FileCommander Help
File preview


File previews

You can view lots of file types with the file preview. This preview allows you to have a quick view in every file you have selected.
The Text preview even allows you to modify the selected file.


How to preview a file

The file preview window is an interactive window. That means, if the preview window is visible, every file you select in the main browsing windows will be displayed immediately in the preview window.
If you select any file in any browsing window and the preview window is visible, the file preview will select the best preview type automatically.
You can try to open any type of file with any file preview (see File popup menu for details).


The preview selection bar



You can switch between every preview type by clicking on the preview type you want to see.

  1. Text preview: this preview allows you to open any kind of text files. You can modify every file with the editor and save the settings. You can even encrypt and decrypt files.
  2. Hex preview: this preview can display every file. The data will be displayed in the common hex display type.
  3. Picture preview: this preview can display lots of different image types. You can zoom in every image and rotate the picture.
  4. Media preview: this preview can play sound and video files. The preview automatically generates a play list for the current folder, so you can switch between every media file very fast.
  5. HTML preview: this preview is a simple tab browser It creates an instance of the Microsoft® Internet Explorer® and can display every file the Internet Explorer can display. You can even browse in the internet.
  6. Settings: You can setup the previews in this tab.


The text preview



The text preview can display every kind of text file. You can edit the displayed files and save the changes.

  1. File
    • New: clear the editor
    • Open: open a file
    • Save: save the data to the current file
    • Save as: save the data to a specified file
  2. Edit
    • UnDo: undo the last change(s)
    • ReDo: redo the undone change(s)
    • Cut: cut the selection to the clipboard
    • Copy: copy the selection to the clipboard
    • Paste: paste the data from the clipboard
    • Delete: delete the selected text
    • Select all: select the complete text
    • Search: search for any string in the current text (not done yet)
    • Search next: search down from the current position (not done yet)
    • Search previous: search up from the current position (not done yet)
    • Replace: find and replace text (not done yet)
    • Go to line: move the cursor to the specified position
  3. View
    • Word wrap: activate / deactivate word wrap
    • Show line numbers: enable the line number display ([11])
    • Selection style: this changes the default mode of the selection style.
      • Normal (default): this is the normal selection mode like in almost every common text editor.
      • Line selection: you always select the complete line of the text.
      • Block selection: you can select the text in a rectangle.

      Note: if you do not understand my poor description, try it. Open a text document with a few lines. Then select some text with the mouse. Everything looks normal, right? Now deselect the text and change the selection mode. Now try to select the text in the same way.

      Note: If you paste text into your document, the Selection style will effect the position and style of the pasted text!
  4. Extras
    • Lower case: change the (selected) text to lower case letters
    • Upper case: change the (selected) text to UPPER case letters
    • Capitalize: capitalize every first char of each word (of the selected text)
    • Crypt text: encrypt the text with an encryption password
    • Decrypt text: decrypt the current text with the decryption password
    • Word list: a list of every word in the text
      • Refresh: refresh the current word list
      • Auto-refresh: refreshes the word list on every change
      • Hide: hides the word list
    • View FileCommander Clipboard: shows the current content of the FileCommander Clipboard
    • View Windows Clipboard: shows the current content of the Windows Clipboard
  5. Display of the current file name
  6. The current word list. The word under the cursor is highlighted blue
  7. The main editor (supports syntax highlighting for C++, Pascal and HTML)
  8. The current position of the cursor
  9. Number of words (word list must be activated Extras - Word list - Refresh)
  10. word under the mouse position
  11. Line numbers (line numbers must be activated View - Show line numbers)

Note: The word list might take some time on loading big files. You can deactivate the update function of the word list by unchecking Auto - refresh.


The hex preview



The Hex preview can display every file type. The data of each file is displayed in normal hex data display type.
You can open files with any file size, there is no limit.

  1. The current file name
  2. The start index of the line
  3. The data of each line in HEX
  4. The data of each line in ASCI
    Note: The Hex preview highlights special characters. Letters are displayed bold in dark blue, numbers in red.
  5. Scroll through the file


The picture preview



The Picture preview can display several differnet picture types.
The supported picture extensions are:
tif tiff fax bw rgb rgba sgi cel pic tga vst icb vda win pcx pcc scr pcd ppm pgm pbm cut pal gif rla rpf bmp rle dib psd pdd psp png dds ani jpg jpeg emf wmf ico

  1. Zoom the current picture
  2. Rotate the current picture
  3. Reset the zoom and the rotation of the current picture
  4. Activate antialiasing (better image quality in zoomed/rotated images)
  5. The current picture
  6. Some picture information (resolution in pixel, file size in KB and file name)
  7. View the previous picture in the current folder
  8. View the next picture in the current folder
  9. A list of all pictures in the current folder


The media preview



The Media preview can play several sound files and several video files. The included directory playlist allows to just fast from one media file to another.

  1. The current media file name
  2. Time remaining (click to switch to time played)
  3. Total length of the current media file (display the volume while changing [4])
  4. The volume control (click on the slider and move the mouse to change the volume)
  5. The current position (click on the slider and move the mouse to seek in the current file. The position will be displayed in [2])
  6. Start / resume the playback
  7. Pause the playback
  8. Stop the playback
  9. Play the previous file in the current playlist
  10. Play the next file in the current playlist
  11. Show / hide the playlist [12]
  12. The playlist: the currently played file is drawn bold and in light blue, other items are drawn white. You can play a file by double click on the entry.
  13. The video window: This is the video display. You can switch to full screen/back to normal mode by double click on the video window. The top bar will be visible automatically if you move the mouse and will hide automatically if you do not move the mouse.
    Note: the playlist can not be shown in full screen mode.


The HTML preview



The HTML preview is a small Internet Explorer with a simple popup blocker. Each window enumerates the Microsoft® Internet Explorer®.

  1. The active tab (blue background, bold font)
  2. Inactive tab (white background, normal font)
    Note: You can switch between the tabs by clicking on their headers (e.g. at [2] or [1])
  3. Press the close [X] to close the tab
  4. You can browse through the headers by clicking on < or >
  5. Go back in the history of the current tab
  6. Go forward in the history of the current tab
  7. Stop loading the current tab
  8. Refresh the current tab
  9. Open the Internet Explorer® start page in the current tab
  10. Create a new tab
  11. Current url of the current tab
  12. Browse through the history of the current tab
  13. The browser / HTML window
  14. The Internet Explorer® status bar texts

Note: You can not only open HTML files. You can open every file your Internet Explorer® can open (e.g. if you have installed Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® on your system installed ActiveX - element, you can open PDFs in the HTML preview. Microsoft® Word® Documents are supported, too (if you have installed Word® on your system) ... and so on ...