The Nautilus spatial interface [LWN.net]

The Nautilus spatial interface

Posted Apr 2, 2004 0:42 UTC (Fri) by gkarabin (subscriber, #16189)
In reply to: The Nautilus spatial interface by simon_kitching
Parent article: A look at GNOME 2.6

The complaint I've most frequently heard about spatial Nautilus is with the number of windows it opens. Ars technica dug into spatial browsing, and points out a few tips that make using it :

http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/004/software/gnome-2.6/gnome-2.6-2.html

In particular, make note of shift-double-left-clicking or double-middle clicking on folders, which closes the parent when you open a child. Also, note the parent hierarchy button in the lower left window.

These two features make spatial browsing much easier for me, so much so that I prefer it to browser mode. That wasn't the case when I first starting using spatial with no knowledge of these features.

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The Nautilus spatial interface

Posted Apr 5, 2004 3:39 UTC (Mon) by stephenjudd (subscriber, #3227) [Link]

Exactly. In the original Mac OS Finder implementation, holding down the option key would close the parent window, and I too had exactly the same habits you're developing.

Once you are used to using the GUI for file manipulation (copy|move) the spatial finder becomes invaluable for dragging and dropping.

If all you use the file manager for is inspecting directory contents, I can see how you would find this behaviour annoying. Once you use it to truly manage files, it becomes helpful.