Folder Tree Options
These options let you control how the Folder Tree behaves.
- Start Folder Tree at: This drop-down lets you choose the
starting folder for the tree. The options are:
- Desktop: This is the normal starting position - at the
root of the system namespace, everything else appears below the
Desktop.
- Computer: The tree will begin at the Computer
level, without showing the Desktop or any of the desktop's
other children.
- Drives: This is similar to Computer, except
displays a cut-down Computer item that only lists your disk drives,
omitting any other folders under Computer.
- Current Drive: This starts the tree at the root of the
current drive. For example, if you navigated to C:\Data\Temp, the
tree would begin at the root of C:.
If you navigate to a
location that is normally hidden as a result of this option (e.g. you have
selected to start at Computer, but you navigate to the Network
folder which is under Desktop), the tree will automatically
"re-root" itself in order to make the location you have navigated to visible.
When you return to the original location the tree will reset itself to the
configured starting location.
- Automatically expand to current folder: If this option is
on, the tree will expand to track your location as you navigate in the file
display. If you turn this option off, the tree won't automatically track your
location - you can still navigate with the tree by expanding and selecting
folders yourself, but it won't follow you when you navigate by other
methods. When this option is on, you can choose how the folders are populated
when they expand automatically to show you your current location:
- Fully populate contents: All automatically expanded
folders are fully populated - the tree will show the full contents of all
folders leading up to your current location.
- Populate contents for local devices only: Only folders
on local devices (hard drives, USB drives, etc) will be full populated.
Folders on network drives or FTP sites will only display the member folder
that forms part of your current location.
- No content population: No automatically expanded
folders will be fully populated - you will need to manually populate them by
clicking their expansion button to reveal their full contents.
The tree will always show you your current folder (and the path
leading to it) so the population options only affect the display of other
items in the expanded folders. When you expand an item manually, its
contents are always fully populated - so if the tree has partially expanded an
item, you can click on its expansion button to fully expand it and reveal the
rest of its contents. These options can dramatically improve performance when
navigating folders on slow devices like networks - rather than having to read
the full contents of all folders leading up to your current location (which
can be very slow over a network), the tree will simply display the folders
leading to your current path (and since it already knows what those folders
are, it doesn't have to read any information from the network to do this).
- Collapse non-selected branches: If this option is on, the
tree will automatically collapse any expanded branches that aren't needed to
show you your current location. This can help keep the tree compact and easier
to navigate as you move around the file system.
- Unless open in other tabs: Branches will not be
collapsed if they contain a folder that is currently displayed in another
folder tab.
- Expand branches when dragging over the tree: When you
drag files over the tree, this option causes the tree to automatically expand
any collapsed folders that you hover over with the mouse. This lets you drag
and drop files to sub-folders that arent necessarily visible when the drag and
drop begins. Turn on the Spring-loaded option to have folders
that automatically expand this way automatically collapse again when the drag
is complete.
- Expand 'My Computer' when tree opens: This option causes
the Computer branch of the tree to be automatically expanded when the
tree opens.
- Expand selected branch: This option causes the tree to
automatically expand the branch of the tree that represents your current
location. Normally only folders leading up to your current location are
expanded (subject to the options above) - with this option on, the current
location's branch will also be expanded.
- Expand/collapse all child branches when parent
double-clicked: When you double-click a folder's expand/collapse
icon, the first level of its child folders will also be expanded or collapsed.
- Full-row selection: Turn this option on to use full-row
selection in the tree, which lets you click anywhere on the row to select an
item. With this option off you need to click on an items label to select it.
- Horizontal scrolling style: This option lets you control
how and when the tree scrolls horizontally. Explorer has had different
behaviour in this regard with every version of Windows lately, and the options
here let you choose from these various behaviors:
- Windows XP: This is the horizontal scrolling style used
by Explorer in Windows XP. The tree displays a horizontal scroll bar (if
needed), which lets you scroll manually. The tree will also adjust the
horizontal scroll position automatically when you change folder to attempt
to display as much of the currently selected folder as possible.
- Windows Vista: This is the style used by Explorer in
Vista. There is no horizontal scroll bar shown at all, and horizontal
scrolling is fully automatic. The tree will scroll left and right as you
move the mouse over it to let you access items that may be scrolled out of
the display. This option is not available in Windows XP.
- Windows 7: This is the style used by Explorer in
Windows 7. The tree never scrolls horizontally at all - no scroll bar is
shown and it doesn't move left or right by itself either. If items are out
of view to the right of the tree you need to resize the tree to see them.
- Manual: This option disables all automatic scrolling
behavior. A horizontal scroll bar will be shown if needed and you can scroll
left and right manually, but the tree will never move by itself.
- Prevent scrolling during drag and drop: This option
prevents the tree from scrolling left or right during a drag and drop
operation. It doesn't affect how horizontal scrolling works normally.
- Open second Folder Tree in dual display mode: If this
option is turned on and you set a Lister to dual-display mode, a second tree
for the second file display will be automatically displayed. If this option is
turned off you can open the second tree manually if desired.
- Position selected item in the middle of the tree: This
option causes the tree to automatically scroll vertically to keep the selected
item as close to the middle of the display as possible. The scrolling only
happens when the tree selection is changed automatically (to follow your
navigation), so if you're navigating using the tree itself this option has no
effect.
- Share single tree between dual file displays: If you have
dual file displays but only one tree, this option causes the single tree to be
shared by both file displays. Whichever file display is source has "ownership"
of the tree, and the tree will reflect the current folder shown in that file
display only. When you switch source and destination displays the tree will
automatically update to reflect the new location (if any). If this option is
turned off, and you have dual displays with only one tree, then the tree is
owned by the left/top file display only, and the right display doesn't have
one.