ROX Filer: PuppyLinux

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ROX Filer

ROX-Filer is the default file manager in many versions of Puppy and forms part of the DesktopEnvironments desktop environment. It is a component taken from the ROX desktop environment.

Using Rox Filer

Quick start:

Access Rox by clicking a directory icon on desktop or choose 'File Manager' from the Start menu.

'Left click icon' to open files and directories. 'Right click icon' to get a menu for that item.

'Dragging files with left mouse button' either copies files/ shows menu (copy, move, link, etc)

'Dragging files with right mouse button' either moves files/ shows menu (copy, move, link, etc)

RoxMiniBuffer Mini-buffer is a bar that appears at the bottom of a filer window when '/' is pressed, used to jump to another folder.

Shell command box - to enter a command Right-click > Window > Shell Command...

'F1' To show Rox manual file press (or click on the 'help' on the toolbar)

'Left click eye' to toggle hidden file view, 'Right click eye' to toggle image thumbnail view

Shortcut Table

Key / mouse	Action
Left click	Open the file or directory clicked on. Hold down Ctrl to select things. Hold down Shift to: 1. look inside applications 2. treat files as text 3. follow symlinks or 4. mount devices.
Middle click	Open the file or directory clicked on. Click on a file: open the file and close rox. Click on a folder: open the directory in a new window.
Right click	Open the main menu. Hold down Ctrl while clicking to go directly to the Selection submenu. Hold down Shift to get the Send To menu .
Drag an item (left mouse button)	Copy file(s) to the destination (an application or another filer window). Hold down Shift to move the file Ctrl+Shift to create a symbolic link.
Drag an item (middle mouse button)	When you let go, display a menu of possible actions (copy, move, link, etc). There is an option to make this move the files rather than open the menu.
Drag (not over an item)	Select a group of items by dragging a box around them. Then "Ctrl + left click" to add items to the selection. Or, "Ctrl + middle click" to select and unselect.
Double-click background	Resize window to a sensible size.
Key
Backspace	Go to parent directory.
Arrow keys	Move the cursor around.
Page Up, Page Down	Move the cursor up and down a page at a time.
Home, End	Move to the first/last entry in the directory.
Enter	Acts like clicking on the file. Hold down Shift for other effects, as with clicking.
Spacebar	Toggles the item under the cursor between being selected and unselected,and moves to next item.
Tab, Shift+Tab	Moves the cursor to the next/previous selected item.
Hold mouse over an item	Shows a tooltip with brief description of the application (if available), the target of symlink, and the full name of file, if it's too long to show in the main window.

* Mouse button bindings can be changed in the Options window.

Navigation

Open new window:

Click a folder with middle mouse button (both buttons together simulates middle button)

Open new Home dir window:

Click the Home icon with middle mouse button

Open a new window showing the parent dir:

Click up arrow with middle/right mouse button

Set bookmark</li>

Press ctrl+0 to ctrl+9. To change the rox dir to that bookmark, just press the number key: 0 to 9 (it will even remember which files are selected)

Open Files

Drag file(s) to a rox icon and the file(s) will be opened with the run-action-command. E,g, select some mp3 files then drag<

From the command line type: "rox readme.txt" to open readme.txt using the default rox action

Put programs in the sendto menu and send files to it: E.g, select 3 or 4 pictures, hold shift and right click to get the sendto menu, and send the pics to mtpaint ... or mp3s can be sent to gxine.

You can bind keys to menu items. E.g, right-click a file, move the mouse over the Delete menu item, and press the D key. Now you can select any files and press D to delete them. To reset the keys press 'Backspace'.

However, certain Rox installs do not have this feature enabled, and they require to create a file /root/.gtkrc.mine, with the command gtk-can-change-accels = 1 on it. Full instructions: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=48180

Misc Actions

Drag any item from a rox window to the desktop to create a desktop icon.

To change icon text's background: 1. right-click a desktop icon and select Rox-Filer, Options; 2. click the Pinboard tab; 3. select Text Style: No Background; 4. click Save (apply other effects to check but always SAVE).

If you add partitions to fstab, you can mount/unmount them by holding shift and clicking the mount point (e.g, /mnt/windows3)