Navigator

Main Screen

The main screen is divided into two panes. The Directory pane on the left is for navigating directories. The View pane on the right displays files in the currently selected directory.

Directory Pane

The directories you select in the Directory Manager appear as root nodes in this pane. There are three kinds of root nodes. Mod directories have a black icon. Non-mod directories under the "Master" game directory are gray. Directories completely outside the "Master" are blue.

When you select and highlight a Mod directory, it becomes the current Mod directory as reflected on the status bar. Note that simply expanding a Mod directory and selecting a sub-directory under it will also cause the current Mod directory to change. The current Mod directory is used to auto-generate the "+game" command when launching the game. It is also used to locate the destination \map directory for your BSP when compiling. If you compile a map file from a blue, non-game directory, TBCC will automatically copy it to the destination \map directory and compile it there.

If you right-click a node in the Directory pane, a pop-up menu appears that will allow you to Refresh the pane, launch the currently selected path in an Explorer window, or launch the Directory Manager. You can also create a New Directory, or Delete the currently selected directory if it's empty.

The Directory menu allows you to turn Auto-Expand and Hot Tracking on and off, as well as Refresh and Explore.

View Pane

The View pane displays files found in the currently selected directory path. If you right-click a file the File Properties dialog appears. This dialog lets you review information about the file, and change settings for ALL files of the same type.

All files in the View have a Type, determined by the file extension. Navigator has specialized "knowledge" of only three types: .map files, .bsp files, and the files used by your level editor if non-map (Worldcraft .rmf, for example - you set this in the Preferences dialog). The Tool menu and buttons invoke these functions:

MAP: Compile, launch in TBCC, or launch in TBED - note that you can select multiple map files for TBCC by drawing a box around them, or by shift-clicking or control-clicking. This works best with the "Map Files Only" filter set.

EDITOR: Launch selected Map or Editor file in editor

BSP: Launch in game, or launch in game with preceding command line prompt.

Regardless of type, though, all files have an On Open event, and an On Edit event that can be set in the Properties dialog. The cool thing is, you don't have to tell Navigator about file types unless you want to. When Navigator encounters a type it doesn't "know about", it creates a new type with blank events. Many files with blank events can still be launched via Open, because they have a Windows association. For instance, if you double-click a .txt file, it opens in Notepad. Otherwise you can set the program to use in the Properties dialog.

As Navigator learns more file types, they become available in the Filter Editor. Filters can be selected from the drop-down list above the Directory pane.

The View menu controls the appearance and behavior of the View pane. You can set large or small icons, sort by type or by name, turn Hot Tracking on and off, and Refresh.

Mouse Command Summary:

LEFT CLICK: selects icon under cursor, deselects all if nothing under cursor

RIGHT CLICK: pop-up menu: Open, Edit, Send To, Properties (same as File menu), plus Refresh. You can also Rename the currently selected file, or Delete the currently selected file(s).

DOUBLE LEFT CLICK: Execute file type's On Open program, or if there is none, attempt to launch the file itself.

LEFT-HOLD/DRAG: draws a selection box for multi-select.

SHIFT+LEFT CLICK: select range

CONTROL+LEFT CLICK: multi-select

DRAG TO DIRECTORY: Copies the selected file(s) to the directory. The directory you drop them on doesn't have to be the currently selected directory - you can drop them on any one. If you drag a single file, the cursor will take-on the appearance of the file's icon. If you drag multiple files, the cursor will be a generic "not allowed" if not over a directory, or a generic multi-file drag cursor if over a directory. You don't see any icons when dragging multiple files, so don't flip out.