Main Panes
From Forklift Wiki
View Options
- cmd-J
- View > Show View Option
The main panes display the item lists for your current location. You can always see your current location in the Path Navigator sitting on top of each main pane. When both panes are visible, the active pane is shown by a blue highlighted Path Navigator.
Mouse navigation and selection follows the logic used in Finder. Keyboard navigation and selection methods depend heavily on your Keyboard Controls settings., but basically, you are able to navigate in the item lists, open and select files, open and exit folders as you expect.
The panes have spring-loaded folders, you can use Color Labels, and can view Smart Folders created with Finder.
Display Options
There are a number of options you can use to customize the main panes to your preferences. Some affect only the appearance of the file list, others define behaviors and can also affect performance.
Most visual elements are set in the View Options panel, accessed from the right-click context menu of the pane itself, or from View > Show View Options (cmd-J).
| Columns | check in the categories of file metadata you want to see in your main panes. (default: Size, Kind, Date Created, Date modified) |
| Group Folders | when this is check in, your folders are kept separate from the files, and grouped separately at the top of the item list. (default: On) |
| Use relative dates | when checked in, you will see Today and Yesterday in the date columns, instead of the standard date format. |
| Treat Packages as Folders | when checked in, double clicking packages (such as applications and package formatted files, like .pages files) will open the package and display its contents, instead of launching the application or opening the file. (default: Off) Showing the contents of individual packages is possible by right-clicking the package, and selecting Show Package Contents from the context menu. |
| Show icon preview | displays thumbnails for available file formats in the item list. (default: On) |
| Show icon preview for Connections and Archives | This option enables thumbnail previews on connected volumes and inside archives. The option is available at ForkLift > Preferences > General > Show icon preview for Connections and Archives. (default: Off)
Thumbnail previews on remote servers is not recommended for slow servers, as getting the previews may seriously slow down navigation on a slow server.
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| Calculate Folder Sizes | When enabled, ForkLift will calculate all local folder sizes by default. (default: Off) Calculating the size of individual folders is possible by right-clicking the folder, and selecting Calculate Folder Size from the context menu. This option is not recommended for connected volumes, as getting directory size information may seriously slow down navigation on a slow server.
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| Text Size | To make ForkLift go easy on your eyes, you can set text size for the main pane's item list from 10pt to 16pt text. (default:12pt) |
| Icon Size | And you can also have larger icons and thumbnails in the list view. |
| Show invisible items | check this option to see system folders and files (e.g.: .DS_Store files) in the item list. The option is found at ForkLift > Preferences > General. (default: On) |
| Spring-loaded folders | Using this setting will enable you to drag a selection of items over a folder, and hold the cursor there for a short time until the folder opens, and list its contents. The option is available at ForkLift > Preferences > General > Enable spring-loaded folders. (default: On) |
| Alternating Background | If you prefer, you can set a background for the file list with alternating lines in light blue color. The option is available at ForkLift > Preferences > Appearance (default: Off) |
