xplorer² online help: File management overview

xplorer² Quick Start Guide
File exploring reinvented: Feel like home miles away from home

Overview

The main window is shown in Figure 1. There are four main areas: The active and inactive folder views, the folder tree and the quick previewer window. A toolbar, menu and status bars complete the picture. If this appearence looks rather complicated, you can turn off all the elements you don't need (from View menu), e.g. the tree, the previewer, even the second folder pane.

Figure 1. The main window

Here is a brief description of the main window elements:

Active pane [1]. Shows the contents of the folder you are working with. This is 100% equivalent to the views windows explorer offers. The example shows a detailed view where you can see extended information for items in columns. Two items are selected, shown in hilighted color. A local titlebar shows the path of the folder being browsed. Only one pane can be active at any time; all user input is directed to it and all other user interface elements (toolbars, status bars etc) show information relevant to the active pane only. All menu commands act on the active pane, too.
Inactive pane [2]. In dual-pane mode you can browse two folders at a time, having a "spare" one displayed in the inactive pane. This pane is identical in all aspects except that it doesn't accept input; a slightly darker background color allows you to tell which pane is inactive; you can pick your ideal color from Tools | Options | Window. The 2 panes are totally independent and can be configured differently, like in this example where the inactive pane is in thumbnail view showing HTML previews. The inactive pane can be activated by clicking on it or hitting <TAB>, whereupon the old active pane becomes inactive.
Folder tabs [3]. Each pane can show more than one folder at a time. In such a case tabs will appear, each bearing the title of the respective folder. You can click on a tab to bring a hidden folder upfront. You can only work with one folder at a time, but tabs allow you to switch quickly among locations. You can also save folder groups and restore tabs for subsequent sessions.
Folder tree [4]. Shows a hierarchical view of all the folders in the namespace, starting at the root (desktop). It is exactly equivalent to the windows explorer folder pane. Here you select folders you intend to browse. It is not normally used for managing folders but having said that a reduced set of commands are applicable when you activate the tree (e.g. click on it). The tree can be configured to follow the folder in the active pane so that the two are always synchronized. See Tools | Options | Window for all the available settings.
Quick previewer [5]. Shows a preview of the focused item — the one with the dotted rectangle around it — in the active pane, depending on the content. Figure 1 shows the preview of a MP3 file that involves playing it with windows media player (if installed); WMP is used for video previews, too. When the focus is on image files (GIF, JPG, etc) the pane will show a preview picture. For text files (TXT, DAT, INI, etc), the first few lines are shown and finally a hexadecimal preview for all other "binary" file types. The quick viewer pane is normally read-only but a few commands are available from a context menu (right-click to display it), e.g. Copy of text or graphics. [PRO] A second tab shows activeX (exact) previews of office documents and other popular file types.
Toolbar [6]. Contains button-operated equivalents for some frequently used menu commands. It hosts the addressbar too, a combo box where you type paths for folders you intend to browse, and also command lines to execute. The drop-down portion contains the history of folders visited in both panes. You can customize and add new toolbars for the commands you use the most.
Status bar [7]. It is separated in 6 areas: on the left you get various messages for information and errors. The second shows details for the focused item (type, size and modification date). The third part shows the index number of the focused item. The fourth shows information for the selection in the active pane; e.g. 2: 54.9MB means that 2 files are selected and their total size is 54.9M. The small fifth part shows an icon when a filter is constraining item visibility. Finally the rightmost part shows the free space on the active drive. You can fine-tune the information displayed on a status bar through Tools | Options | Advanced.
Menu bar [8]. Shows all available commands. As you traverse the menu system you can read brief command descriptions on the status bar. Depending on the context some menu items may be disabled, e.g. when a command requires at least one item selected and there's no selection in the active pane. If the menu system appears daunting, you can switch to a simpler version from Tools | Options | Window.
Info bar [9] [PRO]. Each folder pane can have its own "status bar" showing details of the focused item. Info bars are activated through View | Toolbars. Any column can be placed on an infobar; to select your favorite columns just right-click on the infobar.
Drive bar [10] [PRO]. This toolbar lists all your local and mapped drives for quick access.
Mini scrap [11] [PRO]. A virtual folder that can be used for temporarily holding items, showing bookmarks or even as a launchpad for programs. If activated it acts as a complete file manager; its only difference from the "normal" pane [1] is that you don't normally browse single folders in it.

The four major parts are separated with splitter windows, which you can resize to taste. You can also select whether the folder panes are stacked horizontally or vertically using Tools | Options. Once you reach a satisfactory arrangement xplorer² will remember it for you and reinstate it every time you start the program — unless you clear the Save program state on exit checkbox in the options dialog.

In a sense, xplorer² has a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) where each "document" is a folder. Only one folder is active at each time but many others are easily accessible, from tabs in the active and/or the inactive pane. Tabs are added with File | New tab and removed from the Window menu.

Introduction

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