Tabs & split panes
Tabs open multiple folders in one window. Split the window into panes to view and work with folders side by side.
Tabs
| Action | Default (Windows / Linux) |
|---|---|
| New | Ctrl+T, or + in the tab bar |
| Close | Ctrl+W, or middle-click that tab |
| Next / previous | Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab |
On macOS new and close are usually ⌘+T and ⌘+W; tab switching stays on Ctrl+Tab so it does not collide with the system app switcher.
Tab widths fit their content by default, so short names take less space. Under Settings → Layout → Tab Bar, Tab Width offers Full Name or Shrink, and Tab Overflow controls wrapping or horizontal scrolling when horizontal tabs do not fit. The tab bar can also sit on either side of a pane; see Managing tabs for renaming, pinning, multiple selection, named groups, and vertical tabs.
Inactive tabs have an outline. Under Settings → Appearance → Spacing & Roundness, adjust Tab Outline and Tab Outline Width, which default to 45% and 1 px. Set the outline to 0 to turn it off. Pane corners follow Corner Roundness in the same group.
Which folder a tab opened with Ctrl+T or the + starts in is set by New Tab Folder: Match Current Tab, Home, or a path you specify. See Settings overview. Things like Open in New Tab already carry a destination and are unaffected.
Right-clicking a tab
Right-click a file tab to create, duplicate, bookmark, or close tabs:
| Menu item | What it does |
|---|---|
| New Tab | Creates a tab in the current pane |
| Duplicate Tab | Creates another tab for the same folder |
| Move to New Window | Moves this tab to a new window |
| Add this tab to favorites | Saves the folder this tab has open, see Bookmarks |
| Add all tabs to favorites… | Creates a bookmark folder holding the folder tabs in this pane |
| Close Tab | Closes the tab you right-clicked; with multiple tabs selected, the entry showing a count closes the whole selection |
| Close Other Tabs | Closes other unpinned tabs in the same pane |
| Close Tabs to the Left / Close Tabs to the Right | Closes unpinned tabs on that side; vertical bars show Close Tabs Above / Close Tabs Below |
The menu targets the tab you right-clicked. See Managing tabs for pinning, renaming, groups, and batch actions. Terminal, preview, and sidebar component tabs provide entries appropriate to their type.
In Vim mode these are gc, gC, gH and gL, see Vim mode.
Right-click an empty part of the tab bar to choose New preview tab (see Preview tab), New terminal tab (see Terminal tab), or change Tab Bar Position.
Closing the last tab returns you to the Start Page. It does not quit the app.
Open in a new tab
Anywhere a single click would send the current tab somewhere else, you can ask for a new tab to carry it instead and leave this one where it is. There are five ways:
| How | Where it works |
|---|---|
| Right-click → Open in New Tab | Folders in the file list. Tick several folders and they all open at once, in the order they appear in the list; the entry does not show up for a selection of files only |
| Middle-click | Folder rows in the list, folder rows in the sidebar, a breadcrumb segment, and the back / forward / up buttons in the nav bar |
| Ctrl+Enter | From the keyboard: opens the folder the cursor is on |
| Alt+Enter | Use it instead of Enter after typing a path in the address bar, see Working with files |
go | Vim mode, in both the file list and the sidebar, see Vim mode |
Middle-clicking a row acts on the row under the pointer only, not on your ticked selection — middle-click points at exactly one thing. Middle-clicking back / forward / up means "open that location in a new tab": the current tab's own history stays where it is and does not step back with it.
Where the new tab is inserted, and whether you are taken to it, come from New Tab Position and Focus New Tab When Opened in Settings. See Settings overview.
A small dot on a tab means you have not looked at that one yet.When a tab opens without focus, your current view does not move at all, and the dot is what tells you a tab is waiting. Switch to it and the dot goes away. If the tab bar is set to scroll and the row is full, the new tab is scrolled into view — but the focus still does not move.
Sidebar search results used to be the exception — clicking one opened a new tab, the only place in the whole app where left-click and middle-click meant the reverse of everywhere else. They now behave like everything else: clicking changes the current tab, middle-clicking opens a new one.
Right-clicking a search result gives you a "what to open × where to open it" grid:
| What you hit | Menu entries |
|---|---|
| A folder | Open in Current Tab, Open in New Tab, Open Containing Folder in Current Tab, Open Containing Folder in New Tab |
| A file | Open (in its default program), Open Containing Folder in Current Tab, Open Containing Folder in New Tab |
Files lose the "open this thing itself as a folder" column — a file cannot be a folder — so those two cells become a single Open at the top instead: when you have searched out a file, opening it is the usual intent.
Whether a new tab opened from a search result gets focus follows Focus New Tab When Opened, as everywhere else.
Folder rows in the sidebar and breadcrumb segments have a small context menu of their own with five entries: Open, Open in New Tab, Add bookmark (Edit bookmark once saved, see Bookmarks), Copy Path, and Tags ▸. Only harmless actions live here — these rows often point at a parent folder, a system location, or a whole drive, where one mis-click would cost far more than the navigation it saves.
Splitting the window
Drag a tab toward a pane edge and release when the split preview appears.
- Open two tabs first.
- Press and hold one of the tab titles and drag it toward an edge.
- Drag to the top, bottom, left, or right edge. That half lights up, and you let go there.
Afterwards, drag the divider in the middle to change how wide each side is. The same move splits further, giving you more panes.
You can also split off a whole named group or a selection of tabs; see Moving a whole group.
Double-click the divider and the two sides swap wholesale: what was on the left slides to the right and vice versa, while the divider itself stays put. Each side keeps its tabs, its selection and its scroll position — only the position changes.
To start from a layout template, select the sidebar's Layouts page, then click ＋ at the right end of its tab strip → New from Template…. Choose a 1–4 pane arrangement; see Layouts & workspaces.
Sidebar component pages can also be dragged into main-area panes alongside file tabs. Drag a component tab back to the sidebar or close it to return the page. Stacked panes inside the sidebar are arranged separately; see Sidebar & component pages.
Which pane an action applies to
- Whichever pane you click is the one your shortcuts, copies, and deletes apply to. The quick bar buttons and the right-click menu land in the same place.
- When several panes each hold a selection, the selected and checked rows in the panes without focus are drawn dimmer, so which side this Delete or Ctrl+C reaches is visible at a glance. The hover highlight does not dim with them: it marks the row the pointer is on.
- Panes are independent: their own tabs, their own scroll position, their own view.
- Close the last tab in a pane and it returns to the Start Page. To merge panes back together, drag its tab onto another pane.
Tab group numbers
All tabs in one pane form a tab group, separate from the named groups that can be colored and collapsed within a tab bar. After splitting, each pane's group has a number badge at the left of a horizontal bar or the top of a vertical bar. Numbers follow pane order in the layout, and the tooltip reads Tab group N.
The badge appears in two cases: the window has two or more tab groups, or a preview tab is following one of this window's groups — the "Following group N" on such a tab's binding chip means this number. A preview tab in another window counts too.
Open Settings → Layout → Tab Bar and set Tab Group Number to Circle Badge (the default), Keycap, or Corner Mark. See Settings overview.
The number is drawing order, not identity. Change the split or close a window and the same group may well get a different number. A preview tab follows the group itself rather than the digit; when a number really does change, the badge flashes a ring to tell you.
Dragging tabs elsewhere
Besides splitting at a pane edge, an individual tab can move to other locations:
| Drop it | Result |
|---|---|
| Another pane in the same window | The tab moves there |
| A window edge | A new pane splits off |
| Another tessoa window | That window takes the tab |
| Empty desktop | It tears off into a new window |
Ctrl+N opens a new window directly. Every window shares the same tags, bookmarks, and layouts, so a change in one applies everywhere.
Saving a split
Once the split is arranged the way you like, save it from the sidebar as a layout. One click brings the whole side-by-side setup back next time.
Enable Settings → Layout → Sidebar → Open Tabs to list all tabs in this window by pane in the sidebar. Click a row to focus it, making it easier to find open folders when many tabs or panes are in use.
Enlarge a tab group
After splitting the window, click a group’s number badge to temporarily enlarge it to fill the main area. Click again to restore the original split layout. See Enlarge a tab group for enlargement levels, shortcuts and automatic restoration.
Managing tabs · Layouts & workspaces · Bookmarks · Keyboard shortcuts