Copying, moving and other operations.

Copying, moving

To copy/move files you can, of course, use Drag&Drop to copy/move files, as well as clipboard. But it's much faster to use keyboard shortcuts: you can use F5 key to copy or F6 to move objects. Also - Ctrl+Shift+F5 or Ctrl+Shift+F6 to copy\move directly to the target window, then you will not be asked about the target window. About Source and target window read here. About Drag&Drop in AcB read here (there is some special stuff too). You can drag&drop and use F5 and F6 keyboard shortcuts to move/copy files/folder between standard folders, zip archives, as well as FTP locations.

You can use a filter (e.g. "*.bmp" will copy only .bmp files) and specify what to do when a file already exist in the target location (by default AcB will ask if to overwrite, but you can choose another option, like e.g. "overwrite all older" which will make AcB to copy/move a file only if the file in target folder is older than the source file).

Copying as... (with rename)

To copy a file\folder in the same folder (to a different name) press Shift+F5. In menu this is: File\Special\copy file in the same directory. There are three possible modes (object means a file or a directory):

mode #1, standard : copy one object to another one, with a different name. To enter this mode, you have to select one object, press Shift+F5, and provide one object's name. Example: select file "index.html", press Shift+5, provide new name, e.g. "newIndex.html", and the selected file will be copied to this name.
Alternative method to do the same thing: rename the object (change it's name), but after that, instead of pressing Enter to confirm the renaming, press Ctrl+Enter to make a copy to the new name, more: renaming.htm.
mode #2, copying one object to many new ones, with different new names. To enter this mode, select one object, and provide many objects' names. For example, select file "index.html", then press Shift+F5, and provide many file names, separated with semicolons, like "index1.html;index2.html;index3.html". The one selected file will be copied to those new names.
mode #3, this is rather useless:), copying many selected objects to many new provided names. To enter this mode, select many objects and provide many new objects' names. For example, select files "index.html" and "image.jpg", then press Shift+F5, provide new 2 names (must be 2, because you selected 2 files), for example "NewIndex.html;newImage.jpg". and the two selected files will be copied to the new files which names you provided.

In case ACB will find out that you selected more than one object and\or provided more than one object's name, you will be prompted if continue, since the way this tool works in this case is not very standard, and so you will be warned.

Note, that all those operations you can also do with zip archives. About working with archives read here.

Image Dropping.

You can drop an image into some directory, just as you would do this with files. Try doing so with some image editor – simply drag some image from it to AcB. You can also paste an image, then the conversion dialog will appear and you will be able to set the file format (jpg, bmp, tif or gif) as well as size, number of colors etc.

Creating shortcuts

Hit alt+F8. You can also create shortcuts by dragging and dropping with Alt pressed.

Clipboard operations

The selected files you can copy to clipboard (Ctrl+C) and the paste from clipboard (Ctrl+V). But there is another, strange possibility – Add to clipboard (Ctrl+Shift+A). This will add files – it means when there are some files in the clipboard, the currently selected will be added to them. You can do this as long as you want (add concrete files). Note that pressing Ctrl+C clears the clipboard, and copy there only the selected files. These operations work with all kind of windows - normal folders, FTP, zip folders, ACL.

Dragging and Dropping.

You can also copy, move and compress files by Dragging&Dropping between windows or inside the same window.

To copy files, just Drag&Drop, copying is the default operation.
To move them, press Shift while dragging&Dropping
To compress them, press Alt+Shift
To create shortcuts, press Alt
To set the background image of the folder, press Alt+Ctrl, the image (jpg, gif, tif, png) must be dropped.
To enter the folder or zip archive under the cursor, press space.

Tips:

You can drag&drop between all types of windows : normal folder, zip folder, ACL. You can drop files to a zip archive (like myZip.zip) to compress files into this archive. You can also enter the archive, and compress files to the folder you want inside the archive. More about archives here.

You can drag&drop files from (for example) Internet Explorer® or Firefox® windows to download it. More: Downloading files from the Internet

If, during the operation of Dragging&Dropping, the mouse is over a folder, or an archive, then you can press space to enter that folder\archive.

Be careful where you drop the files\directories. You can drop to :

A folder inside the window (also inside archives) - objects will be copied to that folder
An executive file (like notepad.exe) - the program will be executed with dropped objects
A link (.lnk) to an executive file or a folder - the link will be resolved, so if you drop objects to the link to e.g. c:\windows then files will be copied to this folder.
To zip archive (archive.zip) - objects will be compressed to the archive.
To address bar of a window - ACB will go to the file\folder
Any other place of a window - objects will be copied to the current folder of this window.

You can also drop files\folders to the title bar of main application's window, also from other applications (e.g. from system desktop, explorer). Folder with the dropped file will be open.
You can also drop image file to the background image of ACB - the background will be changed.

The ".." item

On top of files' list there is a ".." item. When clicked, then ACB goes to parent folder. Also, when files are dropped to it, then they are copied\moved to the parent folder.

In any other case however, it means : the current directory. So if you press space when focus is on it, then the size of current directory is counted. If you Drag&Drop this item to some place, then the current folder will be copied\moved. Also when you copy this item to the clipboard, then the current folder will be copied.

Note: Since version 2.3, to take an action on a current folder, you can use the browse window icon rather than the ".." line:

The vertical title bar icon (marked on the picture) has a special meaning: it is the current directory. You can bring a context menu (right mouse click), or drag&drop. In both cases the operation will be performed on current folder.