Single-click to open files, run or view executable text files, and specify trash behavior. Tiffany Antopolski tiffany@antopolski.com Shaun McCance shaunm@gnome.org File manager behavior preferences

You can control whether you single-click or double-click files, whether folders are opened in new windows, how executable text files are handled, and the trash behavior. In any file manager window, click EditPreferences and select the Behavior tab.

Behavior <gui>Single click to open items</gui> <gui>Double click to open items</gui>

By default, clicking selects files and double-clicking opens them. You can instead choose to have files and folders open when you click on them once. When you use single-click mode, you can hold down the Ctrl key while clicking to select one or more files.

 <gui>Open each folder in its own window</gui>

When you open a folder in the file manager, it will normally open in the same window. You can right-click a folder and select Open in New Window to open any single folder in a new window. If you often do this, select this option if you would rather have each folder open in its own window by default.
Executable text files

An executable text file is a file that contains a program that you can run (execute). The file permissions must also allow for the file to run as a program. The most common are Shell, Python, and Perl scripts. These have extensions .sh, .py and .pl, respectively.

You can select to Run executable text files when they are opened, View executable text files when they are opened or Ask each time. If the last option is selected, a window will appear asking if you wish to run or view the selected text file.

File manager trash preferences Trash <gui>Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files</gui>

This option is selected by default. When emptying the trash, a message will be displayed confirming that you would like to empty the trash or delete files.

 <gui>Include a delete command that bypasses Trash</gui>

Selecting this option will add a Delete menu item to the Edit menu as well as the menu that pops up when you right-click on an item in the Files application.

Deleting an item using the Delete menu option bypasses the Trash altogether. The item is removed from the system completely. There is no way to recover the deleted item.