The main window(s) of FileWorkbench can be re-arranged with different layouts. The software behind this is wxRL, an addon library to wxWidgets that provides this feature on all desktop ports for wxWidgets:
| 2+2 panes | 2+1 panes |
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Panes can contain either a single or several MiniApps in a notebook. To drag a pane to a different location, click the caption with the left mouse button and move the mouse. Drop it when the hilighted area is correct.
The Pane Popup Menu
Most of this can be controlled from the pane popup menu:
A pane can also be focused (causing other panes to be minized), step by step, until it occupies most of the main window area. The - and + buttons to the left of the pane menu above does this.
For floating and docking a pane, use the corresponding commands in pane popup menu.
To create new MiniApps, use either the Pane pulldown menu (New Text Editor, …etc) or the same in the pane popup menu. The first will create a new pane, while the later adds the new MiniApp to the current pane.
MiniApps can also be moved between panes by dragging / dropping the its notebook pad. One can even drag it to another FWB main window.
Navigating the Main Window with the Keyboard
There are some keyboard shortcuts to simplify navigating a main window layout without using the mouse:
- Alt-Shift-Left/Right/Up/Down – Use keyboard arrows with Alt-Shift to activate the pane closest in the given direction.
- Ctrl-Tab – Activate the next MiniApp in the current pane.
- Ctrl-Shift-Tab – Activate the previous one.
- Alt-Shift-. – Show the pane popup menu.
- Shift-Alt-M – Re-associate MiniApp modes for the active MiniApp.
- While dragging files – C or Space – This allows for performing mouse clicks while actually dragging an item. It is useful if the place you want to drop the file is hidden when starting the drag.
Here are a couple of keyboard accelerators that work by querying the active MiniApp for its path:
- Ctrl-Shift-P – Open a command prompt pane for the path of the current MiniApp.
- Ctrl-Shift-B – Browse the current path (of a MiniApp) in a File Browser.
Establishing a relationship between two MiniApp components
There are many ways two MiniApps can interact, the most obvious one being two File Browsers that are set up to be source and target for file operations (partner file browser).
However, a File Browser can also have a dedicated command prompt MiniApp where it will run any shell command. A text editor can have a special file browser where the directory of the active file can be browsed.
Many time these relationships happen automatically, but sometimes one wants to set them up manually. It can be done using the Pane popup menu:
- 1 – Starting Setup Related MiniApp:
- 2 – Selecting the related MiniApp component:
Waiting for a mouse click on the MiniApp to establish relation with.
- 3 – Success – Confimation
Having clicked the command prompt MiniApp, FWB will setup the relationship, finding the right role (prompt) for the selected window.