Key Assignments

Hot key assignments in FS/2 are not user modifiable. In general, the Alt key is used, in combination with other keys, to start file functions and Ctrl key combinations are used to start directory functions. The menus show the the hot key for each function, if one is available, with the menu items.

It is possible to use single-key 'hot keys' if the Single key commands option is checked on Page_ 2_1 of the Settings notebook. This results in almost all cases to the equivalent of pressing the respective combination keys for the commands. As an example, pressing "e" (or "E") will perform the same command as pressing the Alt+E combination, launching the editor. See the combination keys shown on the menus for single key assignments. What is sacrificed for this capability is the standard container response of automatic scrolling to the first or next record that starts with that letter.

In FlexEdit, the user may assign hot keys as desired using a kbd file.

Normal Key Usage

For normal use key assignments, See Keys help... .

Special Key Usage

The following keys have special, and in some cases multiple, assigned usage in FS/2:

  • Esc
  • - If scanning a large drive or directory, press the Esc key to abort the scan. Aborting a scan may not be immediate as file operations generally run by OS design at a higher-than-normal priority.
  • - If the active window is in use to copy, delete, move or performing some other operation (such as selecting all files in a large directory), press the Esc key with input focus in FS/2 to either pause or abort the operation.
  • - If a dialog window has keyboard input focus, press Esc to close the dialog.
  • - If FS/2 has keyboard input focus and no other operation is ongoing, press Esc to toggle input focus between the FS/2 frame window and the active internal window. This action is necessary to access keyboard use of the Action Bar menu.
  • F2
  • - Press F2 to put keyboard focus in the Toolbar window. Typical use is to keyboard select a Toolbar item.
  • F3
  • - Press F3 to open FlexEdit with the selected file. If no file is selected, it opens a new buffer with a suggested name of newfile.txt.
  • F4
  • - If FS/2 has keyboard input focus and no other operation is ongoing, press F4 to toggle input focus between the FS/2 frame window and the active internal window. If a child dialog window is open, the F4 key toggles focus between the dialog and the FS/2 window.
  • - If FlexEdit is open, press F4 to toggle activation between FlexEdit and FS/2.
  • F5
  • - Press F5 to put keyboard focus in the Drives window. Typical use is to keyboard select a drive letter. For example, to select and scan drive F:, press F5, F, Enter.
  • - Pressing F5 with the focus already in the Drives window will cause a rescan of the current drive and directory. As a result, pressing F5 two times rapidly will rescan the current drive/directory.
  • F6
  • - Press F6 to put keyboard focus in the Directories window. The only time this is required is when using the keyboard to select a directory. The user must then scroll, or use the first letter of the desired directory and then scroll, to the directory desired. Alternatively, the user may invoke the Change Directory function with the Backslash key and then begin typing in the name of the directory desired.
  • - Pressing F6 with the focus already in the Directories window will toggle input focus between the Tree container object and the Directories frame window. When the latter has the focus, the user may keyboard select any one of the three buttons at the bottom of the window.
  • F7
  • - Press F7 to put keyboard focus in Files window A. The window will also scroll to the cursored file. The only time this is required is when using the keyboard to select a file.
  • - Pressing F7 with the focus already in the Files window A will toggle input focus between the file objects and the Files frame window. When the latter has the focus, the user may keyboard select any one of the five buttons at the bottom of the window.
  • F8
  • - Press F8 to put keyboard focus in the Files window B. The window will also scroll to the cursored file. The only time this is required is when using the keyboard to select a file.
  • - Pressing F8 with the focus already in the Files window B will toggle input focus between the file objects and the Files frame window. When the latter has the focus, the user may keyboard select any one of the five buttons at the bottom of the window.
  • F9
  • - If FS/2 has keyboard input focus, press F9 to activate the Data Panel internal window. If the Data Panel has input focus, pressing F9 will hide the Data Panel. If the Data Panel is hidden, pressing F9 will display the Data Panel in an inactive state.
  • - Pressing F9 with the focus in most open dialog windows (but not all) will toggle the ownership of the dialog between FS/2 and the Desktop. When FS/2 is the owner, the dialog will always appear on top of FS/2 even when inactive. When the Desktop is the owner, its z-order will be like any desktop window and may be behind FS/2. Also, it will appear in the Task List as a running application.
  • F10
  • - Press F10 to put focus in the Action Bar menu (standard OS action).
  • - Shift+F10 activates the context (popup) menu for the active window (standard OS action).
  • F11/F12
  • - The F11 key walks backward through the last used directories while F12 walks the directories forward. The latter is inoperative unless the F11 key is used first.
  • Pause
  • - The Pause key has two unusual actions. When pressed, FS/2 will attempt to terminate all threads except the 6 base threads. This may be useful if there are indications that FS/2 cannot terminate a thread. There is a small vertical tape that is displayed when more than the 6 base threads are running. See Threads Display . Also the fs_info.log (Ctrl+Alt+I) may be displayed and it contains a list of the running threads. Using this feature may not kill a thread as it tries to terminate the thread normally by sending a quit message to the thread. If the thread is still executing after a delay of 5 seconds, a warning message will appear stating the thread did not terminate and will offer the user an option of using a hard kill of the thread. If this second option does not work, it is likely that that the thread will exist until a reboot is performed.
  • - When Pause is pressed with the Ctrl key down, FS/2 will attempt to kill itself like an application killer might do. However, this will not be helpful if keyboard focus in not attainable in FS/2. 

    Forward     Backward     Return to Home Page     Contents