Spatial Mode Windows
A new spatial mode window opens each time you open a folder. To open
a folder, perform one of the following actions:
Double-click the folder's icon on the desktop or an existing
window.
Select the folder, and press Ctrl+O.
Select the folder, and press Alt+down
arrow.
Choose an item from the Places menu on the top panel. The
Home folder and bookmarked folders are listed here. For more information about
bookmarks, see Using Bookmarks.
To close the current folder while opening a new one, hold down Shift when double-clicking, or press Shift+Alt+down arrow.
The following figure shows a sample spatial mode window that displays
the contents of the main Computer folder.
Figure 15 Spatial Mode Window
In spatial mode, each open window displays only one location. Selecting
a second location opens a second window. Because each location remembers the
previous position on the screen in which it was opened, you can recognize
the folder when many folders are open at once.
The following figure shows an example of spatial browsing with many
open locations.
Figure 16 Browsing Spatial Windows
Note - Because spatial mode fills the screen with the file manager windows,
being able to
reposition
them easily is important. You can press and hold the Alt key
and click anywhere within the bounds of a window to reposition it instead
of having to locate and drag it by its titlebar.
The following table describes the components of a spatial window.
Table 10 Spatial Window Components | |
Menubar
| Contains menus that you use to perform tasks in the file manager. You can also open a pop-up menu from a file manager window by right-clicking
the window. The items in this menu depend on where you right-click. For example,
when you right-click a file or folder, you can choose items related to the
file or folder. When you right-click the background of a view pane, you can
choose items related to the displayed items in the view pane.
|
View pane
| Displays the contents of the following:
|
Statusbar
| Displays the status information such as number of items in a folder and amount of free space on disk.
|
Parent folder selector
| Located in statusbar.
Displays the hierarchy of the folder. Choose a folder from the
list to open it. Note - Press and hold Shift while choosing from the
list to close the current folder as you open a new one.
|
|