Nautilus File Manager

The Nautilus file manager provides an integrated access point to your files, applications, FTP sites, and URIs. To open a file manager window, double-click on the Documents object on the desktop. The following figure shows a file manager window that displays the contents of a folder.

A file manager window can contain the following panes:

Side pane

Enables you to navigate through your files. This pane also displays information about the current file or folder. The side pane is on the left side of the window.

View pane

Displays the contents of files and folders. The view pane is on the right side of the window.

The file manager enables you to do the following:

• View files and folders

  You can view your files and folders as icons or as a list. You can view the contents of some types of file within a file manager window. Alternatively, you can open the files in the appropriate application from the file manager.

• Manage your files and folders

  You can use the file manager to create, move, copy, rename, and remove files and folders.

• Run scripts

  You can run scripts from the file manager, and you can select files and folders on which to run your scripts.

• Customize your files and folders

  You can add emblems to your files and folders to indicate particular states. For example, you can add an Important emblem to a file to indicate that the file is important. You can also customize folders in the following ways:

  • Add a note to a folder.

  • Specify a custom background pattern for a folder.

  • Specify a zoom setting for a folder.

• Open special Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)

  The GNOME Desktop contains special URIs that enable you to access particular functions from the file manager. For example, to access the preference tools, you can access the preferences:/// URI in the file manager.

• Write CDs

  The file manager provides a special location where you can copy files and folders that you want to write to a CD. You can write the contents of the location to a CD easily.

The file manager also creates the desktop.

To Open Files From the File Manager

To navigate to the folder where the file that you want to open resides, double-click on the folder icons in the view pane. When the file that you want to open is displayed, double-click on the file icon to open the file.

To Move Files Between Folders

You can move files between folders by opening two or more file manager windows. Open a different folder in each window, then drag the files from one window to the other.