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Open Folders Quickly Using Forward Slash Key
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 12:00 AM on December 8, 2007
Open source blog FOSSwire points to a keyboard shortcut that's dead simple, but might not be apparent to even long-time users of GNOME-based systems like Ubuntu or Debian. With the desktop focused, hit the / (forward slash) key to bring up an auto-completing prompt that opens up a Nautilus file browser window on whichever folder you end up on. Hitting Ctrl+L does much the same, but starts with your home directory pre-written in the prompt. For accessing your documents and media, it's at least faster than mousing to the "Places" menu.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
IfIGetOld
Posted 10:20 AM 7/12/07
Any idea of a simple way to do this in KDE?
IfIGetOld
Cidinho
Posted 8:21 AM 7/12/07
Nice, I'm collecting tips for ubuntu. Just received my CD this year, and I'll install it on one of my older machines.
Cidinho
SEMW
Posted 1:30 PM 7/12/07
Not sure why this was posted as Linux-specific; you can do the same thing (including auto-completing) with Winkey+R on Windows.
SEMW
mdebusk
Posted 1:15 PM 7/12/07
I love this! One more way to leave the mouse alone!
mdebusk
G-Ster
Posted 6:47 PM 7/12/07
@SEMW: Not sure if that works...
However, this is not news or anything. If anything it's kinda redundant since there's a better feature in the linux prompt.
Also, if you want to be really mouseless, you would be using some kind of command prompt. In XP's command prompt and even in the linux shell prompt too (where I first started using it), hitting TAB auto-completes.
So if you want to change to a directory with a long name, or do something with a file with a long name just start typing the first letter then press Tab.
The Tab functionality has been around for years too...
G-Ster
pingpongboss
Posted 3:22 AM 8/12/07
oh wow i never even knew that after years of using ubuntu. thanks lh
pingpongboss
Charles Duffy
Posted 11:03 AM 8/12/07
Once upon a time, the GNOME file/open dialog box had tab completion every bit as powerful as the command line's. It was great -- the graphical listing of files and directories would be limited to the set that matched what you'd typed, directories would automatically be entered if they were the only match, and it otherwise worked perfectly -- the epitome of what a graphical open dialog box should be.
And then they nerfed it because it somehow wasn't intuitive for beginners. I suppose users coming straight from Windows expected the tab key to do something else.
I mostly like GNOME, but... bah.
Charles Duffy
mediaphile
Posted 2:51 AM 9/12/07
This works in Vista as well, right in the Explorer address bar (breadcrumb bar, whatever it is). In addition to file browsing, it also works for navigating network location file structures. I found this out sort of by accident when a computer on my network wasn't showing up in network places, and yet I was able to browse to it using this auto-complete feature, complete with full folder drill down. Weird bug.
mediaphile