for some reason all my directories or folders now have their properties shown as *.txt does anybody know how I can change this back to the correct settings?
how does it look like? can you post a screenshot?
when I paste the screenshots into this window they look alright but when I preview them I only see the text form of the image.
You can see properties of <directory> with
ls -ld <directory>
You can upload images to https://susepaste.org/ , see the Image choice up-right. Put the URL of the page (not of the image) in your post using the :globe" button from the toolbar of the post editor.
ghep@ghep:~> ls -ld Downloads
drwxr-xr-x 39 ghep users 65536 Sep 22 23:12 Downloads
it does see it as a directory I will now try and post the images from the GUI
First, you tried fixed font, which is very good, but we have a better way:
There is an important, but not easy to find feature on the forums.
Please in the future use CODE tags around copied/pasted computer text in a post. It is the # button in the tool bar of the post editor. When applicable copy/paste complete, that is including the prompt, the command, the output and the next prompt.
An example is here: Using CODE tags Around your paste.
And the result is a directory owned by user ghep (and group users), only writable by the user and readable and inode access allowed for all others. Looks OK to me. So what is the problem?
You talk about a GUI. There is no GUI or GUI program mentioned in your first post above.
I’d say click on “file type options” click on the icon and choose the appropriate folder icon from the list.
In the konsole everything seems alright. It is in the GUI (Graphical User Interface) that you can see that Directories are seen as *.txt files. That is too say that if right click a Directory and select ‘Properties’ it tells me that it is a text file. Also in Dolphin and Konqueror the Directories are shown with a text icon and not the blue folder icon.
Thank you for trying to help I really do appreciate it. At my age it gets difficult remembering everything.
thanks, I have done that so the icons are now correct (for user) but what 'filename patterns should be associated with file type inode/directory ?
Actually, here that field is empty. AFAIK that’s the default and I think it makes sense as the .*** extensions shouldn’t change the behaviour of Dolphin / Konqueror how to open a folder.
Edit:
Just for the record, I’m on Leap 15.2:
Operating System: openSUSE Leap 15.2
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.6
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.71.0
Qt Version: 5.12.7
Kernel Version: 5.3.18-lp152.92-default
But I’d say these basic settings apply to newer KDE / Plasma versions, too.
OK, mine says *.txt
That’s why I’m confused. I suppose I could just remove it and leave it blank to see what happens.
I see the picture. It seems that you use Konqueror. Please, next time when you try to get help, tell us what you aredoing. How could we know you use konqueror? We are not clairvoyant.
That said, I do not see anything strange in the picture. This time you choose for /home (instead of a Download). I see nowhere the “.txt” you mentioned.
Please, a good problem description tells (in precise details) what one does, what one gets and what one expected to get. Only so can others understand what you are complaining about.
What you did is now becoming clear: you use a desktop (KDE), you use Konqureror as a File Manager and you asked it to show Properties for the /home directory. What you got is also clear: the image. What fails is what you think is wrong in the image.
Well, that’s the icon in the upper part of that dialog showing a textfile. Since the OP has got the entry “.txt” in the field “file pattern” that would explain the wrong icon. Deleting that entry should solve this issue.
Yes, the description could have been more precise in the beginning but it wasn’t so bad and we got it in the end.
Add to this that I never look at those icons and you have a more or less complete confusion :(.
I was looking at a file name ending in .txt somewhere in what the OP posted. Never found it.
BTW. I wonder what happens when you give a directory a name ending in txt …???
I tried it. Both Konqueror and Dolphin show there a sort of old-fashioned office drawer map and the name of the directory is blabla.txt.
Just for the record lol!
Hehe, tried the same, yesterday. Just to see what happens. lol!
The same, of course. 
Solved
I right clicked for Properties then clicked the TXT icon and changed it to a folder/directory icon. Then I deleted the file name patterns. Leaving the description as ‘Folder’ it solved everything.
Thank you all for your help.
Glad it worked!