Java Desktop System Release 3 User Guide

Setting Folder Preferences

You can customize your folders to suit your requirements and preferences. This section describes how to customize your folder preferences.

Setting Your Preferences

To access the Folders preference tool, click Launch, then choose Preferences -> Desktop Preferences -> Folders.

Alternatively, you can use the File Management Preferences dialog to set preferences for the file manager. To display the File Management Preferences dialog, choose Edit -> Preferences from any file browser window.

You can set preferences in the following categories:

The default settings for views
The behavior of files and folders, executable text files, and Trash
The information that is displayed in icon captions
The order information that is displayed in list views
Preview options to improve the performance of the file manager

To Set View Preferences

You can specify a default view, and select sort options and display options. You can also specify default settings for icon views, list views, and tree views. To specify your default view settings, click on the Views tab in the File Management Preferences dialog.

Table 7–6 lists the view preferences that you can modify.

Table 7–6 File Management View Preferences


Dialog Element	Description
View new folders using	Select the default view for folders. When you open a folder, the folder is displayed in the view that you select.
Arrange items	Select the characteristic by which you want to sort the items in folders that are displayed in this view.
Sort folders before files	Select this option to list folders before files when you sort the contents of a folder.
Show hidden and backup files	Select this option to display hidden files and backup files in the view pane. The first character in a hidden filename is a period (.). The last character in a backup filename is a tilde (~). You can hide files from the view pane by adding the `.hidden` extension to the filename.
Default zoom level	Use the drop-down list to select the default zoom level for folders that are displayed in the icon view and list view. The zoom level specifies the size of items in a view.
Use compact layout	Select this option to arrange the items in icon view so that the items in the folder are closer to each other.
Text beside icons	Select this option to place the icon captions for items beside the icon rather than under the icon.
Show only folders	Select this option to display only folders in the Tree in the side pane.

To Set Behavior Preferences

To set behavior preferences for files and folders, click on the Behavior tab in the File Management Preferences dialog.

Table 7–7 lists the behavior preferences that you can modify for files and folders.

Table 7–7 File Management Behavior Preferences


Dialog Element	Description
Single-click to activate items	Select this option to perform the default action for an item when you click on the item. When this option is selected, and you point to an item, the title of the item is underlined.
Double-click to activate items	Select this option to perform the default action for an item when you double-click on the item.
Run executable text files when they are clicked	Select this option to run an executable file when you click on the executable file. An executable file is a text file that can execute, that is, a shell script.
View executable text files when they are clicked	Select this option to display the contents of an executable file when you click on the executable file.
Ask each time	Select this option to display a dialog when you click on an executable file. The dialog asks whether you want to execute the file or display the file.
Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files	Select this option to display a confirmation message before Trash is emptied, or files are deleted.
Include a Delete command that bypasses Trash	Select this option to add a Delete menu item to the following menus: The Edit menu The popup menu that is displayed when you right-click on a file, folder, or desktop background object When you select an item, then choose the Delete menu item, the item is deleted from your file system immediately.

To Set Icon Caption Preferences

An icon caption displays the name of a file or folder in an icon view. The icon caption also includes three additional items of information on the file or folder. The additional information is displayed after the file name. Normally only one item of information is visible, but when you zoom in on an icon, more of the information is displayed. You can modify what additional information is displayed in icon captions.

To set your preferences for icon captions in the File Management Preferences dialog, click on the Icon Caption tab.

Use the drop-down lists to select the items of information that you want to display in the icon caption. The following table describes the items of information that you can select from each drop-down list:

Information	Description
Size	Choose this option to display the size of the item.
Type	Choose this option to display the description of the MIME type of the item from the `File Associations` preference tool.
Date Modified	Choose this option to display the last modification date of the item.
Date Accessed	Choose this option to display the date that the item was last accessed.
Owner	Choose this option to display the owner of the item.
Group	Choose this option to display the group to which the item belongs.
Permissions	Choose this option to display the permissions of the item as three sets of three characters, for example `-rwxrw-r--`.
Octal Permissions	Choose this option to display the permissions of the item in octal notation, for example `764`.
MIME Type	Choose this option to display the MIME type of the item.
None	Choose this option to display no information for the item.

To Set List Columns Preferences

You can specify what information is displayed in list view in file manager windows. For example, you can specify which columns are displayed and the order in which the columns are displayed.

To set your preferences for list columns in the File Management dialog, click on the List Columns tab to display the List Columns tabbed section. To specify a column to display in list view, select the option that corresponds to the column, then click on the Show button. To remove a column from the list view, select the option that corresponds to the column, then click on the Hide button.

Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to specify the position of columns in list view.

To use the default columns and column positions, click on the Use Default button.

The following table describes the columns that you can display:

Information	Description
Name	Select this option to display the name of the item.
Size	Select this option to display the size of the item.
Type	Select this option to display the description of the MIME type of the item from the `File Associations` preference tool.
Date Modified	Select this option to display the last modification date of the item.
Date Accessed	Select this option to display the date that the item was last accessed.
Group	Select this option to display the group to which the item belongs.
MIME Type	Select this option to display the MIME type of the item.
Octal Permissions	Select this option to display the permissions of the item in octal notation, for example `764`.
Owner	Select this option to display the owner of the item.
Permissions	Select this option to display the permissions of the item as three sets of three characters, for example `-rwxrw-r--`.

To Set Preview Preferences

The file manager includes some file preview features. The preview features can affect the speed with which the file manager responds to your requests. You can modify the behavior of some of these features to improve the speed of the file manager. For each preview preference, you can select one of the options described in the following table:

Option	Description
Always	Performs the action for local files, and files on other file systems.
Local Files Only	Performs the action for local files only.
Never	Never performs the action.

To set your preview preferences in the File Management Preferences dialog, click on the Preview tab.

Table 7–8 lists the preview preferences that you can modify.

Table 7–8 File Management Preview Preferences


Dialog Element	Description
Show text in icons	Use the drop-down list to specify when to preview the content of text files in the icon that represents the file.
Show thumbnails	Use the drop-down list to specify when to show thumbnails of image files. The file manager stores the thumbnail files for each folder in a `.thumbnails` directory that is one level below the folder.
Only for files smaller than	Use the drop-down list to specify the maximum file size for files for which the file manager creates a thumbnail.
Preview sound files	Use the drop-down list to select an option to specify when to preview sound files.
Count number of items	Use the drop-down list to specify when to show the number of items in folders. If you have set your view to icon view, you might need to increase your default zoom level in the Views tabbed section to see the number of items in each folder.

Changing Backgrounds

The file manager includes backgrounds that you can use to change the look-and-feel of the following screen components:

Desktop
Side pane and view pane of file browser windows
Panels

To change the background of a screen component, perform the following steps:

From the file manager, choose Edit -> Backgrounds and Emblems.
To display a list of patterns that you can use on the background, click on the Patterns button in the Backgrounds and Emblems dialog. To display a list of the colors that you can use on the background, click on the Colors button. To add an emblem to an object, click on the Emblems button.
To change the background to a pattern, drag the pattern to the screen component. To change the background to a color, drag the color to the screen component. To add an emblem to a background object, drag the emblem to the object.
Click Close.

To reset the background of the view pane or side pane to the default background, right-click on the background of the pane, then choose Use Default Background.

When you change the background of the side pane or the view pane of a particular folder, the file manager remembers the background that you chose. The next time that you display the folder, the background that you selected is displayed. That is, when you change the background of a folder, you customize the folder to display the background.

To Add a Pattern

To add a pattern to the patterns that you can use on your screen components, choose Edit -> Backgrounds and Emblems in a file manager window. Click on the Patterns button, then click on the Add a New Pattern button. A dialog is displayed. Use the dialog to select the new pattern. Click OK to add the new pattern to the Backgrounds and Emblems dialog.

To Add a Color

To add a color to the colors that you can use on your screen components, choose Edit -> Backgrounds and Emblems in a file manager window. Click on the Colors button, then click on the Add a New Color button. A color selector dialog is displayed. Use the color wheel or the sliders to choose the color. Click OK to add the new color to the Backgrounds and Emblems dialog. For more information about selecting a color, see To Select a Color.

To Add an Emblem

To add an emblem to an object, choose Edit -> Backgrounds and Emblems in a file manager window. Click on the Emblems button, then click on the Add a New Emblem button. For more information about adding a new emblem, see To Add a New Emblem.