Now that the Custom columns have been set, it's time to make a few more adjustments. Each of the column headers shown in the file panes can be clicked with the mouse to specify what category the file list will be sorted by. In the image below, the sort defaults to the Name field.

You can click on any of the column headers to change the sort order of the file list, or you may right-click (or alt-click, depending on your specific mouse configuration) on one of the headers that is positioned to the right of the Name header and then specify a sort order via a context menu as shown below.

Once you have activated the context menu, choose the Sort by entry and in the expanded menu to the right, choose the sort order you prefer. In the case of this guide, the Extension entry is selected. As an alternative to the mouse, you may use one of the keyboard shortcuts listed to the right of each entry in that expanded menu.

After a sort order has been set, should you wish, you can click on a column header repeatedly to toggle between Ascending and Descending sort orders, which can be especially useful for size and date fields. At a glance, you will be able to tell which items are taking up the most space in the current folder or tell which files were most recently changed.

If you need to quickly find all the TMP (temporary) files in the current folder, just sort by Extension, select the files using the mouse or keyboard, and drag them to the Recycle Bin. Or, if you are keyboard savvy, simply press the Delete key instead. You can even right-click on the selected files and choose the delete command from the context menu if you prefer.

Now that you have put so much effort into customizing the interface, it's time to save those settings so you don't lose them. FreeCommander has a Layout feature that allows you to store different configurations that you can quickly recall when needed. To access this feature, select the View menu, select the Layout entry and choose Edit from the expanded menu.

When the Edit dialog appears, select the Add to list button as shown in the image below-left. Then, when prompted, enter a name into the text box. In the case of this guide, the name default was assigned as shown in the image below-right.

Layouts can be recalled with either the menu or a keyboard shortcut. To access the list of saved layouts from the menu, select the View menu, then the Layout entry and finally the name of the layout you wish to recall. In the case of this guide, the name default can be chosen. Notice that for each of the saved layouts, a keyboard shortcut is automatically assigned. Pressing the Alt+1 key combination (first press Alt, then while holding that key down, press the 1 key to complete the shortcut) will recall the first layout in the list, pressing the Alt+2 would recall the second item in the list (if present), etc. It's possible to have a group of different layouts to fit different situations and needs, and switching back and forth between them can be quite fast by making use of the keyboard shortcuts.

Entry lists for both Layout and Custom column features can be modified by using the buttons provided in their configuration dialogs. You can choose the Add to list button to create new entries, choose the Rename button, the Remove from list button, the Move up and Move down buttons to re-order the entries or any of the other buttons that may be available. Once you get the hang of it, managing the entry lists for both functions should be fairly easy. When you have saved your preferred layout, you may want to take some extra time to create and save different configurations for both the Layout and Custom column functions so you are able to get a good handle on just how useful these features can be. You may have one combination for handling photographs, one for music files, another for work documents, and more for other needs you may have. Size and position are just two of the things that can be changed to meet your needs. Try changing the file pane characteristics, making one layout with a directory tree visible, another without, and switch quickly between them with keyboard shortcuts. It'll become second nature in no time.

That pretty much wraps up this Basic Configuration Guide for FreeCommander. We hope you find it, and the application to be useful tools as you work within the Windows environment.

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