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Toolbars

4Pane has two sorts of toolbar: there is a standard one near the top, but each dir-view pane has its own small one.

The Main Toolbar

Image of the main toolbar, in Kubuntu


This is divided into three sections.

Dir-view Toolbars

Image of the dir-view toolbar, in Mepis

At the top of every dir-view pane is a small toolbar. Its first button has a tree icon on it, and is a toggle button. When it is depressed the pane is in "Full-tree" mode: its topmost directory is always the root, '/' directory. When it isn't, its topmost directory will (probably) be a lower, branch directory e.g. your Home directory.

I use "Branch" mode almost all the time; with an extensive filesystem it's much more manageable to focus down on the bit you're currently interested in. It is more difficult to navigate in this mode, but the next few buttons help. The first (which is disabled in Full-tree mode) goes Up to the next higher directory. The next ones (which you can use in Full-tree mode, but they're much less useful) navigate backwards/forwards through the directory history. Both of these have a companion button to launch a dropdown page, like the Undo/Redo ones on the main toolbar. So if a dir-view starts in Branch mode at /home/yourname; you double-click /home/you/foo/, then use a bookmark to go to /home/you/somewhere/else/bar/, the pane will now have /home/you/somewhere/else/bar/ as 'root' and show its contents. One click on the Back button will take you back to /home/you/foo/, a second to /home/you/ again.

The rest of toolbar is for "GoTo" buttons. These have the same function as bookmarks, but are more convenient. Clicking one in Branch mode changes the pane's root to the button's path; in Full-tree mode it makes that directory visible.
4Pane automatically provides a button for your Home directory, and another for ~/Documents if this exists. You can add others of your choice from Options > Configure 4Pane, in the Display > Configure small-toolbar Tools dialog.