Chapter 3. The GNOME File Manager

Table of Contents
Moving Around the GNOME File Manager
Copying and Moving Files
Renaming Files
Launching Applications From the GNOME File Manger

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the GNOME File Manager provides the desktop functionality for GNOME. The GNOME File Manager also provides a place to manipulate files on your system by using the GNOME File Manager window.

There are two main windows within the GNOME File Manager to work in. On the left is the tree view which represents all of the directories on your system by their hierarchical position. On the right is the directory window which will show you the contents of the directory which you have selected in the tree view.

To select a directory in the tree view simply use a single mouse click. This will change the main directory view, showing the files in the directory you have chosen. If there are directories contained within the directory, you may click on the plus sign in the tree view to expand the directory.

The main file view has a couple of viewing options you may wish to take advantage of: the icon view and detailed views. The icon view is the default view and will display large icons for each file. The detailed view will display a list view of the files in the directory and information about the files. This view has some advantages over the icon view as you can utilize the table format of the view in selecting files. If you click on one of the information titles on the top of the window it will sort the files according to that information. For example, if you want to find the largest files in the directory you can click on the Size title and the files will be sorted by size from largest to smallest. One more click on the Size title will change the sorting from smallest to largest.