The Folder Browser
A Folder Browser shows the contents of a single folder, that is, all files and all folders the folder contains. Most file operations are started from Folder Browsers, and this is also the place where file browsing happens from. The formatting and level of detail shown for items in Folder Browsers is fully customizable.
Fig 1: A Folder Browser in Probe
You can choose to show or hide Folder Browser elements such as the toolbar, the column headers, and the frame caption displaying the current directory.
The right mouse button in a Folder Browser (when clicked in a background colored area) brings up the white area popup menu for the Folder Browser. This menu controls all details relating to the appearance of the Folder Browser.
You typically work in Folder Browsers using a given file layout. The items in the Folder Browser are sorted in the way that is most relevant to our task at hand.
Different file operations and browsing situations require different types of details to be presented. Column headers are used to adjust column widths, and as shortcuts for modifying sorting order and modifying display field options. File popup hints can be used to get full details.
You select files using the mouse, the keyboard or with wildcard selection dialogs. Commands in file popup menus can be applied to selected items. New files and new folders are easily created. Some types of commands are specific to certain storage types, they are found in the storage specific menu.
The status bar shows details on selections, sorting, subfolder handling, ...etc.
A Folder Browser can have a companion Folder Browser (partner browser), it can be controlled by a Tree Browser, and it may have a private Log Window. To switch between two different Folder Browsers, press keyboard accelerator TAB.
File operations are started using either file popup menus, drag&drop, function keys (F1..F12) or other keyboard accelerators. In file-operations, some subfolder handling method apply.
There are many useful keyboard accelerators when working in Folder Browsers.
Showing/Hiding Folder Browser Elements
The Folder Browser in fig 1 has both a frame caption (the title bar with text C:\Windows), a toolbar (the buttons beneath the caption), and column headers (beneath the toolbar). These three elements can be hidden and later on restored.
The commands for hiding these items are available in the white area popup menu. The section below deals in depth with the white area popup menu.
Fig 2: Commands for showing/hiding Folder Browser elements
Fig 3: A Folder Browser with no toolbar and no column headers
The White Area Popup Menu (Ctrl-W)
The white area popup menu is opened by clicking the right mouse button in the background colored (usually white) area of a Folder Browser. This menu controls all settings affecting the functionality and appearance of Folder Browsers.
The menu can also be opened using Ctrl-W. It is also available as the Browser pull-down menu in the Probe main window.
Fig 4: The Folder browser white area popup menu (clickable)
Forward/Back (Alt-Right, Alt-Left)
These command goes forward and back in the history of visited folders. Pressing Alt-Left (or selecting back) goes to the previously visited folder, and Alt-Right (forward) moves forward. These commands are also available through toolbar buttons with symbols
and
.
The third menu item from the top of fig 4 (Disk) opens up the 'storage specific menu'. When browsing a Zip archive, this submenu will be labeled Zip, when browsing remote FTP storage, it will be labeled FTP, ...etc.
In this menu, commands that modify the folder, and commands that are specific to the storage type are available.
The storage specific menu can also be found as a pull-down menu in the Probe main window.
For more information on handling compressed archives, see the Storage Specific section, Compressed Archives. For more information on FTP, see Storage Specific, The FTP Client.
Fig 5: The storage specific menu for disk storage
The Layout submenu decides which types of information to display for file items.
Fig 6: The Layout submenu
For files, the following items are available:
- Filename
- Small icons (16x16 pixels)
- Big icons (32x32 pixels)
- File size
- File attributes
- File dates
There are three categories of layouts to choose from in fig 6:
- Column - This shows big icons atop of filenames.
- Single Line - These layouts are the most common. A small icon, together with filename and other optional file details are presented on a single line. Fig 1 and fig 3 use single line layouts.
- Two Lines - These layouts present (for each file) a large icon, together with file details on two lines. An example of this is seen in fig 7.
For each file details such as file size and file date, the amount of detail displayed may be adjusted, see the Display Field Details Submenu section.
Fig 7: A two line file layout
In Probe, files can be sorted based on the following criterions:
- Sort in filename order
- Sort in file type order
- Sort in file date order
- Sort in file size order
Since there often are several files of the same type in a directory, a second sort criterion (for the files of same type) is also used in Probe:
- Sort first on type, then on name
- Sort first on type, then on date
- Sort first on type, then on size
All in all, six distinct sorting methods are available. Also, for date sorting, the date can be any of Last Modify Date, Creation Date,or Last Access Date. More information is available in the Date Method section.
Fig 8: The Sort Submenu
Example 1
When searching for the largest program files (*.exe) in a folder containing many programs, sorting on type, then on size seems a good choice.
Example 2
When searching for the oldest help files (*.hlp) in a folder containing a lot of help files, sorting on type, then on creation date and finally reversing the order with which files are shown in does the job.
NOTE: One can also change sort method by left clicking the corresponding column header.
NOTE: The active sorting method is indicated on the status bar.
Display Fields Details Submenu
This submenu deals with how much detail to show for file information (such as name, size and date), and also controls some options on how to present this information.
Fig 9: The Display Fields Details Submenu (clickable)
When displaying file dates in Folder Browsers, there are two things to consider:
- Which sort of date to present.
- How much of the date information to present.
Fig 10: The Date Method Submenu
There are three types of dates associated with each file under Win-95/98, Win NT. In Probe, one of these three types is displayed in the date column of a Folder Browser.
Type Description Creation Date The date and time the file was first created Last Modify Date The latest date and time the file was changed Last Access The latest date and time the file was opened The active date method for a given Folder Browser is indicated on the status bar, when that Folder Browser has input focus.
NOTE: In some file systems, and in some types of compressed archives, and in FTP folders, only a single date (usually Last Modify Date) is available.
Probe has two different methods of presenting file date and time:
- Showing the date only. This is more compact, and sufficient in many cases.
- Showing both dates and time of day for the file. This consumes more screen area.
There are also options on how to present:
The size of a file can be presented with different number of significant digits, or optionally the exact file size (all digits).
Fig 11: The Size Format submenu
There are two different options relating to filenames:
Fig 12: File Name Details Submenu
Prettify File Name Case
When encountering files containing upper case letters (and some similar situations) the filename is displayed using lower case letters for all characters except the first. Filename prettifying can be turned off here.
Mouse File Name Edit
Usually a filename can be edited putting the cursor atop of the file, and then single clicking the filename. This can be annoying to users who rename files with F2. Uncheck this option to disable mouse filename editing.
A single option relating to file attributes is relevant in FTP folders.
UNIX File Attributes as Numbers
Usually ownership for files in UNIX file systems are shown according to: DRWXRW_R__. This can be represented with a more compact notation using octal numbers: D764.
When doing file operations involving subfolders, there is a choice on how to handle the contents of these subfolders. More information is available on the page Subfolder Handling.
One way of checking and modifying which subfolder mode is active is through the subfolders submenu of the white area popup menu.
Fig 12: Subfolder settings in the white area popup menu
This command will cause the order of files within the Folder Browser to be reversed. Sorting order can also be changed and reversed by using column headers.
When there are more items in a folder than there is space for in the Folder Browser window, the window must be scrolled to view all items. This option decides which direction to be the primary scrolling direction:
- In Columns is not checked. In this case, files are scrolled into view using a vertical scroll bar.
- In Columns is checked. In this case, files are organized in columns next to each other. A horizontal scrollbar is used to bring files into view.
A Folder Browser can be connected with other frames in Probe. There are three types of connections a Folder Browser can have:
- It can have a companion browser.
- It can be controlled by a Tree Browser.
- It can be connected to a certain Log Window.
The submenu of fig 13 is used to establish these connections.
Fig 13: The Companion & Log Submenu
Many file operations require a source and a target folder (Copy, Move, ...). In such cases it is practical to be able to overview both the source and the target folder at the same time. In Probe this happens by using two Folder Browsers.
Through the concept of 'Companion Browser', two Folder Browsers are connected to each other. A file operation started in one of the Folder Browsers, uses the second Folder Browser as target folder.
File operations started with certain keyboard accelerators utilize a pair of connected Folder Browsers, to decide the source and target folders. Here are some examples.
- F5 - Copy files from one Folder Browser the another one
- F6 - Move files from one Folder Browser the another one
- Alt F9 - Extract compressed files from one Folder Browser to the other one.
- Alt F7 - Compress files from one Folder Browser to the other one.
There are other advantages to using the companion browser concept:
- By pressing keyboard accelerator TAB, one can switch between to Folder Browsers.
- Through the keyboard accelerator Shift-TAB, one can point the companion browser to the same folder or a subfolder of the first browser.
- Through keyboard accelerators Alt-F1, Alt-F2, Ctrl-F1, Ctrl-F2 it is easy to navigate a pair of Folder Browser using popup Tree Browsers and Disk Browsers.
A companion browser relationship is established by selecting menu item Select Companion (fig 13), and then clicking the Folder Browser to be companion.
NOTE: When only two Folder Browsers are present in the Probe main window, they are automatically set to companions.
A Tree Browser can be used to control the current directory of a Folder Browser. This relationship is the same as the one in MS Explorer, between the tree view and the list view.
The Folder Browser in this relationship is sometimes referred to as a 'slave browser'.
A Tree Browser <-> Folder Browser relationship is established by selecting menu item Select Companion (fig 13), and then clicking the Tree Browser that should be turned into a controlling tree.
NOTE: A Folder Browser can have both a companion browser, and a controlling Tree Browser.
NOTE: This relationship is often established automatically.
When having two Folder Browsers and one Tree Browser in the same Probe main window, it is possible to control both Folder Browsers with a single Tree. In fig 14, a layout with two Folder Browsers, and one Tree Browser is depicted. The central Tree Browser controls the one Folder Browser that was last active.
To activate this mode, the setting Companion Shares Tree of fig 13 should be set.
Fig 14: A two Folder Browser, one Tree Browser layout
NOTE: Multiple Log Windows are only relevant when performing several time consuming file operations simultaneously.
A Log Window is used to get more detailed feedback from a file operation, than that available from the progress window. All file operations started from a certain Folder (or Tree) Browser can be set to direct their log output to a certain Log Window.
To select a default Log Window:
- Select the item Select Log Window from the menu of fig 13.
- The mouse cursor is changed.
- Click the Log Window that should be default for this browser.
When activating file filters, only the files matching a certain criterion are shown in Folder Browsers. The matching criterion of the file filter can be edited using the Edit File Filter command. The file filter can be also be activated and deactivated from this menu. More information is available in the Operation chapter, page File Filters.
Fig 15: The File Filters submenu
The items in this submenu deals with turning on/off different elements of a Folder Browser.
Fig 16: The Caption, Toolbar, ... submenu
This items in this submenu can:
- Set the type of drag handle to use for the Folder Browser frame. It can be one of:
- A Drag Handle with Caption. In this case, the current path of the Folder Browser is shown in the frame caption.
- A Simple Drag Handle. The frame may be dragged using this handle, but no text is shown in it (see fig 17).
- No Drag Handle.
- Enable/Disable the Folder Browser toolbar. The one in fig 17 has no toolbar.
- Enable/Disable the Folder Browser column headers.
Fig 17: A Folder Browser with a simple drag handle
The commands at the bottom of the white area popup menu are commands common to all frames in Probe. They are discussed in the Frames, Reference page.
Fig 18: Frame commands at the bottom of the white area popup menu
When part of the information presented in a column is hidden, or when the information is only presented in an approximate manner, file popup hints can be used:
Fig 19: A partially hidden folder name...
Fig 20: ...is shown fully using popup hints
Fig 21: File popup hints giving exact size of file
The Folder Browser toolbar gives access to some frequently used commands in Folder Browsers. Click the buttons in fig 22 to jump to their help texts.
Fig 22: The Folder Browser Toolbar (clickable)
Backward in Path History (Alt-Left)
This goes back to the previously visited folder.
Forward in Path History (Alt-Right)
After going backwards in path history, this goes forward again.
Go to Folder Above (Backspace, Ctrl-PageUp)
This moves the Folder Browser to the folder above (cd ..).
Go to Root of Drive (Ctrl-Backspace)
For a disk-drive, this takes the Folder Browser to the root of that drive. For a Zip archive, it goes to the root of the archive, ...etc.
Select All Files and All Folders (Ctrl-A)
This makes all files and all subfolders of the current folder selected.
Deselect All Files and All Folders (Ctrl-Q)
This deselects all files and all subfolders of the current folder.
Create New Folder (F7)
This opens the New Folder dialog.
Create New File (Ctrl-F7)
This opens the New File dialog.
Recycle Selected Items (Delete, F8)
This will attempt to move the selected items to the recycle bin
Refresh Contents (Ctrl-R)
This will refresh the listing of files of the current directory. This will detect media changes when handling removable media, updates to remote folders, and changes to compressed archives caused by other applications.
Select Files Using Filename Wildcards (Num-Plus)
This opens the filename wildcard selection dialog. More information on selection is available in chapter Operation, page File Selection.
Deselect Files Using Filename Wildcards (Num-Minus)
This opens the filename wildcard deselection dialog.
This command enables clicking a Folder Browser or a Tree Browser to connect this Folder Browser with. See Companion & Log Submenu.
The Folder Browser column headers are used in four different ways:
Fig 23: Column headers are used to resize information fields
For Resizing Folder Browser File Information Columns
The width of individual information columns of the Folder Browser can be adjusted by dragging column separators, see fig 23.
Double Clicking to Adjust Column Width to Widest Element
If a column contain items that are wider than the column itself, double clicking the column header divisor adjusts the column width, so that all items within it are fully shown.
Fig 24: Optimizing column width by double clicking header divisors
When clicking a header control using the left mouse button, the files in the Folder Browser are sorted accordingly. When clicking the Name column header, files are sorted by name, similarly for the Size column header, ...etc.
When clicking a header control, whose sorting order is already active, the order of the items in the Folder Browser is reversed.
NOTE: When clicking the column header for the icon column, files are sorted by type.
For Adjusting the Type and Level of Detail Presented in the Column
When right clicking a column header, a menu with settings relating to how much, and how the information of the particular column is presented is shown. These settings are the same as the ones available in the Display Fields Details Sub Menu.
Fig 25: Right clicking the Date column header
Companion Browser and Other Relations
See the section Companion and Log Submenu.
The status bar is described in the Getting Started chapter, section The Status Bar.
When active in a Folder Browser, the Probe pull-down menus looks as in fig 18. The menus specific to the Folder Browser are:
Fig 26: The Probe pull-down menus
This menu contains commands which apply to the current selection of files. The items in this menu are identical with those in the file popup menu.
In fig 26, the specific storage type is 'Disk', so the menu is called the Disk menu. When browsing a 'Zip' archive, this menu is named Zip, when browsing FTP folders, it is called FTP, ...etc.
This menu contains commands which can be applied to the current folder. They are specific to the storage type on which the current folder is located (Disk, Zip, Shell, FTP, ...). The section Storage Specific Submenu (this page) discuss this menu.
This menu is (almost) identical to the menu which appears when clicking the right mouse button in a background area of the Folder Browser.
For more info, see the White Area Popup Menu section.
File selection is an important concept in Probe. Selections can be made in a single folder only, or in several folders at once. The page File Selection in the Operation chapter deals with this subject.
There are three ways of selecting files:
Fig 27: The Simple Wildcard Selection dialog
One way of opening, manipulating and applying commands to files is through the use of right mouse button file popup menus:
File popup menus present the commands that are available for the current selection of files. In Probe, there are two classes of commands on file popup menus:
Fig 27: A file popup menu for the selected files
These are commands such as Open, Send To, Cut, Copy, ...etc. These commands operate in Probe, just as they do in for example MS Explorer.
There are different Probe specific commands for different file types. Some examples are:
- Inspect Selection. This command allows for browsing only a certain selection of files and subfolders, and viewing details on their disk space usage. More information is available in the File Selection page, section Selection Information. It's a valuable tool when verifying that file operations actually include precisely the intended files. Also available through keyboard accelerator F9. File operations involving selections in multiple folders are discussed in the Subfolder Handling page.
- When selecting a number of folders, one can find out exactly how much space the subfolders consume through the Sum Contents Size command in the file popup menu. The command is also available through Ctrl-F9. See also the File Selection page.
- When selecting a single subfolder, the Find command can be invoked in the selected folder. The Probe Find Files dialog provides a lot more functionality than the ordinary MS Windows find utility. It also has the additional benefit of operating in any storage type (compressed, remote and collectors). The Find Files dialog can also be started using accelerator Ctrl-F.
- When selecting only files, the Edit as Text command is available in the file popup menu. This will open the selected files in a text editor. The setting for which text editor to use is available under the main window menu Settings, item Paths. It defaults to 'Notepad.exe'. This command is also available using keyboard accelerator F4.
- Several file/archive/connection types have Probe specific settings. These include:
- Disk Drives
- FTP Connections
- File Collectors
- Compressed archives of JAR type.
For these file types, there is a Probe specific command Settings that give access to options and details for the item.
- Creating compressed archives from within Probe is easy. One simply selects the files and subfolders to be compressed and invoke file popup menu item Compress. This opens up a dialog that lets you select the archive format to use, and give access to archive specific options. The command is also available through Alt-F7. For more information on this, see the Storage Specific chapter, page Compressed Archives.
- Extracting compressed archives is also easy in Probe. One just selects the archive(s) to extract, and invokes file popup menu item Expand Archive(s), also available as keyboard accelerator Alt-F9.
- Normally compressed archives are associated with a certain file name extension, such as .zip, .arj, .ace, ...etc. If for example a Zip archive has been created, using filename extension .abc, Probe will list it as an ordinary file. By selecting the file, and invoking the Test if Compressed Archive file popup menu command, Probe will detect that it is a Zip archive. This functionality is also available using keyboard accelerator Ctrl-T.
- For remote connections (FTP) there is a Disconnect item available in it's file popup menu while connected to the remote site.
File operations can be started in three different ways in Probe:
Probe is designed to handle both simple everyday file operations and advanced selective file operations extending into several directories, and involving a large number of files. For best control when invoking complex file operations, Probe keyboard accelerators are recommended, since they always give access to the File Operation dialog. Go to the File Operation page for in depth information.
To perform a file Drag&Drop operation, do as follows:
- Select the files to be copied or moved.
- Click down the left (or right) mouse button on the files.
- Drag the files by moving the mouse while holding the mouse button pressed.
- Drop the files on a suitable target folder.
More information is available on the page Mouse Based File Operations
NOTE: When dragging files using the right mouse button, there is always the possibility of selecting the type of the operation, or canceling the operation at drop time.
Clipboard (Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V)
Files can be copied by using the MS Windows clipboard:
- Select the files and folders to be copied/moved in a Folder Browser
- For a Copy command, select the Copy item (also Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Insert) in the main window Edit pull down menu. For a Move command, select the Cut item (Ctrl-X) in this menu.
- Browse to the target folder, and select the Paste item (Ctrl-V or Shift-Insert) in the Edit pull down menu.
Probe Accelerators (F5, F6, Delete, Shift-Delete)
When starting File Operations using Probe keyboard accelerators, one always have access to a File Operation dialog (see fig 28), before the operation is actually started. This have a number of advantages:
- Two Folder Browsers are used for setting up the file operation.
- One can verify that the source and target folders are correct.
- One can visually inspect that files are included as intended.
- Control of subfolder handling enables advanced selective file operations.
- Options relating to the progress and mode of operation for the file operation are available.
NOTE: Probe supports the same keyboard accelerators for starting file operations as the classical Norton Commander and it's clones.
Some keyboard accelerators for file operations are:
F5 Copy files to companion browser F6 Move files to companion browser F7 Create new folder F8 Recycle files Shift-F8 Delete files Alt-F7 Compress files Alt-F9 Extract compressed archives Fig 28: The File Operation dialog
Creating New Files, New Folders (F7, Ctrl-F7)
New folders and new files are created using toolbar buttons
(New Folder) and 
(New File). Fig 22 shows the toolbar. The New
Folder functionality is also available through keyboard accelerator F7,
and the New File functionality is available using keyboard accelerator Ctrl-F7.
In Probe, items such as compressed archives and remote connections are also treated as subfolders in many cases. Therefore, the New Folder dialog of fig 29 allows for creating not only ordinary disk folders, but also compressed archives of different types, remote connections(FTP) and file collectors. The dialog defaults to ordinary subfolders though.
Fig 29: The New Folder dialog
Next: The Tree Browser
Back: Probe Components
