The main window appears when PFrank is run. It contains a menu bar at the top with several panels below it. A status bar is at the bottom of the window. Other windows can appear depending on selections made by the user. The other windows are the Options Window and the Detailed Information Window.
Selectable controls (e.g. buttons, radio buttons, pull-down lists, etc.) in the windows can be used to access various features.
PFrank has many built-in keyboard controls. All the menu controls have keyboard shortcuts. Many buttons have built-in shortcuts; the key sequence of a button shortcut is specified in the tooltip for the button. The standard windows editing shortcuts, CTL-C (copy), CTL-X (cut), CTL-V (paste), and CTL-Z (undo) will work on any of the controls that are editable. The option selector controls of the Option Window all have keyboard shortcuts. See the Keyboard Shortcuts section for a complete list of shortcuts.
Some keys are used to navigate around windows.
TAB and SHIFT-TAB are used to navigate the selectable controls.
Arrow keys are used to navigate selections of checkbox controls,
list controls, and radio button controls.
The '-' and '=' keys
are used to control whether checkbox entries are checked or not.
ALT-DownArrow is used to open the pull-down list of list controls or
combo box controls.
The following shortcut keys are used to navigate between windows. Pressing ALT-O from any
window will raise the Options Window. Pressing ALT-W from any window will raise the Main Window.
Pressing ALT-D from any window will raise the Detailed Information Window.
Many of the selectable controls provide a tooltip window when the cursor is placed over them. The tooltip provides a brief explanation of what the control is used for or how to use it.
The tooltip information can also be activated by using
the context-based help button. This is
the '?' button that appears on every window. After pressing the '?' button a
'?' image appears that can be moved with the mouse. Move the image to the button
or controller of interest and press the left mouse button to show the information.
Information also appears in some of the blank areas to explain the function of
the area in question.
Context based help can also be activated by selecting a control and then pressing F1.
In most cases the control can be selected by left clicking with the mouse.
But clicking with the mouse will not work on button controls since the function of
the button will instead be activated. You can instead use tab navigation to select the control before
pressing F1.
Comprehensive On-Line help documentation is also available by pressing ALT-F1 while in any of the main windows.
Scan buttons appear in the various search/replace panels. Scanning will be performed in the current folder (which is configurable) and in it's subfolders (this is a configurable option). Files/Folders will be filtered according to the Filter configuration. Note that Files encompasses all non-folder entities. e.g. Files and Shortcuts When scanning is in progress, the status bar indicates the progress of the scan. Various configurations and functions that could interfere with a scan are disabled while a scan is in progress. When scanning is completed an internal list of renaming commands is produced. The internal list is used later to carry out the renaming.
PFrank produces errors if files will be renamed to the same names as
already existing files
or if files will will be renamed to the same name that other files are being
renamed to. The error is also produced if new filenames are different from each other
but the only differences are in the cases used by the letters. The same happens
if new filenames are different from existing filenames but the only differences
are in the letter cases.
These naming conflicts can, if enabled, be automatically resolved by adding a .PFxxxx
string where xxxx is a unique four-digit number. The user
has control over where the string is placed. The 'PF' part of the string can be replaced
using a configurable option If naming conflicts are resolved, then the conflicts are
labelled as warnings instead
of errors.
The user can also resolve the renaming conflicts manually beforehand to avoid
filenames including the autoresolving strings.
PFrank produces errors if new filenames contain unprintable characters. This is possible using regular expressions or if inserted tags have invalid characters. In such cases, the internal list will be stripped of the invalid renaming sequences. It is left to the user to modify the regular expression so that the invalid characters are not produced.
At the same time that the internal renaming list is created, an internal undo list is also created. This can be used to undo renaming done by the renaming. Only one level of undo is available.
If any errors are detected, then the renaming commands will not be included in the internal renaming list or undo list.
A detailed list of information is produced in the Detailed Information window for viewing files to be renamed. The Detailed Information window automatically pops up after a scan. The list in the window contains information regarding any errors or warnings raised including resolution of filename conflicts. Renaming can be carried out from the detailed information window.
Renaming of a file will not affect its last modified date.
If desired, all options and main window settings can be reset to their defaults by pressing the keys CTL-ALT-R simultaneously. The user is then prompted for confirmation.
PFrank supports unicode character formats.