2.5 Folder pane

The folder pane contains the menu bar, tool bar, path entry, and folder list.

Menu bar

The main menu of the window. The functions available from the main menu are described in the Menus chapter.

Tool bar

The tool bar includes buttons for often used operations. The tool bar can be hidden or shown by selecting “Hide toolbar” from the view menu.

Note: These buttons are only displayed as an icon, the text below refers to the tool tip that appears by hovering the mouse over each button.

Show thumbnails: This button is active when the file list is in list view mode, and activating it will toggle the display of thumbnails.

Change to home folder: Change the main window to display the contents of the user's home folder.

Refresh file list: This will check for changes to the active folder and update the window.

Zoom in: Increase the image display size.

Zoom out: Decrease the image display size.

Fit image to window: This will size the image to fit within the image view.

Set zoom 1:1: Restore zoom to the image's original size.

Configure options: Displays the Options window.

Float controls: Toggle the folder pane, file pane, and status bar between the main window and a secondary window.

Path entry

This displays the active folder of the window and allows typing a location.

A folder or file can be typed into the entry to quickly change to a desired location or image, the main window will update after pressing the Enter key. Tab completion is also available in the path entry.

Note: Tab completion uses the tab key, press the down arrow to move the focus from the entry.

Next to the path entry is a button with a down arrow, clicking this will display a drop down list containing the most recent locations viewed. The list is ordered such that the most recent location is at the top. Selecting a location from the drop down list will change the window to display the location.

Folder list

This displays a list of sub folders contained in the active folder, or a tree that includes all folders in the file system.

A context menu can be displayed by clicking the right mouse button on the folder pane or pressing the menu key while the folder pane has the focus

List view

This mode can be enabled by unselecting “Tree” from the View menu, pressing Control + T, or unselecting “View as tree” from the context menu.

The list view mode displays sub folders contained in the active folder in a standard vertical list. The parent folder can be selected with the folder named “..”.

Tree view

This mode can be enabled by selecting “Tree” from the View menu, pressing Control + T, or selecting “View as tree” from the context menu.

The tree view mode displays all folders in the file system, starting with the root folder and branching out to include sub folders. A folder branch can be expanded or collapsed by clicking the expander next to each folder icon, or by pressing the respective “+” or “-” keys when the folder branch has the focus.

Sorting

The order of the folder names will match the order selected for the file pane. Sort order can be changed by clicking the sort area of the status bar or from the context menu of the file pane.

Context menu

Right clicking the mouse or pressing the menu key while the folder pane has focus will display a menu. The menu functions will perform the same as those that match the window's menu bar, however a few functions are unique to the context menu:

Up to parent: This will change the window to display the contents of the parent folder.

Slide show: Start a slide show that contains all images in the selected folder.

Slide show recursive: Start a slide show that contains all images in the selected folder, and all images in the sub folders of that folder.

Find duplicates: This will open a new find duplicates window containing all images in the selected folder.

Find duplicates recursive: This will open a new find duplicates window containing all image in the selected folder, and all images in the sub folders of that folder.

New folder: Creates a new folder that is a sub folder of the selected folder.

Rename: Renames the selected folder.

Note: Renaming a folder will not update metadata, such as keywords, or cached thumbnails for images contained in that folder, the data will be lost.

View as tree: Toggles between the list and tree modes of the folder pane.

Drag and drop

Image files can be dropped onto folders displayed in the folder pane. A menu will appear allowing you to select to move or copy the dropped images into the target folder. The list will automatically scroll up or down when the drag pointer is near the respective top or bottom of the list. When in tree mode, hovering over a folder for a brief period of time will expand that folder.

The folders can used as a drag source for drag and drop, for example to add images in a folder to a collection window. However drag and drop can not be used to move or copy folders in GQview.