TkDesk User's Guide: The File Browser Window

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## 2. The File Browser Window

The file browser window is the largest window when TkDesk is started for the first time. It contains a menu bar, a button bar (for fast access to the most often used file operations and other functions), an entry field (displaying the current directory), a horizontal scrollbar, a certain number of file listboxes (three by default), and a status and information bar.

## 2.1 The Menu Bar

The following sections describe the entries of the individual menus of the file browser windows.

### TkDesk

The "TkDesk" menu contains the following entries:

New Browser...

  Asks for a directory for which to open a new file browser window. If the directory is the empty string, the operation is cancelled.

Clone Window

  Creates a new file browser window with the same directory as the current one (that is, the directory of the file browser from which this menu entry was invoked).

Application Bar

  Opens the application bar if it had been closed before, or raises the application bar above all other windows.

Edit Config Files

  This is a submenu from which individual or all configuration files of TkDesk can be opened to modify them.

Reread Config Files

  Another submenu whose entries reread individual or all configuration files.

Auto Save

  Here you can select which parts of TkDesk are automatically saved periodically and when TkDesk exits.

Save All Now

  Saves all parts of TkDesk's configuration no matter what the settings in the previous submenu.

Close Window

  Closes the file browser window.

Quit

  Quits TkDesk if this is what the user really wishes.

### File

This menu provides all the usual file operations plus entries for finding files. The contained menu entries are:

Information

  Opens a file information window for each currently selected file. This window, which can also be used to add annotations to files, is described in section File Information.

New File...

  Asks for the name of a file which will be created in the current directory of the file browser or list.

New Directory...

  Asks for the name of a directory which will be created in the current directory of the file browser or list.

Copy, Move, Link...

  Opens a dialog box for copying, moving, linking, and symbolic linking of files. If the currently selected file is a tar archive the dialog contains an extra button labeled "Untar". This dialog window is described in more detail in section Copying, Moving and Deleting Files.

Rename...

  For each selected file, TkDesk asks for a new name. Before actually renaming TkDesk checks for an existing file with the same name.

Delete...

  Opens a dialog to delete files. The section Copying, Moving and Deleting Files gives more details.

Print...

  Asks for a command to print the currently selected files. The names of the selected files will be appended to the command. The default command can be defined in the configuration file "System".

Find Files...

  Opens a dialog window which can be used to search for files, using a variety of characteristics. This dialog is described in more detail in section Finding Files.

Find Annotation...

  Lets you search for files with a certain annotation. More details in section Finding Files.

Copy To X Selection

  Copies the complete names of all currently selected files (i.e. including their paths) to the X clipboard. They can then be pasted into any other X application using the middle mouse button.

Open Selected Files

  For each currently selected file, the default action is performed.

### Directories

The main purpose of this menu is to select directories which are to be opened. It also manages TkDesk's trash can. The menu contains the following entries:

Open...

  Asks for a directory. A new file list or file browser window will be created, baesed on the setting of the "In Browser" checkbutton.

New...

  Asks for the name of a directory which will be created in the current directory of the file browser or list.

Home Directory

  Changes the directory of the window from which this entry is invoked to the user's home directory.

Trees

  Contains two cascaded submenus: "Home" and "Root". The contents of these submenus is dynamically generated and corresponds to the directory hierarchy rooted either at the user's home directory or at "/". Selecting an entry from these submenus changes the directory of the window to the selected directory. Pressing `Control` at the same time opens a new window with this directory.

Trash

  Opens a file list window displaying the contents of the trash can. When this window is iconified and TkDesk uses icon windows the icon can be used as a Mac-like trash can.

Empty Trash

  Empties the trash can after confirmation from the user.

The remaining entries can be configured by the configuration file `Directories`. See section Configuration of TkDesk for details on how to do this. If one of these menu entries is invoked, the path of the file browser will change to that directory. If such an entry is invoked while at the same time pressing the Control key, a new file list window will be created (if the option "Always In Browser" is selected a file browser window will be created), displaying the contents of the selected directory. This feature applies to all menus that contain directory names!

### Commands

This menu provides entries to execute commands either once or periodically, and provides some "job control". Its entries are:

Execute...

  Asks for a command to execute. The button to the right of the command entry contains a history of previously executed commands. Selecting one of these copies its name to the entry widget.

Periodic Execution...

  Opens a window which can be used to execute a command and watch its output periodically. If the "Don't execute" checkbutton is selected, the execution is paused.

Job Control

  Opens a window which allows to stop, terminate, kill etc. processes which have been started by TkDesk.

The remaining entries can be defined in the configuration file `Commands`. See section Configuration of TkDesk for details on how to do this. If one of these menu entries is invoked, the corresponding command will be executed.

### Bookmarks

This menu lets you create bookmarks for often used files and directories. To do this, select at least one file/directory and invoke the "Add Bookmark" menu entry. The name(s) of the selected files and directories will now appear alphabetically sorted in the "Bookmarks" menu. You can remove any bookmark from the menu by selecting its corresponding entry from the "Remove Bookmark" submenu.

The bookmarks you add will be automatically saved, if the "Bookmarks" entry of the "Auto Save" submenu contained in the "TkDesk" menu is selected (which is the default).

### Options

The `Options` menu lets you configure many aspects of TkDesk "on the fly". The entries are:

Add Icons

  If selected, pretty little images will appear left of the file names in the file listboxes. This looks nice, but has currently a major drawback: It is very slow. For this reason this option is by default deselected.

Show All Files

  Whether to show files in the file lists whose name start with ".".

Folders On Top

  If selected (default) folders will always appear on top of the file lists.

Append Type Char

  Whether to append a file-type specific character to the file names. This is mainly intended for monochrome displays and is then automagically selected.

Single Click (Dirs)

  Lets you open directories with a single click of the left mouse button. Individual directories can still be selected by pressing `Shift` at the same time.

Always In Browser

  If this option is selected, the "In Browser" checkbutton of the "Open Directory" dialog will always be selected. `Control-Doubleclick` on a directory will open a file browser instead of a file list window.

Strip <your home directory>

  If this is selected, and the current path of the browser is somewhere under your home directory, the leftmost file listbox will contain your home directory rather than the root directory. This speeds up the display of directory hierarchies under your home directory.

Overwrite Always

  If this option is selected, TkDesk won't ask if the destination file already exists when copying or moving files.

Really Delete

  Relates to the deletion of files. If this option is selected, the "Delete Files" dialog box will always have the "REALLY delete" checkbutton selected by default.

Quick Drag'n'Drop

  Normally when you drop files onto a file list, the copy dialog appears. If this option is selected, dropped files will be moved to the destination directory without further questions. If `Control` is pressed during dropping, the files will be copied. If the drop target is the trash can, TkDesk will ask if the files are to be deleted "really".

Sort History

  This option determines whether the history menus are to be sorted alphabetically or not.

Use Sound

  If you have sound working with TkDesk on your machine, you can temporarily disable sound by selecting this option. Handy when playing Audio CDROMs, for instance.

Dialogs at Pointer

  If selected, TkDesk will always try to place new windows right under the mouse pointer.

Number Of Listboxes

  This relates to the number of listboxes in the file browser window. Between 1 and 6 can be displayed, though 18 would theoratically not be a problem.

The settings of these options are by default automatically saved. This can be disabled by deselecting the "Options" entry of the "TkDesk/Auto Save" submenu.

### Help

This menu tries to give you some help with using TkDesk. It also contains entries for displaying the list of FAQs, recently made changes to TkDesk, and the license for using and distributing TkDesk, as well as an option for activating or deactivating the balloon help. The setting of the ballon help entry will be saved together with the ones of the "Options" menu.

And then there is the most important menu entry of TkDesk: "About TkDesk..." Make sure you invoke it at least once!

## 2.2 The Button Bar

The button bar allows you fast access to more often used functions of TkDesk, or other commands. When you place the mouse button over any of these buttons, a small help window will appear telling you what this button does (provided the "Balloon Help" option is activated).

The contents of this button bar can be defined via the configuration file `ButtonBar`. See section Configuration of TkDesk and the configuration file itself for details on how to do this.

## 2.3 The Path Entry

This entry field displays the current path of the file browser or file list. You can also type directly into this field to change the display to another directory. There is a sort of "auto-completion" available; if you type only the first part of a directory's name and press Control-Tab, its name will be automagically completed. That is, provided there is no other directory starting with the same letters.

If you click the right mouse button over this field a popup menu appears which lets you select any of the current directory's parent directories.

The button to the right of the entry field contains a menu of the last 20 (default) directories you have visited. If you select one of these, the current path of the browser will change to it. The "Control-trick" described in section Directories works here as well!

## 2.4 The File Listboxes

The main part of the file browser are the file listboxes. Directories are by default displayed in blue with a bold font, executable files in red and bold, and regular files in black and a medium font. These settings can be configured via the `System` configuration file. The color and font of individual file types can be configured via the `FileTags` configuration file. See section Configuration of TkDesk for details on how to do this.

Every listbox contains a "long" listing of its directory. You can make the hidden parts visible by scrolling the listbox with the horizontal scrollbar at its bottom border. Every listbox also contains a menu, which can be accessed by clicking on the listbox's title. It contains entries for:

- Refreshing the listbox. Although TkDesk refreshes all its file lists every 5 seconds (default), sometimes you may want to have a file listbox instantly updated.
- Calculating the directory's disk usage, i.e. the number of bytes occupied by that directory and all its subdirectories. A window will appear when this has been done, containing a sorted list of all subdirectories and their individual disk usages. If you double-click on any of its entries, a new file list window will appear displaying the directory's contents.
- Executing a command in the listbox's directory. All the usual %-shortcuts my be used (see section Configuration of TkDesk).
- Setting a mask for the listbox's display. For example, you can configure the listbox to only display files matching the pattern `*.gif`.
- Sorting the listbox's contents, either by Name, Size, Date, Extension, or not at all.
- Displaying all files, that is also those starting with a ".".
- Inverting the listing.
- Open a new file list window displaying the directory's contents.

This menubutton can also be used to drop files, as well as to drag the directory displayed in the associated listbox to another target, e.g. the root window.

### Handling of the Listboxes (Bindings)

The handling of the file lists is very similar to that of the NeXT file manager: when you double click on a directory, the listbox right to the current one will display this directory's contents. You can open a directory in this listbox, and the listbox right to this one will display its contents. This way you can browse through complete directory hierarchies, while having instant access to the contents of the complete directory tree. When the number of opened directories exceeds the number of visible listboxes, you can scroll the listboxes with the horizontal scrollbar which is located right above the file lists.

Files are selected with the left mouse button. A single click selects a single file, deselecting all other files. If the Shift key is pressed simultaneously, the old selection will be retained. By dragging the mouse pointer over a file list, while at the same time pressing the left mouse button, a set of files can be selected. Shift-doubleclick selects all files in that file list.

Note that if the option "Single Click (Dirs)" is set a single click on a directory will open it. Then you need to use Shift-Click to select a single directory.

A double click performs the default action for the selected file. For directories that opens the directory, for executables it executes it, and for files it invokes the first entry of the corresponding popup menu (see below). If the Control key is pressed while double-clicking a directory, a new file list or file browser window (depending on the setting of the "Always In Browser" option) is created displaying the contents of that directory. For files, a dialog box will appear asking for a command to execute on that file.

Files can be dragged by pressing the middle mouse button on any selected file. If no file is selected, the clicked-on file will be selected. Files can be dropped by releasing the mouse button over any other file listbox and the menubutton above them, over windows of the built-in editor, over the application bar (if the corresponding button has been configured to handle dropped files), over iconified file browsers and file lists (only if TkDesk is in "fvwm-mode", see section Command Line Options) and in general over any other application supporting the `file` protocol of the BLT package's drag and drop implementation. Valid drop targets can be identified by looking at the window that is displayed while files are dragged: the window's relief appears raised if over a valid target, flat if not.

The right mouse button is used in the file listboxes to access the file-specific popup menu. Every popup menu contains a submenu, labeled with the file's name, which contains entries for the most common file operations. The remaining entries of the menu can be configured via the configuration file `Popups`. See section Configuration of TkDesk for details on how to do this.

## 2.5 The Status Bar

The status bar is located at the bottom edge of file browser windows. It displays either

- the current state of TkDesk,
- details of the currently selected file, or
- number and summed size of currently selected files.

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