# Basic Functions

## Controls

### General

This is a rather short but important section that will go into the details of controlling &krusader;. This section does not try to cover all the various key combinations for two reasons:

1. there are just too many of them

2. most of &krusader; actions are configurable in the &konfiglookandfeel-lnk;

We will only mention the most important keyboard shortcuts with the default configuration, but keep in mind that most of the &keybindigs-lnk; are configurable. If you find that you use a certain command a lot and want to know the shortcut for this command, or you want to change this command shortcut, then check out the &keybindigs-lnk; tab at the &konfiglookandfeel-lnk;.

### Moving Around

By Moving Around we mean the transfer of the keyboard and mouse focus between the different parts of the &krusader; main window. The focus can be in one of five places: the Left or Right Panel, the Menu Bar, the Command Line or the Terminal Emulator. The panel that has the focus is called the Active Panel. An Active Panel will remain active until the other panel receives the focus (&ie;: if the Left Panel was active and you clicked on the Command Line - then the Left Panel remains the Active Panel). You must deliberately change which panel is active.

The most common way to transfer the focus to a specific panel is to use the mouse to click on that panel. But you should be aware of the following:

- Clicking on the Toolbar, the FN keys bar or the Status Bar does *not* change the focus.

- Pushing the "History" or the "Run in Terminal" buttons in the Command Line will not transfer the focus, so you have to click inside the Input Line.

- When you choose a menu, the Menu Bar will become focused. It remains focused until you choose a command - the focus returns to the previous owner.

There are, of course, ways to use the keyboard to change the focus:

- The Key will switch panels, if one of the panels has the focus or rotate between all the commands in a menu, if the Menu Bar is active.

- The &Ctrl; Down Arrow will take you from the Active Panel to the Command Line or Terminal Emulator, and the &Ctrl; Up Arrow will take you back from the Command Line to the Active Panel.

- The &Esc; Key will make the Menu Bar return the focus, if it has it, to the previous Active Panel.

- If you happen to be inside the Terminal Emulator, you can use the Key, or the mouse, to navigate to an Active Panel.

- Pressing &Alt; "Underlined Letter" from the Menu Bar will open that menu (unless this key combination is a "Reserved Key", used by one of &krusader;'s actions).

### Selecting

&krusader; offers 4 &mouse-selection-modes-lnk;, only &krusader;'s Mouse Selection Mode is explained here.

Selecting is a skill you need to master in order to get the most out of &krusader;. Since you can not select files in the Quick View Panel, and the Tree Panel only lets you select one directory at a time, this paragraph mainly explains how to select files in the List Panel filelist.

Moving the cursor is easy. Left-clicking on a file or directory (referred to herein as "elements" meaning files AND directories) will select it. Here are some useful pointers that will make &krusader; even easier to use (assuming you are using &krusader;'s Mouse Selection Mode):

- The SPACE and Insert key will toggle the selection of the file under the cursor without affecting the selection of other files/directories, the cursor will go one position down.

- Pressing the SPACE on a Directory under the cursor will calculate occupied space without affecting the selection of other files/directories.

- Left Clicking on a file will select, or unselect, all previously selected files.

- &Ctrl; Left Clicking will toggle the selection of the file under the cursor without affecting the selection of other files/directories.

- &Shift; Left Clicking will select all the elements between the previous cursor location and the new one.

- &Shift; Home selects everything above the cursor (and deselects everything below the cursor, if selected).

- &Shift; End selects everything below the cursor (and unselects everything above the cursor, if selected).

- The ".." entry is not selectable.

- The &editmenu-lnk; can offer more ways to select your files.

### Executing Commands

There is not a lot to say here, all you need to do is select some files (if you do not, &krusader; will operate on the file(s) or directory(s) that have the focus), choose a Command from the Menu Bar or use a Keyboard Shortcut (or the Right Click Menu) and the selected Command executes. See also Executing Files.

### Quicksearch

This feature will do a quick search for the file name in the Active List Panel.

Type foo(one character) to do a quick search in the Active List Panel for a file beginning with "foo". A small quick search dialog box will open below the Active List Panel. Type the first few characters of the desired file name (more than one character allowed), the cursor will jump to that filename (if it exists), ⪚ type "ab" to search for a file which begins with "ab". The Up/Down Arrowwill jump to the next or previous match. &Esc; will close the quick search line. The cursor will stay on the last file found.

If you press &Alt; foo, the key binding shortcut will be executed. If there is no configured key binding, the remaining letter foowill be used for the quick search.

Use &konfiglookandfeel-lnk; to change from the default configuration.

### Context Menu

&krusader; has many Context menus that allow you to do fast operations with the mouse, usually a right-click will open the Context menu (depending on your &mouse-selection-modes-lnk; settings). This list gives an overview of the most important context menus. Use them to discover the available commands.

- &main-toolbar-lnk; (orientation, text position, icon size)

- &list-panel-lnk; on a file or directory

- &cmdline-lnk; (undo, paste, text completion...)

- &termemu-lnk; (send signal, font, history...)

- &foldertabs-lnk; (new, duplicate, close)

- KruSearcher Search results file list (F3 View, F4 Edit)

- &mountman-lnk; (unmount, format...)

- &syncdirs-lnk; File List

- &useractions-lnk;

- &konqueror; Right-Click actions are shown in &krusader;

- Show/hide Column Headers

- &bookmarks-lnk; enable/disable permanent bookmarks

- ...

## Basic File Management

### Executing Files

You can only execute files in the Active List Panel. To execute a file just (double-)click on it or press Enter when it is under the list cursor. &krusader; will open it in the default application for this file type (picture, text file...) or the file will be executed (script, binary...). If you want to use another application to open the file, Right-Click on the file and go to the "open with" sub-menu which will offer more options. &krusader; is compatible with &kde; default file manager for all file types except archives that are opened inside the &krusader; panel and not in an external application. See the archives page in Konfiguratorfor details.

### Copying and Moving

To copy or move files/directories just select them and press F5to copyor F6to movethem. If the Preserve attributes (only on local targets) option is checked, &krusader; will try to preserve all attributes (time, owner, group) of the local files according to the source depending on your permissions:

- User preserving if you are root

- Group preserving if you are root or member of the group

- Preserving the timestamp

Using this option may slow down the copy/move process. A dialog will appear and allow you to choose the operation destination. The default destination is the other-panel browsed directory. If you enter a partial &URL;, &krusader; will use the current panel directory as the &URL; base.

### Deleting

Deleting files/directories is done by selecting them and pressing F8 or Delete. By defaultit will be moved to &kde;'s Trash, &Shift; Delete will delete the file permanently. A dialog will ask for your confirmation and will warn you when deleting non-empty directories. Of course only operations that you are permitted to do by the Operating System will be performed - you will be notified otherwise. If you do not wish to see the confirmation dialogs, you can disable them in the Konfigurator advanced tab.

### Shred Files

When you delete files in your local system, they are not completely erased and the information stored in them can be recovered using special software and hardware tools. If you want to erase a file without recoverable traces, select the file and use Right-Click menu Shred .

### Renaming Files, Creating Directories and Link Handling

Rename the file under the cursor with the F9 key or with two single mouse clicks. If only the file name needs to be renamed and not the extension, you can configure this in the &konfiglookandfeel-lnk;. Create a new directory with the F7 key. Right-clicking on a regular file will give you the option "New Symlink". A dialog will prompt you to enter a symlink name. That name will point to the file/directory you Right-Clicked on. If the file you Right-Clicked on is a symlink, you will also be presented with the "redirect link" option that will allow you to change the link target.

### Viewing and Editing files

KrViewer has a chapter of its own.

&archives;