The Tracker - Drag & Drop Feature

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The Tracker - Drag & Drop Feature

Opening a File through Drag and Drop

You can drag a file onto an application icon to open it in that application. If the application is able to open the file, it's icon is highlighted. Drag and drop is a good way to open a file in an application that isn't the preferred application. Let's say that you want to edit an html document. Rather then double-clicking it, which would lauch your default browser, you can drop it onto the html-editor Globe.

If you're getting info on a link, the Link to: field shows the link's target (the file or folder it's linked to). Double-click the Link to: field to open a Tracker window on the target's parent, with the target itself highlighted. You can reset the target through the Set new link target in the item's context menu.

When you drag a file and hold it over an application that doesn't know how to open the file, the application's icon doesn't highlight, and the application will not open the file. How ever, you can force the application to open the file by holding down the Ctrl key when you drop the file icon. Holding down the Alt key when dropping icons on to the desktop, will adjust the positions of the icons according to a grid.

Clippings

One of the first features that you fast will learn to appreciate is clipping. A feature that lets you make a persistent file of data that you drag out of an open file. It can be from a text file or from a picture. It doesn't matter if the text file is closed (PDF), you can still drag out it's content as a simple text file or a jpeg image.

Clipping works like an inbuilt scanner. First you select the area that you want to scan/clipp, then you drag the selection you made with the right mouse button on to the desktop and drop it. As you drop the clipping, a context menu of formats appears. The context menu is relative to the application you are clipping from.

With ShowImage the context menu will look like this:

With BePDF like this:

It is up to the dragged-from application to name the dropped clipping; typically, the dropped clipping will be named something like "Clipping from filename" or "Bitmap 1".

A clipping file is like any other file: You can open it by double-clicking it's icon, rename it, move it to another folder, delete it by dragging it to the trash, and so on.

You can also for instance drag a clipping made from a picture and drop it on to another picture directly with ShowImage.

Using Drag & Drop to Copy, Move and Link Files

You can move items from one folder to another by dragging them into the window or onto the icon of the destination folder. You can move files or directories from it's original location to the location where you release the mouse button.

If you want to copy an item rather than move it, hold down the Option (or Windows) key while you drag the item.

If you hold down the Control key when you're dragging a file or folder icon, you'll see the file options menu when you drop the icon. Choose from one of the options to create a link, move, or copy the file (or cancel).

Create link here creates a symbolic link in the location where you released the button pointing to the file's original location.

This context menu also appears if you drag and drop when holding down the right mouse button.

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