Settings I'm trying to find...

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Sticky
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Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:31 pm

Settings I'm trying to find...

Post by Sticky » Sun Feb 17, 2019 10:17 pm

Hello,
Thank you so much for this wonderful program. I'm new to Nimble Commander and relatively new to the Mac, but an old hand at WinCmd/Total Commander.

I'm having a few struggles getting used to a couple of things and I'm not sure if it's because I can't find the correct settings, because it's not possible in NC, or because I'm currently running the free app-store version, which I've since seen is the most limited version. I've found other posts on the forum discussing this and it's now clear to me that I will download the standalone version and then buy the license.

Here are my questions, I'll number them so they are easier to respond to:
1) Select All - Is it possible to toggle on and off with the same hotkey? My preference would be to be able to toggle between: select all, select only files, select only directories, deselect all. Sort of similar to the way "rename in place" works. I know that I can use select files by mask *.* to get only the files without the folders, and I have found the hotkeys for invert selection and deselect all, so I have a working solution for all of the above, but I would prefer to just cmd+a multiple times.

2) Is there a way to set a mouse right-click to toggle selection? There's a nice setting in Total Commander where you can right click to select files and only when you hold a long right click do you bring up the context menu. Just wondering if this exists in NC and if so, where is the setting?

3) Is there a way to assign the same command to two different hotkeys? There are times when it's useful to have two different keys do the same thing.

4) Is there a modifier or hotkey to open the folder that has focus (left-clicked) in a new tab? For example, Control + Double Left Click or something like that?

5) Can you set up buttons in the toolbar for forward/back? I'm guessing there is more toolbar functionality in the paid version?

6) Swap tabs — Is it possible to swap only the two active tabs instead of swapping whole panels?

7) What's the difference between "go to enclosing folder" versus "File Panels -> Go to enclosing folder" (and "Go into folder")?
I tried to change the hotkeys for "Go to enclosing folder" and "go into folder" to be cmd + left and right arrows. But they don't seem to work that way, so I've changed them back to cmd + up/down arrows and they work fine. If I set "file panels -> go to into folder" to cmd + left/right arrow that works just fine, too. So just wondering what the difference is between those two commands. Thanks!

And thank you so much for your time and your great program!

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mike
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Re: Settings I'm trying to find...

Post by mike » Tue Feb 19, 2019 9:06 pm

Hi Sticky and welcome to the forum!
Thanks for the questions, I'll try to answer them below:
1) Select All - Is it possible to toggle on and off with the same hotkey? My preference would be to be able to toggle between: select all, select only files, select only directories, deselect all. Sort of similar to the way "rename in place" works. I know that I can use select files by mask *.* to get only the files without the folders, and I have found the hotkeys for invert selection and deselect all, so I have a working solution for all of the above, but I would prefer to just cmd+a multiple times.
There are couple of aspects here:
- Toggling on/off with the same hotkey is available now only for the currently focused element. You can find this hotkey in Preferences->Hotkeys->File Panels->Toggle Selection.
- As a possible workaround for selecting directories you can try turning off the "Ignore directories when selecting by mask" option and using extension-wise selection: alt+cmd+=. This will also select regular files without extension though. Perhaps it's worth adding something similar, but using file type as a selection/deselection criteria instead of extension.
2) Is there a way to set a mouse right-click to toggle selection? There's a nice setting in Total Commander where you can right click to select files and only when you hold a long right click do you bring up the context menu. Just wondering if this exists in NC and if so, where is the setting?
Sorry, no. Firstly, this is pretty much against Mac conventions and, secondly, NC doesn't really emphasise mouse input - the focus is on the keyboard.
3) Is there a way to assign the same command to two different hotkeys? There are times when it's useful to have two different keys do the same thing.
This is possible, but only for some hotkeys used in file panels. I want to add a generalised solution at some point later, but it's rather unclear for me how to implement it.
4) Is there a modifier or hotkey to open the folder that has focus (left-clicked) in a new tab? For example, Control + Double Left Click or something like that?
Probably the alt+cmd+enter hotkey does that.
5) Can you set up buttons in the toolbar for forward/back? I'm guessing there is more toolbar functionality in the paid version?
The intended way to navigate history is via hotkeys: cmd+[ and cmd+].
The toolbar's functionality is fairly limited at the moment - apart from what's there it allows to add buttons for external tools.
6) Swap tabs — Is it possible to swap only the two active tabs instead of swapping whole panels?
Hmm.. didn't even thought about this functionality.
Nope, it's not available now, but could be easily added if really needed.
7) What's the difference between "go to enclosing folder" versus "File Panels -> Go to enclosing folder" (and "Go into folder")?
I tried to change the hotkeys for "Go to enclosing folder" and "go into folder" to be cmd + left and right arrows. But they don't seem to work that way, so I've changed them back to cmd + up/down arrows and they work fine. If I set "file panels -> go to into folder" to cmd + left/right arrow that works just fine, too. So just wondering what the difference is between those two commands. Thanks!
The regular hotkeys (not prefixed with "File Panels") are assigned to the menu items and are essentially being handled by macOS' menu subsystem, which is rather strict and opaque. Some hotkeys are duplicated for file panels specifically and they have much more freedom in choice of key combination (or even not a combination).
I tried assigning the "Go->Enclosing Folder" menu item hotkey to cmd+left and it worked, although not immediately - this I need to look into.

Sticky
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Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:31 pm

Re: Settings I'm trying to find...

Post by Sticky » Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:53 am

Awesome, thank you for taking the time to respond!

Re 1) Ok, no problem. The existing hotkeys are more than sufficient, thanks.

2) I mostly use the keyboard but there are times when I have to use the mouse and cmd+click works well enough for those times. I've now set hotkeys for "toggle selection" and "toggle selection and move down" so I'm all set.

4)The hotkey alt+cmd+enter opens the tab in the other panel. What I was looking for was a way to open it in the same panel. And preferably to not steal the focus away (in other words stay in the directory I'm currently in, but open the target directory in a new tab in the background of the same panel). It's ok though, I've already found some workarounds and it's not a big deal either way.

5) Yes, I use the hotkeys for forward in back. What I was really wondering is if you can set up buttons in toolbar for some of the standard commands. In TC I had 3 or 4 commands that I didn't use often enough to need a hotkey (or bother remembering a hotkey) but when I wanted to use them I didn't want to have to go searching through the menus either. So I was just wondering if that functionality was available.

6) If swap tabs becomes available someday I'll be happy. :-) But it's ok. It's just that I almost never want to switch the whole panels, just the current tabs.

7) Yes, I've played further with this and there seem to be some irregularities but I can't pinpoint them. But I've unbound those hotkey now and just using enter and backspace will work well enough for my needs, so there's no problem.
-------------------------

A couple of new questions have come up:
8) Is there a way to save a default set of tabs? In other words, I would like to be able to load two specific tabs in the left pane and three specific tabs in the right pane with one keystroke (or as few as possible!). Like a favorite, or a default starting path for both panels. Saving a favorite that changes both panels is really useful to streamline certain operations. i.e. when I load a favorite for a folder in the left pane that has a bunch of files that need to be sorted into their proper places, I can have the 3 most likely destinations open in the opposite panel at the same time. Stuff like that.

9) Is there an easy way to copy the directory path to the clipboard? I know you can copy a file path, but I often want to copy the path WITHOUT the filename.

10) On that same note, is it possible to edit the file path? I know that I can use cmd+shift+G to go to a folder but sometimes it would be easier to just edit the file path in place. Sometimes I want to change to a folder whose file path is only slightly different but it's nested several directories deep. For example, if I'm working in the folder: /Users/Sticky/Documents/Batch01/Example folder/example subfolder/example subsubfolder
and I want to quickly switch to: /Users/Sticky/Documents/Batch02/Example folder/example subfolder/example subsufolder.

What do you recommend? In TC you could either use a hotkey or a double click in the path bar and then either edit it, copy it, paste a path, etc. Even if I use cmd+shift+G to open a folder and then edit the path, I also need to delete the file name that was copied otherwise it will complain about "no such file or directory" so it's a little bit cumbersome. Maybe there's a better way?

Thanks so much!! Really appreciate it.
Sticky

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mike
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Re: Settings I'm trying to find...

Post by mike » Sun Feb 24, 2019 10:29 pm

Hey Sticky, responding below:
6) If swap tabs becomes available someday I'll be happy. :-) But it's ok. It's just that I almost never want to switch the whole panels, just the current tabs.
Could you elaborate more on the workflows which involve switching "current" tabs? Trying to understand the scenarios...
8) Is there a way to save a default set of tabs? In other words, I would like to be able to load two specific tabs in the left pane and three specific tabs in the right pane with one keystroke (or as few as possible!). Like a favorite, or a default starting path for both panels. Saving a favorite that changes both panels is really useful to streamline certain operations. i.e. when I load a favorite for a folder in the left pane that has a bunch of files that need to be sorted into their proper places, I can have the 3 most likely destinations open in the opposite panel at the same time. Stuff like that.
I want something like this too, that's basically pinning of tabs. Not here yet though.
Or this could be seen as favourites grouping with an option to open all favourites of some group.
9) Is there an easy way to copy the directory path to the clipboard? I know you can copy a file path, but I often want to copy the path WITHOUT the filename.
Looks like right now it's only possible via heavy machinery - adding an external tool which accepts current panel path (%r) and copies that string to the clipboard.
Adding a native way should be pretty easy at the same time.
10) On that same note, is it possible to edit the file path? I know that I can use cmd+shift+G to go to a folder but sometimes it would be easier to just edit the file path in place. Sometimes I want to change to a folder whose file path is only slightly different but it's nested several directories deep. For example, if I'm working in the folder: /Users/Sticky/Documents/Batch01/Example folder/example subfolder/example subsubfolder
and I want to quickly switch to: /Users/Sticky/Documents/Batch02/Example folder/example subfolder/example subsufolder.

What do you recommend? In TC you could either use a hotkey or a double click in the path bar and then either edit it, copy it, paste a path, etc. Even if I use cmd+shift+G to open a folder and then edit the path, I also need to delete the file name that was copied otherwise it will complain about "no such file or directory" so it's a little bit cumbersome. Maybe there's a better way?
I'm afraid there's no straightforward way. Editable path bar is another thing in my wish list for a long time.
As a possible workaround: if "example subsufolder" has more or less unique filename, you could try searching for these folders from /Users/Sticky/Documents/ and then panelizing the results. Then you can navigate by hitting Enter inside the temporary panel and going back there afterwards via cmd+[.

Sticky
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:31 pm

Re: Settings I'm trying to find...

Post by Sticky » Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:49 pm

Great, thanks for all the suggestions. I'm glad that you also want some of these features. :-)

Re: Swap Tabs
I can accomplish basically the same thing with reveal in other panel, it's just not the workflow I'm used to. But I will get used to it.

Sticky
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:31 pm

Re: Settings I'm trying to find...

Post by Sticky » Sun May 05, 2019 4:34 am

Hello again,
So as I mentioned before I originally downloaded the free version from the Apple store. I've finally gotten around to buying a license, so now I've downloaded the version from your website.

I'm having a hard time figuring out where the Nimble Commander preferences are stored. Specifically, I want to install this new version but I don't want to lose my custom settings that I've done, hotkeys, etc. I did a quick search of the forum but I must be using the wrong search terms because I can't find anything.

So which files do I need to back up before installing the new version? I wish I had downloaded the version from the website in the first place... oops.

Thanks!

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mike
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Location: Exeter, UK

Re: Settings I'm trying to find...

Post by mike » Sun May 05, 2019 7:23 am

Hi, your settings are likely to be stored here:
~/Library/Containers/info.filesmanager.Files-Lite/Data/Library/Application Support/Nimble Commander/Config

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