x2tips.rtf

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1. Welcome to xplorer² !! We've got some great tips and tricks for you, so please leave this option on for a while. You'll learn about many small details with big impact on your daily productivity.

1a. You can try all the recommended tips & tricks as you read them. Just put this dialog to the side and follow the instructions, selecting menu commands etc from the main program window. Menu command instructions are in blue text.

1b. If you prefer a more engaging way to learn about xplorer² tricks, checkout the short demo videos in the various tour pages found at http://zabkat.com/tour1.htm. Each page has a Play Demo button near the top right. Also click on the demo videos in the How do I? pane.

1c. Many tips mention menu commands. If your xplorer² shows the new ribbon toolbar UI, you can use the command finder (under Help and Support menu in ribbon's leftmost "file" tab) to search for these commands. If you prefer a traditional menu bar, turn the ribbon off altogether picking Show normal menu command, again from that "file" tab.

1d. To arrange your dual folder panes left-right use View| Tile horizontally menu command.

2. All menu commands show a descriptive line of text on the status bar as you are traversing the menu system. They help you understand commands and see the effects of slight variants when keyboard modifiers like <Shift> or <Ctrl> are pressed.

2a. If you want to find a menu command but can't remember where it is located use Help| Command finder with a 1-2 keywords that may describe the command.

3. The status bar also shows short messages about command outcomes and errors. These messages go away after a while automatically.

4. You can move toolbars around, dragging them from their handles on their left side. View| Toolbars allows you to show or hide any toolbar separately.

4a. [PRO version] The peripheral panes like the folder tree and the quickviewer can be moved around grabbing them from their titlebar with the mouse. So if you prefer you can have the tree docked to the right and the quickviewer at the bottom edge of the window. Double click on the quickviewer's titlebar to have it floating! (toggle).

5. You can customize a toolbar by right-clicking on it and selecting which command buttons you want, text labels etc. You can reorder buttons by dragging them while holding the <Shift> key.

5a. Bored with your toolbar icons? Get a new skin! There are a few available to download from this page: http://zabkat.com/x2skin.htm. Or even better, grab the skin designer pack and create your own icons.

6. If you find xplorer² menus too taxing, you can switch to a simpler set with fewer commands, checking Plain menus in the Window property page (Tools| Options). Even in this plain mode you can use commands you can't see pressing their shortcut keys or placing their buttons on the toolbar.

6a. [PRO version] If you are used to windows explorer and prefer <F5> key to refresh folders instead of xplorer² default command, use Customize| Keyboard to change the key mapping for View| Refresh command. You can change all other keyboard shortcuts to your taste too!

7. Some input fields in dialogs may be hard to understand. Just hover the mouse over them and a balloon help tip will pop-up with a brief description. You can turn off this dialog help from Tools| Options.

7a. The user interface has been translated to a number of locales (check the website for availability). You select your language as part of the installation process. If you missed the language drop-down box in the first place, you can run the installer again at any time.

8. You can see the contents of up to two folders in a single window (View| dual pane mode) but you can work with only one at a time. The active panel has a lighter background color. You can swap the active/inactive folders hitting <Tab> or just clicking on the folder you want to work with.

9. You can have the dual view panes stacked one below the other instead of the default left-right arrangement. For changing this and many other options please use Tools| Options menu.

9a. To see more folders in a single pane use File| New tab. This is an alternative to dual pane file management. You can still see only one folder at a time but switching folders is as easy as clicking on a tab. Using the keyboard you can cycle with <Ctrl+Alt+arrows>.

9b. Tabs can be rearranged with mouse drag-drop. To remove a tab click on the X to the right of the tab-strip or pick close from the right-click menu.

9c. Double-click on a tab to close it; double-click on an empty spot within the tab strip to create a new tab.

9d. If you have many tabs with similar names you can often improve clarity by renaming some of them - using the right click menu. Forced names will stick even when you change folders.

9e. To copy the path names of all tabs in a comma separated list, right click on the tab strip and pick Copy all paths. Have you tried pasting the result in a scrap container?

10. Filenames and other column text may be cropped if wider than the available space. If you hover the mouse over such clipped names a tooltip is shown revealing the obscured text. If you enable infotips from Tools| Options then the tooltip will additionally include information like size and modification date.

11. You can use the arrow keys to change the active item (focus) of the active view. You can also use <PageUp> and <PageDown> to move a page at a time and <Home> & <End> to quickly go to the start or end of long listings.

12. To arrange items while in detailed view mode just click on the column header of interest. This is the only way to sort items by extended columns like Comment etc. Clicking on the same column again will flip the ascending/descending order.

12a. [PRO version] You can sort by more than one attribute using <Shift+click> on a column header. The first column you click will be the major one; items identical with respect to this column will be ordered according to the second column, and so on. To cancel this multi-way sort mode just click without holding <Shift>.

12b. [PRO version] In large folders you can use item grouping to view and manage your content. View| Arrange by| Show in groups uses the primary sort column to bunch similar items together. For example a date column will group together items changed today, yesterday, last week and so on. Within each group items are sorted alphabetically; if you need a different in-group sorting order just <Shift+click> on a column header, even the same one that generated the grouping.

13. When you type letters or digits the focus moves to the first matching filename; e.g. typing sa will take you to the first file whose name matches this substring (e.g. sample.txt). This feature is called incremental search.

14. You can use incremental search to locate files with particular extensions, too. Typing e.g. tx while holding down <Shift> will take you to the first filename that matches this extension (e.g. readme.txt). This comes handy when you sort items by type.

14a. If the multi-purpose box next to the addressbar is set to plain filter mode, and after you type 4 or more characters, the incremental search will turn into a filter. Only items that match the partial string will be visible.

15. Incremental search is not limited to filenames. Just bring any column in the leftmost (first) position and its contents will be used to match the partial strings you type.

16. Press <Space> to toggle the selection status of the focused item on/off. Pressing <Insert> does the same but moves the focus to the next item at the same time. This way you can select a lot of items using just one key.

17. If you want to move the focus without affecting the existing selection, keep the <Ctrl> key pressed while using the keyboard or mouse. Or you can turn the sticky mode on from Mark menu to avoid pressing <Ctrl>. Thus you can roam large lists hand-selecting items safely.

18. You have several ways to select files using the mouse. To grab many consecutive items, click on the first and then <Shift>-click on the last. <Ctrl>-click to select/unselect individual items. Finally you may click and hold the left button to draw a rectangle around the items you want selected. This is called "lasso" selection.

19. Before you execute a command you must select the items you want to be affected. There is an abundance of methods to select items, using the keyboard, selection filters, synchronization, etc (see Mark menu for commands comprising the selection engine). Using a combination of selection and unselection elementary procedures you can build up a set of files that perfectly match your criteria. Vivid imagination is all that's required!

19a. [PRO version] If item grouping is enabled (View| Arrange by| Show in groups) you can use the keyboard to select <Ctrl+Alt+Shift+GreyPlus> (or GreyMinus to unselect) all items in the current group - where the focused  item is located.

20. Whereas more than one items may be selected at any time, there is a single item with a unique status called the active or focused item. You can tell it apart by the dotted rectangle that surrounds its name. Its details (size/date) are shown on the status bar, and it is the one that gets launched when you press <Return>. Note that the focus does not necessarily have to be selected, e.g. if you move around while holding <Ctrl> pressed.

21. When a command is unavailable the respective toolbar button and menu item will be disabled. As soon as you select a few items it will usually be enabled, unless the command is meant for filesystem folders only and you are currently browsing a virtual folder like Control Panel.

22. You can save the current selection using Mark| Selection submenu. You can reuse this special "clipboard" at a later stage to select (or unselect) items with the same names in a different folder or even in a different window managed by the same process!

23. You can reuse a previously saved selection as a mask via Mark| Selection| Combine. This advanced mode combines the existing and saved selection so that only items that are in both lists end up selected (boolean AND operation). So an item must be both already selected and part of the list stored with <Ctrl+F11> to remain selected; otherwise it is cleared. This command is handy for refining selection patterns.

24. Mark| Select group command is additive. If there is an existing selection items matching the new wildcard will be added on top. To start from a clean slate just unselect everything in advance (e.g. click "nowhere"). When you aren't sure whether there is a previous selection you can check the rightmost status bar pane.

25. When you have finished entering information in any of the program dialog windows, you can usually dismiss the dialog pressing <Return> instead of clicking on OK button. If you want to cancel, just hit <Esc>.

26. Selection can be assisted by intelligent use of sorting. E.g. the easiest way to select all files modified within the last day is to sort by date, click on the first (topmost) item and <Shift>-click on the last file whose date is within the last 24-hour range.

26a. If you are unsure whether there are any selected items outside the visible portion of the active folder, either check the reading of the selection pane on the statusbar or use Mark| Selection| Show to ensure that whatever is selected will be brought into view.

27. If you have many non-consecutive items selected, you can quickly jump to the next or previous selection using <Alt+DownArrow> and <Alt+UpArrow>, respectively. The command will also cycle to the first selection if you use it when the focus is on the last item (and vice-versa for the reverse direction).

27a. [PRO version] When items are arranged in groups (View| Arrange by| Show in groups) you can use the keyboard shortcuts <Ctrl+Alt+DownArrow> and <Ctrl+Alt+UpArrow> to jump to the next and previous groups, respectively.

27b. [PRO version] In grouped view mode, you can collapse or expand a whole group by clicking on the little [-] or [+] box to the right of the group header.

28. If you want to know the "row number" of an item (its order within the list) you can use Mark| Select range and read its position from the dialog window title. We are sure there must be a good use for this information only we can't think of it right now! :)

29. To calculate the total size of a folder use Mark| Select all <Ctrl+A> and read the number on the rightmost part of the status bar. If you have previously used Tools| Subfolder size to get the size of all subfolders' contents, the tally will include those too!

30. You can map network drives by right clicking on "My Computer" icon in the tree. To format a removable disc right-click on its icon (e.g. A:\). In general you'll find different commands in such context menus depending on the type of object clicked. Try right-clicking on several items and see what you get!

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