares the file's name against the specified string.

The options for a Name clause are:                                             

Owner

Match against the file's owner. Standard wildcards are enabled for this search; if you don't specify any wildcards then the search will automatically perform a partial match (so "Fred" will match "Frederick" automatically).

Path length

Lets you search for files or folders based on the total path length (that is, the number of characters in the full file path, including its name). This is useful for identifying files whose paths exceed the normal Windows 260 character path length limit.

Rating

Match the rating assigned to the file or folder (if any). You can rate your files using the Metadata Pane.

Script column

Test the file or folder against a column generated by a script add-in.

Details depend on the type of column the script adds, but will generally be similar to one of the other clause types.

Filtering using script columns allows you to expand the capabilities of Opus's filtering in arbitrary ways, based on anything you can express as a script. Some script add-ins provide columns intended more for filtering than display, although there is no technical difference between the two. A common use for this is to filter folders based on the files they contain, by writing a script column which looks inside each folder and populates a column with "Yes" and "No" values (or similar) to signal whether it should match or not.

Shell column

Match the value of any column added by third-party shell extension handlers.

The drop-down gives you a list of available columns, and you can use standard pattern matchingto match against the value of the selected column. For numeric columns, limited numeric comparison is available using the following operators:

!=not equals
==equals
<less than
>greater than
<=less than or equal
>=greater than or equal
&&and
||or
Size

Compare the file's size.

The parameters that affect a Size comparison are:                                             

A Size clause can also be used to compare the size of folders. Because calculating a folder's size can be time consuming, you must specifically enable this behaviour by also including a Type clause that specifies Folders. For example, the following two clauses would match all empty folders:

Sub-folder

This is a special type of sub-clause that controls which folders a recursive operation will descend into. When Opus encounters a sub-folder that it would normally enter as part of an operation (for example, when copying a folder containing multiply-nested sub-folders), it tests each sub-folder against the Sub-folder clause. If it fails, the operation skips that sub-folder and all its contents completely.

In the above example, a Copy File operation using that filter would skip over any directories called .svn (and all of their contents) no matter where in the folder tree they were encountered. Sub-folder clauses have no effect on files matched by the filter; they only control which sub-folders are entered.

Only the Sub-folder clause stops Opus from recursing into directories. If a Sub-folder clause does not match a folder then Opus will skip that folder and all of its children, even if some of the children may have matched the filter.

On the other hand, with the Full path and Location clauses, Opus will still examine a folder's children even if the folder itself does not match the filter. Both of these methods can be useful, depending on what you actually want to do. If your aim is to ignore everything below a certain folder then a Sub-folder clause is usually best because it avoids inspecting the folder's children unnecessarily. For some examples, see the Opus Forum/FAQ post, How to filter items by location or sub-folder.

Note: Sub-folder clauses do not work with the Synchronize tool.

Tags

Compares against any tags assigned to the file. Standard wildcards are enabled for this search; if you don't specify any wildcards then the search will automatically perform a partial match (so "account" will match "accounting" automatically). The string you enter is compared against all tags assigned to the file separately, so if you want to match two specific tags, you need to use two separate Tags clauses.

Target

If a file is a junction, shortcut or link, the Target clause lets you match on what it points to (the path of the target of the shortcut).

For example, C:\Program Files\*\*.exe would match shortcuts that pointed to any .exe (application files) below the C:\Program Files folder.

You can choose from the following options:

Time

Similar to a Date clause, this compares the file's timestamp, but only looks at the time portion and not the date.

The parameters that affect a Time comparison are:

Type

This lets you match a file by file type.

The first drop-down lets you choose how you want to match by type: