Tactile Interrogator was designed to take advantage of a windowing user interface much more than most other programs. Typically, other programs present you with one big, heavy window festooned with icons and widgets, and you're supposed to get most or all of your work done there.
The Interrogator approach is to have many smaller windows, and to make each one simpler. If the contents of each directory is just a few files, it's very helpful to be able to use the screen realestate to display multiple windows at the same time. Commands are taken from a contextual menu, or are done by keystroke. The file icons are simple, and there are no command icons taking up valuable screen area, so drawing windows is fast.
This section demonstrates some commands that are useful when you are using lots of windows in Interrogator.
The Open All Subdirectories command will open up all of the immediate subdirectories in the current directory. This is useful for finding files if you're not quite sure what you're looking for. Unfortunately, it can also clutter up your screen with windows.
You can always just click on the windows and close them, but usually the windows you want to get rid of are buried at the bottom. The command Close Bottom Window is handy for those situations. Click on the windows you want to keep, then start typing altW to close the bottom-most windows. You can just repeat it until you like what you see.
If you know exactly how many windows you want left, there are more keystroke combinations that will get rid of all but the top few. You might want to click on the ones you want to keep to make sure they are really on top.
X11 | MacOS | |
Open All Subdirectories | altS altO | ^S ^O |
Close Top Window | ^W | cmd W |
Close Bottom Window | altW | ^W |
Close All but top window | alt1 altW | ^1 ^W |
Close All but top 4 windows | alt4 altW | ^4 ^W |
Close All but top 37 windows | alt3 alt7 altW | ^3 ^7 ^W |
The RightSize command expands a window to fit its contents, or the whole screen, if the contents are large. It is similar to the Maximize button, and often does the same thing, but if the contents of the window are smaller than the whole screen, it will expand the window just until it fits perfectly.
The CompactSize command is exactly like RightSize, except it aims to make the window
about 1/3 of the screen, in both height and width, instead of the whole screen. It
is useful when you have big windows open that are obstructing smaller windows behind.
X11 | MacOS | |
Right Size | ^1 | cmd 1 |
Compact Size | ^0 | cmd 0 |
RightSize on a Directory Window
will try to keep the aspect ratio you
set when you resize it by hand.
You can just shape it loosely by clicking
& dragging, then do a RightSize to
clean up the size and placement.
To flip the top two windows, use ^2 or cmd 2. To rotate the top three or four, use 3 or 4 instead, as this table shows.
X11 | MacOS | |
flip top two | ^2 | cmd 2 |
rotate 3rd to top | ^3 | cmd 3 |
rotate 4th to top | ^4 | cmd 4 |
rotate 5th to top | ^5 | cmd 5 |
rotate 6th to top | ^6 | cmd 6 |
rotate 7th to top | ^7 | cmd 7 |
rotate bottom to top | ^8 | cmd 8 |
rotate top to bottom | ^9 | cmd 9 |
Documentation > Window Tactics |
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