Keyboard navigation

Columns have three independent signals:

• Selection: filled rows are the items selected in that directory. Other columns retain a quieter selection when you leave them.
• Keyboard cursor: a text-contrast outline identifies the current item in the keyboard-focused list. Only that list shows a cursor; range selections can contain several filled rows.
• Open path: the chevron identifies the folder whose child column is open, without an extra border. This is navigation context, not another keyboard cursor.

The column that Ctrl+V will paste into has an accent rule across its header, including when the directory is empty. It moves to the column under the pointer as soon as you move the pointer. Columns fill the strip's full height.

Keyboard layouts

Shortcuts on this page work on any keyboard layout, with the exceptions below. Letters follow the key's label, or the Latin letter the key carries on Russian and other non-Latin layouts, so Ctrl+C is the key that types с in Russian. On plain Chinese (cn), every shortcut is the US one. Digits count by their position on the top row, so Ctrl+1 works on AZERTY without Shift. A digit typed off the top row also counts, such as the Hungarian 0 left of 1. Caps Lock never changes a shortcut. A symbol shortcut follows the symbol your layout types. A key that types another ASCII symbol keeps it: on AZERTY, Ctrl and the key in the US . position is not Ctrl+.. Where a key types a non-Latin or accented character, it also acts as the Latin character on that key in another configured layout, or in its US position when no configured layout is Latin: on Russian, Ctrl and the key that types ю act as Ctrl+. and toggle hidden files.

With Type to search on, a key that types a letter starts type-to-search with that letter, even in the US / position: on Icelandic the key that types þ starts type-to-search with þ instead of opening an empty filter. Plain-key commands still read the key's Latin character: in 10xer mode on Russian, the keys that type о and л move the cursor like j and k, and on German ö in the file list arms the actions chord as ; does.

The exceptions: where a top-row key types + or −, Ctrl with that key acts as Ctrl++ or Ctrl+−, not as the digit, and in 10xer mode g reads it as + or − too: on AZERTY g, then the − key unpins. Swiss German types + with Shift+1, so there Ctrl+Shift+1 selects no tab. With AltGr held, a top-row key counts only as a digit it actually types, so AZERTY Ctrl+AltGr+1 is not Ctrl+1. Ctrl+\ also works on German, Swiss, Swedish and Norwegian Mac layouts, where AltGr types \ on the top row. t and ; in 10xer mode have no + or − step, so after them a top-row key counts by its position even where it types + or −: on AZERTY t, then the − key selects tab 6, and on Czech t, then the + key selects tab 1.

Letter, digit and symbol shortcuts match Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Super exactly, so Ctrl+Alt+C does not copy. Chord digit steps, such as t, then 1 in 10xer mode, and the media 0 key also accept Shift. Some navigation and dismiss keys accept extra modifiers: Delete and Shift+Delete still act with Ctrl, Alt or Super held, and Escape closes a dialog whatever else is held. Hyper and Meta are ignored. A symbol shortcut ignores the Shift your layout needs to type the symbol. Keypad Enter, arrows, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, Insert, Delete, Tab, Space, +, −, *, / and = act as the main keys; keypad digits count only with Num Lock on.

Typing is never remapped: type-to-search, the filter, rename fields and footer prompts receive the characters your layout types, such as Cyrillic. While a text field shows an unfinished input-method or dead-key composition, keys go to the composition before any Strata command. A Korean input method such as fcitx5-hangul commits the syllable on Escape and passes the key back, so one press commits the syllable and cancels a rename. Type-to-search started from the file list does not use your input method: a pinyin letter arrives as the Latin letter, and a dead key starts nothing. To search with an input method, open the filter with Ctrl+F (f in 10xer mode) and type there.

Every shortcut Strata shows is one that works. Shown shortcuts in F1, menus and tooltips stay in Latin letters when you switch layouts. Modifiers appear in the order Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Super, and a letter after a modifier is uppercase, as in Ctrl+Shift+N. Without a modifier, a letter appears as typed (j) and Shift with a letter as the uppercase letter (J). Chord steps are separated by a space (g h). Alternatives that share their modifiers write them once, as in Ctrl+Alt+← / → and Ctrl++ / − / 0, unless a key is a letter (Ctrl+U / Ctrl+D). Digit ranges read Ctrl+Shift+1–9 / 0 or t 1–9 / t 0. Minus is written −, and arrows ↑ ↓ ← →. Key names follow the interface language, such as Strg+C, Entf and Bild auf for Page Up in German, or Suppr for Delete in French; with the interface in Simplified Chinese they stay as printed, such as Ctrl+C.

Browser tabs

In regular and 10xer modes, Ctrl+T opens a tab at the active location, Ctrl+W closes the active tab, and Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab cycles tabs. Ctrl+Page Up / Ctrl+Page Down selects the previous / next tab in strip order, wrapping at either end, like the tab shortcuts in web browsers. Ctrl+Shift+Page Up / Ctrl+Shift+Page Down moves the active tab one position left / right without switching tabs. Reordering stops at either end of the strip. With Alt or Super also held, these Page Up and Page Down shortcuts leave the tabs alone. The moved tab keeps its location, selection and focus, including focus in the location editor. Hold Ctrl+Shift, without Alt or Super, to display numbers beside the first ten labels; they hide when you release Ctrl or Shift or the window loses focus. Press Ctrl+Shift+1–9 to select tabs 1–9 or Ctrl+Shift+0 for tab 10. In 10xer mode, t, then n creates a tab, t, then x closes it, and t, then 1–9 / 0 selects tabs 1–10. t, then t selects the previous tab in strip order, wrapping from first to last. Escape cancels a pending chord. The last tab's close shortcut closes the window. New tabs are added at the right end of the strip. Closing the active tab selects the tab to its right, or the one to its left when it was last. The regular-mode terminal shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+T; 10xer keeps ;, then t. Tab shortcuts do nothing while a dialog is open.

In both key maps, Ctrl+Enter on a focused folder opens it in a new tab and Shift+Enter opens it in a new window; keypad Enter works too. In the default map, Ctrl+Shift+Enter on a folder also opens a tab; in 10xer mode it does nothing. The file chooser opens no tab or window: there Ctrl+Enter from the file list chooses the folder in a folder request, or confirms the destination in Move to, Copy to and Extract to. In a text field, these keys go to the field. On a file, both open it with its default application, like Enter. With the pointer, middle-click a folder in Columns, Icons or List to open it in a new tab, or Ctrl+middle-click or Shift+middle-click to open it in a new window; middle-clicking a file only selects it. Open in… → New Tab or New Window in a folder's menu does the same. With several items selected, including at least one folder, Open in… → New Tab or New Window opens one tab or window for each selected folder and skips files. Selecting a tab returns focus to the control that last had it in that tab, or to its file view's cursor when that control is gone.

Each tab retains its location, selection, navigation history, preview and search state. Tab locations persist across restarts: a plain launch (no folder argument, reveal request, or unlock target) reopens the previous tabs in order with the previously active tab selected, when Settings → General → STARTUP → Restore open tabs is on (the default). The session is saved in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/strata/tabs.toml, which turning Restore open tabs off deletes. Missing directories, relative paths, local folders whose path is not valid UTF-8, URIs that carry a password (a user name alone, as in smb://user@server/share, is kept), locations inside Trash, and Recent entries other than its root are skipped. So is every scheme other than smb, sftp, ftp, ftps, dav, davs, trash, network and recent, such as camera roots (gphoto2://) and mtp:// devices. With nothing restorable the window opens at the default directory as before. Up to 32 tabs are restored. When the saved active tab is skipped, the nearest restored tab to its left is selected, or the first tab when none is to its left. A saved active tab beyond the last restored tab selects the last one. Windows opened for an explicit folder, reveal request, or unlock target never overwrite the saved session; with several plain-launch windows open the most recently changed one wins. Selection, history, and preview state stay in-memory. Appearance preferences and the clipboard remain shared. File operations prevent closing their tab or window until they finish or are cancelled.

Tab names follow the active directory, not a child column shown only as a keyboard preview: ~ for your home folder, / for the root, Trash, Recent and Network for those places, and names longer than 22 characters are cut short with an ellipsis. On a remote location the name changes only once the new location answers; a refused or replaced navigation keeps the previous name. A pending single-click folder activation keeps the previous tab name until navigation resolves; cancelled clicks and drags restore normal focus-based naming.

The Material-style strip appears when there is more than one tab. The plus and window-close controls move into it and return to the normal header when only one tab remains. Scroll the strip horizontally (or use the wheel) when it outgrows the window; selecting a tab brings it into view without a scrollbar. Drag a tab label to reorder tabs. Drop files on a tab to transfer into its current directory, or hover there during a file drag to switch tabs and choose a folder in its listing. Existing copy/move modifiers and conflict handling apply.

Input precedence

With exactly one folder explicitly selected, Ctrl+V pastes into that folder. A folder selected for you when its directory loaded does not count: the folder you came from after Up, Back or Forward, a restored selection, or the first item selected on arrival. In those cases, and with a file, several items, or nothing selected, the last navigation input determines the destination column:

1. Moving, clicking, or scrolling the pointer restores pointer control. Paste targets the directory column under it, not an individual hovered file or folder.
2. Keyboard navigation (arrows, h/j/k/l, Tab, page movement, entering/leaving folders) or Select All restores keyboard control. Paste targets the focused column, falling back to the active column when browser widgets do not hold focus.
3. Ctrl+V itself does not change ownership. A parked pointer cannot override subsequent keyboard navigation. Layout/scroll changes underneath an unmoving pointer do not count as pointer motion.
4. Outside the columns, pointer mode falls back to the focused/active directory. Stale depths are discarded. Icons and List continue to use their single active directory.

Ctrl+V while viewing Recent does nothing. After a paste, the destination is shown with the pasted items selected; in Columns, a pasted-into folder opens and keeps focus. While a text field has focus, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V and Ctrl+A act on its text, not on files.

The terminal shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+T, opens in the selected folder whenever exactly one folder is selected, including a folder selected for you on arrival. After Alt+Up from ~/Projects/foo, Ctrl+V pastes into ~/Projects, but Ctrl+Alt+T opens in ~/Projects/foo. Otherwise it uses the same destination column as paste. New Folder remains keyboard-focus scoped. Context-menu paste and drag-and-drop retain their explicit destinations.

Keyboard navigation suppresses stale row-hover effects and pending folder peeks until deliberate pointer input resumes. It does not erase selection or the open folder path.

Focus without selection changes

Pressing blank column content focuses that directory, including an empty one. A plain press there clears file selections in every column immediately and closes the columns to its right; releasing it does not clear them again. When returning to an inactive column, it also selects that column's first visible entry as the range anchor. Presses with Ctrl or Shift held keep the selection until marquee intent is resolved, so a drag can extend it. A plain click on blank space or a disabled control in a preview that is showing something leaves the selection alone; the empty reserved preview slot clears like other empty space. Row clicks, controls, scrollbars, context menus, and marquee selection keep their own interactions. Returning to a column by keyboard preserves a multi-selection; Ctrl+A selects the focused column, not the deepest open column.

Ctrl+click toggles one item in or out of the selection and makes it the range anchor; Shift+click selects every item from the anchor to the clicked item. After a navigation selects the first item, the first Shift+click ranges from that item. Any click re-anchors Shift+Up / Shift+Down, so keyboard extension continues from the clicked item. A Ctrl+click or Shift+click on an item's name or icon moves the keyboard cursor to that item, so the preview follows it.

Shift+Up / Shift+Down extends the selection from the range anchor by one item, Shift+Page Up / Shift+Page Down by one page; the file chooser leaves Shift+Page Up / Shift+Page Down to GTK. Shift+Down with nothing selected selects only the first item; the next selects two. After Escape clears the selection, the range starts at the cursor. With hidden files off, Ctrl+A in Icons, List and the file chooser leaves hidden items unselected.

Escape closes one thing at a time. An open menu, Properties, a rename or new-item editor, the location editor, a filter, or quick preview closes first. With none of those open, Escape clears the active pane's selection and keeps the keyboard cursor and the directory, so Enter then opens the folder under the cursor. In Columns, Escape clears only the active column; parent selections and open columns stay. Outside 10xer mode, Escape with nothing selected in the active column closes the deepest column.

Copy/cut use the selection in the focused column, never a hovered row. In Columns, Ctrl+C or Ctrl+X with nothing selected in the focused column acts on the folder that column shows. Delete moves the selection to Trash without asking; Shift+Delete opens the permanent-deletion confirmation. Outside 10xer mode, both act on the selection even when focus is outside the file list, such as on a header button. In Trash, Delete also asks to delete permanently. Items inside a trashed folder cannot be deleted from the keyboard. With a Ctrl+F result selected, Delete moves that result to Trash and leaves the hidden directory selection alone. While the filter input or a text field, such as preview text, has focus, Delete and Shift+Delete never delete files. In Columns, Delete or Shift+Delete with nothing selected acts on the focused column's keyboard cursor row. When that column has neither a selection nor a cursor, such as an empty open folder, it acts on the open folder itself. In List and Icons, Delete acts on the selection only. Delete in a location without Trash support, or after a Trash attempt fails because Trash is unsupported, opens the permanent-deletion confirmation with Cancel focused and the reason stated; Shift+Delete is unchanged.

Background selection updates from directory loading must not move keyboard focus to an inactive column.

When the focused item is deleted, in Strata or by another program, focus moves to the next visible item, or to the previous one when none follows, and the preview follows it. In Columns, deleting the focused open folder scrolls the item that takes its place, folder or file, into view and, with Mirror columns selection on, mirrors it as keyboard movement does (see Arrows, the header, and the sidebar); with it off, the item is only revealed. Deleting the last visible item clears focus and selection. Other background changes to an open directory keep the selection and scroll position and never take focus.

Returning to a visited directory

Icons and List remember the selection, range anchor, keyboard cursor, and scroll position of the last 128 directories left in that browser. Every route back to a visited directory restores it after its entries load, including nested parents: Back, Forward, Up, breadcrumbs, and typed paths. Arrow-key navigation continues from the restored row, and Shift+arrows extend from the restored anchor. Entries are matched by location, not their previous row numbers; deleted entries are not selected accidentally. The selection and cursor carry over between Icons and List; the exact scroll position comes back only in the view it was left in (and, for Icons, at the same width), otherwise the cursor is scrolled into view. This is temporary browsing state, not a saved preference. A click, scroll or key press in the file view, a view switch, or a failed load cancels an in-progress restoration. Back, Forward and Up move keyboard focus into the restored listing only when focus was inside the pane being left (its Ctrl+F field included) or nowhere: from a header button or with the sidebar focused, they restore the selection and leave focus where it is. Sidebar places, breadcrumbs and typed paths focus the listing, as on a first visit.

In Columns, Back, Forward, Up and breadcrumbs that return to an ancestor of the current directory select the folder you came from, with the cursor on it, and leave its column closed. When that folder is gone or hidden, the first visible entry is selected instead; hidden files stay hidden. Back to a folder that is not an ancestor selects its first item. Icons and List do the same as Columns for an ancestor when they have no remembered position for it.

A navigation that names a target — a typed file path, a Ctrl+K result opened with Enter or Alt+Enter, Open file location, or an org.freedesktop.FileManager1 request — selects that target instead of restoring the remembered position.

Refreshing a directory

F5 reloads every open column in Columns, and the active pane in Icons and List. Each pane header's Refresh button (tooltip Refresh (F5)) reloads only that pane. With an Auto-refresh interval set, each tick runs the same reload as F5.

F5, the pane's Refresh button, Auto-refresh, and the rescan after a burst of external changes keep the selection, the keyboard cursor and the keyboard focus in every view: a focused row stays focused, and a focused Ctrl+F field keeps focus and its text. Icons and List also keep the scroll position. When the item under the cursor is gone, the cursor moves, without selecting anything, to the next visible item at its old position, or to the previous visible item when none follows. In Columns, this does not happen in a column whose child column is open: no other item takes the cursor there. When a reload removes an open rename field, F2 renames that row again and Menu or Shift+F10 opens its menu.

A refresh never takes focus from the sidebar, the location entry or a dialog. During a slow reload, typing in the Ctrl+F field does not stop focus returning there; Tab or pointer input does, and Escape that closes the filter sends focus to the listing instead.

Creating files and folders

In Columns, List, and Icons, Ctrl+Shift+N or background menu → New Folder immediately creates new folder. Background menu → New File immediately creates an empty new file. If the default name is occupied by any item, creation tries new folder (1) / new file (1), then (2), and so on without overwriting anything. The pane filter is cleared and the entire allocated default name is selected: one Backspace clears it, and typing replaces it.

In Columns, a new folder opens as the child column, replacing any stale child column, and the breadcrumb follows it. A new file closes stale child columns, returns the breadcrumb to the parent, and does not open. In List and Icons, the view stays in the parent folder and selects the new item without opening it.

Item menu → New Folder with Selection (or Ctrl+Alt+N) creates new folder in the same directory, moves the selected items into it, and names it in place. With nothing selected Ctrl+Alt+N falls back to a plain new folder. The item is hidden in Trash, Recent, and while a recursive search is open.

Outside 10xer mode, F2 or Ctrl+R on the focused item opens an inline name editor; with Alt, Shift or Super also held, or as Ctrl+F2, neither starts a rename. While another text field has focus, they go to that field, except that in the pane filter they rename the focused item. F5, not Ctrl+R, refreshes. In the editor, Ctrl+A selects only the field's text, and Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 and Ctrl+3 stay in the field instead of switching views.

For any file or folder rename, Enter, Tab, clicking outside the field (even empty pane space), or moving keyboard focus away, including switching to another window, commits a valid name. Tab also leaves the listing, or the strip in Columns. Escape keeps the original name. Finishing with an empty or invalid name also keeps the original. Cancelling the initial rename does not delete the new item: it remains under its allocated default name. File contents are preserved. While a name is being edited, F5, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+Shift+K, Ctrl+Alt+T and Ctrl+\ do nothing; finish or cancel the edit first.

Clicking inside the field continues editing. With a long name in a narrow column, End, typing, and the arrow keys keep the caret and the extension in view. Existing files retain extension-aware selection (the stem is selected); folder names containing dots are selected in full.

Names containing / or NUL, ./.., and whitespace-only names (including Unicode whitespace) are invalid. Valid names are used exactly as typed, including spaces around a nonblank name, hidden-file prefixes, and Unicode. While you type, an invalid name puts the field in the error style and sets its accessible description, with no tooltip: Names cannot contain / for a /, That name is reserved for . or .., and Enter a name for a whitespace-only name. An empty field is not styled as an error. Name conflicts, filesystem-specific limits, and permission errors retain the original item and report an error. After a rename onto an existing name, Escape on that error returns focus to the item's row.

Filename patterns while filtering

Use Ctrl+F to filter a pane; in 10xer mode, Ctrl+F pages down and f filters through the footer prompt instead. With Type to search on (the default), typing a printable character in a file view opens the filter with that character as the query, and / opens an empty filter without typing /. Space still opens quick preview, not the filter. Plain text matches a substring of the filename, ignoring case. Queries of at least four letters or digits also allow one inserted, missing, substituted, or adjacent swapped character within a whole filename word. Words are separated by punctuation or spaces. For example, trahs finds strata-trash.svg, but trash does not find strata-search.svg. Shorter queries and queries containing punctuation remain literal. Indexed results rank literal matches ahead of typo matches; parent paths do not qualify a result.

Add * for a whole-filename pattern without typo tolerance:

• *.MOV matches clip.MOV, but not clip.MOV.bak.
• IMG* matches names beginning with IMG.
• IMG*.MOV combines a prefix and an extension.
• *holiday* matches names containing holiday; * matches any name.

Each * stands for zero or more characters. Other punctuation (including ?, [], and regex syntax) is literal. Patterns match file and folder names, not parent paths, in Columns, Icons, List, and the file chooser. Hidden-file visibility and Include subfolders still control the scope; a wildcard does not enable recursive search. Existing result limits still apply. Clear the input, or press Escape in the input or on a focused result, to restore the directory listing with focus on its cursor. Backspace in an empty, focused filter input also closes the filter. Ctrl+K global fuzzy search is unchanged.

Results follow the watched folders live: the open folder, and in Columns every open column. A matching file that another program creates or renames there appears within about a second, and a deleted one leaves the results as soon as the listing drops it. With Include subfolders on, changes in folders below those reach the results on F5, Auto-refresh, the rescan after a burst of external changes, or when the filter is cleared and opened again. When another program renames the open folder itself, the view follows it and a filter typed in that folder ends, while filters and Ctrl+K searches rooted above it follow the rename. When the open folder is deleted or moved into another folder, the view returns to its nearest parent that still exists, or reloads the folder if it already exists again; either way the filter ends. Neither adds a history entry.

Preview while filtering

In the browser and file chooser, Down from the Ctrl+F input focuses the selected result, or the first result if none is selected. Up/Down then navigate the results; Up from the first result returns to the input without clearing the query. Ctrl+F also returns to the input. With no matches, Down leaves focus in the input. Enter on a focused result opens it, whatever the click-count and preview preferences. Shift+arrows and Ctrl+A select results. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+X act on the selected results at their real locations. When the selected result disappears from the results, the next result, or the last remaining one, is selected. In List and Icons, Tab from a focused result leaves the results in one press, and Shift+Tab then returns to the result that held the cursor. In Columns, moving focus out of the filtered column closes its filter, while focus in its own results, a popover or a dialog keeps it; opening a filter in one column closes and clears any other column's filter.

Menu / Shift+F10 on a focused result opens its file menu. While the input itself is focused, its text-editing menu remains available. Space toggles quick preview for a selected file result in Columns, Icons, and List, including after returning to the query. Previewing a file keeps the query, selection, and current directory intact; on a selected folder result, Space navigates into the folder instead.

While the input is focused, Space types into the query if no result is selected. Shift+Space inserts a space there even with a result selected. Space opens a selected folder in every view without opening or loading the preview pane; unsupported files do not open a preview.

With a result focused, the first Escape dismisses the filter even while its quick preview is open; a second Escape closes the preview. Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 and Ctrl+3 keep focus in the filter: in the input with the caret after the query, or on the focused result. When you switch views with a query typed and focus elsewhere, for example from the View menu, the results take focus once they show. Loading or refreshing the folder never moves focus out of the input or its results. Neither does another program changing the folder, and that also holds for the 10xer f and s prompts.

Navigating an archive preview

Quick preview (Space, or the item menu's Quick preview) on a local ZIP, 7z, TAR, or TAR.GZ/TGZ opens the archive's member tree instead of extracting it. In Columns (Ctrl+1), automatically previewing an archive shows its contents on the right without selecting a member or taking keyboard focus. Up/Down continue through the current column. Right, Enter, or Space explicitly enter the archive preview and highlight its first member. Enter opens the preview even when automatic previews are disabled; double-click and the archive's context menu still offer extraction. In Icons and List, Enter retains its archive extraction behavior.

Other archive previews start at the archive root with the first member highlighted. In List and Columns modes, arrow keys act on the focused pane, not merely on an open preview. From the listing, Right enters the open preview. While the preview owns focus, its header shows the accent top border instead of the Miller column. Returning to the listing restores its cursor and column header indicator without changing the listing's selection.

Inside the preview, Up/Down move the highlight, Right/Enter opens the highlighted folder, and Left returns to the parent. With Type to search off, or in 10xer mode, k/j, l and h do the same. Keyboard movement never reaches the preview's Close button or F1, and only the current member is outlined. A single click highlights a member and opens a folder; hovering never changes the highlight or the keyboard cursor. Left at the archive root returns focus to the listing without closing the preview. Up/Down then move through listing items; Right enters the preview again. In Columns mode, another Left from the listing moves to the parent column. Right/Enter on a member file does nothing. Navigating never extracts anything or touches the filesystem; Space and Escape still close the preview, which leaves the archive selected in the listing. In Columns, Escape from inside an entered archive preview closes it and returns focus to the archive in its column. In 10xer mode, h at the archive root returns to the listing, Space is swallowed, and Shift+Tab / Escape return or close.

Media preview keys

In the default map, while focus is not in the sidebar, the top bar or a text field, Ctrl+Alt+Space plays or pauses, Ctrl+Alt+Left / Ctrl+Alt+Right seek 5 s, Ctrl+Alt+Up / Ctrl+Alt+Down change the volume by 0.1, Ctrl+Alt+M mutes, and Ctrl+Alt+< / Ctrl+Alt+> step to the previous or next file of the open preview's kind: from a video to the adjacent video, skipping audio files, and from an audio file to the adjacent audio file, skipping videos. In 10xer mode, < and > do the same.

Audio and video previews show a timeline; Tab or a click focuses it. While it has focus, Left/Right seek 5 s, and Shift+Left / Shift+Right or Page Down / Page Up seek 30 s. Home or 0 returns to the start; End or G jumps to the last frame, since seeking to the very end would stop playback. + / = and −, including the keypad's, change the volume by 0.1; reaching zero mutes and keeps the volume to restore. Unlike Left/Right, the paging, jump and volume keys have no Ctrl+Alt form. The volume slider steps 0.1 with the arrow keys and 0.2 with Page Up/Page Down; Home mutes and End sets full volume. Key steps snap to the 0.1 grid, so repeated Down reaches zero and mutes; a drag sets any volume. Other playable files show a seek slider instead of a timeline: the arrow keys step 5 s, Page Up/Page Down 30 s, and Home/End jump to the start and the last frame. Keys and the mouse wheel seek at once; a drag seeks when released. In 10xer mode, whenever the media preview owns the keys, Space plays or pauses, m mutes or unmutes, Up/Down change the volume, < and > step to the adjacent file of the same kind and keep playing, and the timeline keys above also work.

Shortcut footer

Every mode has a compact footer with an F1 Shortcuts button on the left and clipboard status and the item count on the right. The button toggles the reference and shows as pressed while it is open. Settings → General → BROWSING → Show F1 Shortcuts button controls the button's visibility (on by default). The preference is saved and updates all open windows immediately. Item counts and clipboard status remain visible when the button is hidden. With the button hidden and no other footer status to show, such as a count, the clipboard badge, or the 10X tag in 10xer mode, the whole footer hides. F1 opens the Keyboard shortcuts panel centered over the dimmed, blurred window; focus cannot leave it until it closes. F1 always opens the complete, mode-specific reference; closing it restores the button's configured visibility. F1, Escape, or a click outside it closes the reference, which blocks file-operation shortcuts while open. It stays open when the window loses focus. The reference is the only complete in-app keybinding list; it shows only the currently active map and live-updates when 10xer mode changes. In 10xer mode, a pending chord's footer panel also lists the keys that can follow it.

The reference opens with focus in Search actions or keys…, scrolled to the top. Typing keeps the rows whose keys, key context or action contain the text, ignoring case. Translated text matches, and key names match in English and in the interface language: under German, strg+c and ctrl+c both find Copy. Each alternative in a row also matches spelled out in full, so ctrl+0 finds the Ctrl++ / − / 0 text-size row. A typed - matches the − in labels and the – of digit ranges, so 1-9 finds Ctrl+Shift+1–9 / 0. A query with no match shows No matching shortcuts. The category list shows All and each section with its row count; choosing one shows only that section. In windows narrower than 1480 px, the header stacks, categories become wrapping pills without counts, and results use one column. In the default map the sections are the current view's navigation (Columns, Icons or List), then Files and selection, Search and tools, and Preview media. In 10xer mode the reference adds Places, Preview and a 10xer mode section for keys the default map lacks. Reopening the reference keeps the previous search text and category. In the search field, typing, Delete, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and Ctrl+X edit the query, and Up, Down, Page Up and Page Down scroll the results without moving focus, Ctrl+Z undoes the last query edit, and Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes it. Tab and Shift+Tab cycle the search field, the selected category and the results. Ctrl+B jumps to the categories, Ctrl+F to the search field and Ctrl+L to the results. In the categories, arrows or h/j/k/l select the previous or next category, and Home and End the first or last. In the results, arrows, j/k, Page Up/Page Down and Home/End scroll the list. A line at the bottom summarizes these keys: Ctrl+B categories · Ctrl+F search · Ctrl+L list · j / k / ↑ / ↓ move · Tab cycle · Escape close. In 10xer mode ~ also toggles the reference; in the default map it does not. While a 10xer footer prompt has focus, ~ types into the prompt instead, and F1 still opens the reference. With the Russian layout active and a text field focused, Shift and the ё key type Ё rather than toggling the reference. F1 with Ctrl, Alt, Shift or Super held does not toggle the reference, and while it is open Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 and Ctrl+3 do nothing. Closing it returns focus to the control that had it before.

10xer mode

Settings → General → BROWSING → 10xer mode (off by default, toggle with Ctrl+Shift+M) hides window Search and pane Close/filter/refresh/sort chrome and installs Yazi-style keys. Ctrl+Shift+M is the only key that leaves the mode. While the mode is on, the footer shows 10X in its far right corner, after the item count. 10xer's typed commands (f, s, / and the other prompts) use the footer prompt, never the pane filter revealer. Ctrl+K still opens global search. See 10xer mode for the keymap.

Ctrl+Shift+M also works while a browser text field has focus. Modal dialogs retain their own input handling. Leaving 10xer mode clears retained footer filters/search and forced recursion in all windows, so default Ctrl+F obeys Include subfolders again. It ends visual/preview keyboard ownership without clearing the ordinary listing's fill or closing the preview. Escape dismisses one interaction at a time, including an open preview; recursive results have a separate order described in Escape precedence.

The F1 / ~ reference panel lists the active map and live-updates when the mode changes. Its navigation section is specific to the current view, and in the portal file chooser it lists only the keys that request allows. Context-menu hints use x, y, p, d / D, r, i, and M / C / R (Move to, Copy to, Restore). i toggles a file's preview without taking focus, or is the next column or folder peek for a directory. Rename shows r instead of F2 / Ctrl+R. Copy path, Duplicate, Pin to sidebar, Open in Terminal, and Quick preview in the file chooser show no hint. Other rows keep their default-map hints, such as Enter beside Open. In the default map, the y (copy path) and p (pin) hints show only while Type to search is off, because type-to-search claims those letters otherwise.

While a pane shows its search-results page (including filtered results), the footer shows the displayed result total in both default and 10xer mode, including 0 items on a miss. Selecting results does not replace that total with the hidden directory's selection; its accessible description gives the result file/folder breakdown. Dismissing results restores the ordinary directory count or selection summary. Until the search for a typed query reports back, the footer keeps describing the directory. The filter: / search: mark and the hit path at the footer's left end show only in 10xer mode, which hides the pane's filter input; the default map shows the total alone.

With no selection in the ordinary listing, the footer shows the directory's item count, such as 12 items; its accessible description gives the file and folder breakdown. Selections show a folder/file breakdown, such as 1 folder, 2 files selected (64 MB). Selecting every item shows the breakdown without a size, and selecting more than 64 items, but not all, shows N items selected without a size. Sizes sum available metadata for selected files only; folder contents are not scanned or included. Missing file sizes are marked incomplete or unavailable.

After copying or cutting files, a highlighted Files on clipboard pill appears to the left of the item count. Its accessible description reads Press Ctrl+V to paste into a supported directory. It reflects the file clipboard, including compatible copies from other applications, rather than assuming every clipboard contains files. It stays available after copying/pasting, and disappears when a completed cut consumes the clipboard or it is cleared/replaced with text. The clipboard status and paste shortcut remain available when the F1 Shortcuts button is hidden. Copied listing items show the Lucide copy icon in place of their thumbnail; cut items keep scissors, which wins if both would apply. Clearing the clipboard or unyank removes the copy overlay.

The hints describe file-view controls; text fields, dialogs, and media previews retain their own keyboard behavior. Mode changes update both the footer and the reference immediately. Closing keyboard-opened help restores the previous focus.

Arrows, the header, and the sidebar

In Icons and List, plain arrows move interface focus rather than changing directories:

In both views, Up and Down also select the item they land on, replacing the selection. They never open it, even when single-click opening is on.

Enter on a previewed video, from the listing or inside the preview, pauses the preview and asks the default player to start where it stopped. mpv, VLC, Celluloid and MPlayer take the position on their command line; other players open the file from the beginning, as does a position inside the first or last second.

Up from the first Icons row or first List item focuses the navigation header, including in empty directories, where the pane itself holds focus. Left/Right traverse its enabled controls without triggering navigation; Enter/Space activates a control. Down returns to the item you left without changing selection. Left from the header's first control can reach the visible sidebar.

In Columns, Up from a column's first item focuses that column's header controls, and Down returns to its list. Left from a column's first header control, or Right from its last, moves into the neighboring column's header. Left in the first column focuses the visible sidebar on the row for the current place.

From the sidebar, Right returns to the item you left (or the current file view if navigation replaced it, or if you entered the sidebar from the header rather than from a file). Up/Down move between places. Up from the first sidebar row (Home by default) continues into the top navigation bar instead of stopping. Left/Right traverse its enabled controls without activating them; Down returns to the sidebar row you left. If the sidebar is hidden from the top bar, Down returns to the files instead. Empty file views also support these round trips. If the sidebar is hidden, Left in the file view does not change directories.

In the default map, Ctrl+B shows or hides the sidebar. Ctrl+Shift+B shows a hidden sidebar and focuses the row for the current place; pressing it again in the sidebar returns focus to where it was. Outside 10xer mode, Enter on a sidebar row opens the place with its first item selected; a click opens it with nothing selected. In Icons and List, a folder you left recently restores its remembered position instead.

In the default map each file listing is one Tab stop; arrows move inside it. Tab from the listing goes to the next interface control (the open preview's controls, then F1 Shortcuts), and Shift+Tab goes back through the List sort headings, an open filter and the pane header actions, then the sidebar. Tab or Shift+Tab into a listing lands on the keyboard cursor, so Enter, Space and Ctrl+C act on the item that shows focus. In Columns the whole strip is one stop: Tab into it lands on the active column's cursor without changing the active column, Tab from any column leaves the strip, and Shift+Tab reaches the active column's open filter, then its header actions, then the control before the strip.

Screen readers announce each item by its name, described as Folder, File, Folder link, File link, Broken link or Other. Each pane is a group named after its directory and described as Columns view, Icons view or List view, and the item list inside it is named after the directory and described as Files. Pressing Tab repeatedly from the window's first control reaches the listing. Menu items are named after their action and carry their shortcut in their description, not their name. Selecting an item sets the selected state on that item and on no other. With default preferences, the header buttons are named Search (Ctrl+K), Appearance, Settings, Close window and Toggle sidebar (Ctrl+B). Modal dialogs have the dialog role and are named after their title. Item kind, view and list descriptions are in the interface language, and shortcuts in accessible names and descriptions use its key names, such as Strg in German. An icon-only button shows a tooltip, such as Search (Ctrl+K); labelled buttons, menu items, file rows and breadcrumbs show none. A sidebar place's or breadcrumb's full path is its accessible description, not a tooltip.

An empty, unreadable or still-loading directory has no rows to focus, so the pane itself takes focus. It draws the accent focus ring, is named after the directory, and is described by what it shows ("This directory is empty", the error, or "Loading"). Tab and Shift+Tab leave it as they leave a listing, and Shift+Tab from the footer returns to it. In Columns, an unreadable directory's Retry button is the next Tab stop inside it. When the entries appear, focus moves back to the keyboard cursor.

Settings → General → BROWSING → Keep arrows in file list (off by default) stops arrow keys from leaving the file list. Tab, Ctrl+Shift+B and the pointer still reach the header, sidebar and top bar. Ctrl+\ toggles it live and updates the Settings switch. The file chooser respects the same preference. In 10xer mode the preference is not used, its Settings row reads Not used in 10xer mode., and Ctrl+\ does nothing.

Alt+Left / Alt+Right / Alt+Up remain Back / Forward / Parent in every mode, and Alt+Home goes to your home folder. Home or Ctrl+Up and End or Ctrl+Down jump to the first and last item, Page Up/Page Down move a page, Shift+Home and Shift+End extend the selection to either end, and, in the default map, Ctrl+Space toggles the focused item's selection. In the default map, Columns keeps Miller-column navigation: Right enters folders or moves into an existing pane to the right. In List, Right stays on the current row. On a focused file, Right never opens the file. On a local ZIP, 7z, TAR or TAR.GZ in Columns, Right, Enter and Space enter the archive preview. In List or Columns with a preview open, Right moves focus into that preview; otherwise it does nothing. Enter opens other files. Opening a folder with Enter selects its first item; opening it with the pointer selects nothing. In Icons and List, a folder you left recently restores its remembered position instead. With Type to search off, h / j / k / l act as the arrow keys in every view and in the file chooser. Backspace in List and Icons opens the parent folder. In Columns it closes the focused nested column and those after it; from the first column it opens the parent folder with the folder you left selected. Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2 and Ctrl+3 switch to Columns, Icons and List, even while typing in the filter, keeping the directory, the selection, the focused item and the sort. In 10xer mode, arrows stay in the Columns, List, and Icons panes. Tab moves from the file list to the window header, where Enter / Space activate the focused control and h / j return to the files. Ctrl+Shift+B focuses a visible sidebar; a hidden sidebar stays hidden until Ctrl+N or the header toggle shows it. In the sidebar, j / k and Up / Down move between places and device controls, l / Enter / Space activate the focused one, and h / Left / Backspace return to the files without changing the selection. A Tab or arrow key from the footer still returns to the file list. List and Columns l / Right open a directory or enter a file's preview when possible. Icons h / j / k / l and arrows always move to the next icon in that direction, including across search-result icons; they never preview or change location. On a file, i toggles the preview without moving focus. On a directory it opens the next Miller column without focusing it, or toggles the folder-peek popover in List and Icons.

Columns reserves preview space from startup, even before a file is previewed. Space, i, and the preview's close button dismiss the content without reclaiming that space, so opening or closing a preview does not move the columns under the pointer. Switch Appearance → Preview panel off to explicitly reclaim it. This reservation is window-local and does not enable automatic previews on its own. In Columns the preview fills the space right of the focused column, at least 300 px. When less than 240 px would remain beside the focused column, the preview content hides and media pauses, but the reserved slot keeps the remaining width beside the focused column, down to zero. Dragging the divider sets a width of at least 300 px that lasts until the window closes; in Columns the preview still fills wider free space and yields to columns only down to that width. F8 focuses the divider, and the arrow keys then move it; moving it with the keyboard sets the same manual width as dragging and draws no outline. See Previews for the panel itself.

Space on a focused supported file opens quick preview, and a second Space closes it; Space on an unsupported file opens nothing, and Space on a selected folder enters it without opening the preview. With the preview open, moving the cursor, or extending the selection with Shift+arrows, shows the newly focused file. In List, moving onto a folder or a file with no preview hides the preview; in Icons the panel stays and shows No preview for this selection. Moving onto a supported file again shows it. With the caret in preview text, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+D and Delete act on the text, not on files.

In Columns, the pane to the right mirrors keyboard selection like Finder: moving with Up/Down, Page Up/Page Down, Home/End or Ctrl+Up / Ctrl+Down onto a folder shows its contents in a child column that takes the reserved preview space, onto a previewable file closes that child column and, when Single-click file previews is on, opens quick preview in the same space, and onto any other file closes the child pane. The focused column stays where it is throughout. When keyboard movement focuses a column that is clipped at all, even by a few pixels, the strip scrolls until the column is fully visible; a fully visible column stays in place. A column wider than the strip stays put while it fills the strip; otherwise the strip scrolls to its left edge. Mirroring waits 75 ms after the last key, so holding Down loads only the folder where the cursor stops. Shift-extended ranges do not mirror, and neither does a column whose filter has a query typed in it. In a column with no keyboard cursor yet, Home or Ctrl+Up lands on the first item and End or Ctrl+Down on the last. A preview closed with Space, i, Escape, the close button, or Appearance → Preview panel stays closed while mirroring until it is opened explicitly again. Pointer selection keeps the configured click behavior. Clicking a folder whose column is already open focuses that column rather than closing it, and a double-click ends exactly where a single-click open does; a slow click on a selected folder's name still renames it. In every view, a plain click on an item that is part of a multi-selection collapses the selection to that item and then applies its single-click behavior: a folder set to open on one click opens (in Columns, as its child column), and a previewable file is previewed when Single-click file previews is on. Pressing a member and dragging still drags the whole selection. Settings → General → BROWSING → Mirror columns selection (on by default) toggles the mirroring. 10xer mode follows the same preference for its cursor in Columns; see 10xer mode. l / Right enters a directory or a file preview, and i toggles a file's preview or opens the next column / toggles folder peek for a directory.

Closing dialogs and overlays

Closing an overlay or dialog by any route (Escape, its close or Cancel button, or a click outside it) returns keyboard focus to the control that opened it. This covers Ctrl+K search, Ctrl+Shift+K folder jump, Compress, archive conflicts, Customize, and error dialogs. If that control is gone, for example after the view was rebuilt or an inline editor closed, focus goes to the file list cursor, or to the pane of an empty or loading folder. File-operation progress always returns focus to the file list cursor, because the operation changes the listing. Choosing a search result hands focus to the browser instead, and a result the browser selects while a dialog closes, such as an extracted folder, keeps focus.

Closing a dialog over a modal that stays open, such as the action editor over Settings, returns focus to its opener inside that modal. When that opener is gone, for example an action row the dialog re-rendered, focus goes to the first focusable control in the remaining modal. A dialog closed from the keyboard keeps the focus ring on the control that receives focus, both over a modal that stays open and once the last modal closes. The exception is a dialog closed from the keyboard that opens another dialog as it closes: focus lands on the new dialog's default button, which shows no focus ring.

Closing Settings always returns focus to the file list cursor, even when Settings was opened with the gear button. The one exception is a filter field or filter result that had focus when Settings opened, for example with Ctrl+,: it gets focus back.

Customize opens with focus on Done, so one Escape closes it. Closing its custom color dialog returns focus to the custom color button. In the custom color dialog, Escape from the color editor returns to the palette, and Escape from the palette closes the dialog without applying.

Confirmation dialogs open with the confirm button focused, so Enter confirms and Escape cancels: Permanently delete, Empty Trash, Restore, paste and archive Replace, Run, and Forget saved password. The exception is a delete where Trash is unavailable, which opens with Cancel focused. Outside a text field, an arrow key moves focus to the nearest button or control in that direction, and Enter activates the focused button, so Enter with Cancel focused cancels. Enter also toggles a focused checkbox or switch, and Down on a menu button opens its menu. While a popover menu is open, keys go to the menu rather than to browser shortcuts. In the delete confirmation, h also focuses Cancel and l the confirm button. Enter in a single-line text or password field of the Compress, archive password or mount authentication dialog activates the primary button, unless it is disabled; in a multi-line field it inserts a newline. In Settings, Escape in a non-empty search field first clears the query. In Customize, Escape with the emoji picker open closes only the picker.

Focus cannot leave an open dialog: focus that moves outside it returns to the dialog, and a key pressed with focus outside it only moves focus back in. While a dialog is open, browser shortcuts do not act behind it, but Ctrl++, Ctrl+− and Ctrl+0 still change the text size. While a dialog or Settings is open, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+Shift+K, F5, Ctrl+Alt+T and Ctrl+\ do nothing and the dialog keeps focus. Ctrl+K and Ctrl+Shift+K still close the search palette they opened. Once a dialog is animating closed, those five keys act as if no dialog were open; other browser shortcuts still do nothing until it is gone, and the text-size keys still act.

In Ctrl+K search, Up and Down move the highlight while the caret stays in the query, and typing edits the query. The first result starts highlighted, so one Down highlights the second. With an input method composing in the query, an Enter that the input method passes back after committing opens the highlighted result. Enter closes search and opens the highlighted result: a folder opens, and a file is revealed selected in its folder with quick preview open. With Settings → General → SEARCH & FILTERING → Open search results directly on, the file launches instead. Alt+Enter opens its containing folder with the result selected and focused.

Ctrl+Shift+K opens Jump to a folder…, which lists the local folders you have opened in Strata, most frequently and recently visited first, up to 100. Each space-separated term may match anywhere in a folder's path, so dev str finds ~/dev/strata, and terms accept the 'exact, ^prefix, suffix$ and !excluded forms; strata !notes hides folders whose path matches notes. Folders whose names match more terms rank higher, and an exact name ranks first among them. Arrow keys choose a folder and Enter opens it. Before any folder is recorded it shows No folder history yet, and a query that matches nothing shows No matching folders. In 10xer mode Ctrl+Shift+K does nothing; z and Z jump to visited folders instead (see 10xer mode).

Opening and navigating the context menu

Menu (the hardware context-menu key) and Shift+F10 open the selection-aware context menu without the pointer. With the keyboard cursor on a selected item, the menu opens for that item, or for the whole multi-selection if the item is part of one. With the cursor on an unselected item, or with nothing selected, it opens the pane's background menu. The menu is anchored to the focused item or pane, never to the pointer, and a background menu opened from the keyboard stays inside the window. On a focused Ctrl+F result it opens that result's file menu. With a text field focused, Menu and Shift+F10 open the field's text-editing menu instead. With a sidebar place, Trash or drive row focused, they open that row's menu, with 10xer mode on or off. Ctrl+Shift+F10, Shift+Menu and Ctrl+Menu open no menu. Alt+Enter with one item selected opens Properties for the focused item. A keyboard-opened item menu is anchored to the item's right edge in Columns and Icons, and to its center in List.

Each action with a shortcut shows it at the right of its row, such as Ctrl+C beside Copy, Enter beside Open, F2 / Ctrl+R beside Rename and Alt+Enter beside Properties, with key names in the interface language: German shows Strg+C beside Copy and Entf beside Move to Trash.

Right-clicking an item also makes it the keyboard cursor, without opening it. An already-selected item keeps the existing multi-selection; an unselected item becomes the only selected item. Escape returns keyboard focus to that clicked item.

A menu opens with keyboard focus on its first visible action, and focus stays there while Open With entries load, even with the pointer resting over the menu. Ctrl+A leaves an open menu open. Once open: Up/Down move between enabled actions, wrapping past the first/last; Home/End jump to the first/last enabled action; separators and disabled actions are skipped. Enter/Space activates the focused action immediately on key press. On a submenu row such as Actions or Send to…, Right, Space or Enter opens the submenu with its first action focused, and Left closes only the submenu and refocuses its row. In the file chooser's menus, Tab and Shift+Tab also move between enabled actions. Escape closes the menu without changing the selection and returns keyboard focus to the item or pane that opened it. This applies in Columns, Icons, List, Trash, and the file chooser. Closing Properties follows the overlay rule; choosing Rename hands focus to the editor instead.