Tern Files Download
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Guide · 02

Folders & tabs

Move through your folders with tabs, two panes, folder sizes and workspaces.

Views

Choose the view that suits the folder: rows for documents, tiles for photos, columns for deep folder trees. The three buttons sit in the toolbar.

  • List – one row per item with columns such as name, date, type and size. Right for most folders.
  • Grid – large tiles with thumbnails of pictures, videos and documents; the size is shown under each name.
  • Columns – the parent folder, the current folder and the content of the selected subfolder side by side. For a selected file, the last column shows a preview.

Under Settings › Appearance you can also set:

  • Density – Comfortable or Compact rows.
  • Thumbnails – switch off the small previews in the grid view.
  • Show hidden files and Show file extensions. Ctrl+H shows or hides hidden files in any folder; they appear dimmed.

In dual-pane mode both panes use the list. Press Space to look into the selected file without opening it – see Preview.

Sort and filter

Sorting and filtering bring the file you need to the top in a second.

  • Click a column header to sort by it; click again to reverse the order. An arrow shows the direction. Sorting by Size includes folders, because Tern Files knows their sizes.
  • Right-click a column header to choose the columns: Modified, Created, Last opened, Type, Attributes and Size. The choice applies to all folders. Drag a header to move its column, drag its edge to change the width.
  • Just start typing in the list to filter it – only matching names remain. Backspace removes the last letter, Esc clears the filter.
  • Ctrl+F puts the cursor into the field Filter in … above the list. Enter or ↓ takes you back to the list.

The filter only looks at the current folder. To search all your drives, press Ctrl+K – see Search. While a filter is typed, Space belongs to the filter and doesn't open the preview.

Folder sizes

Folder sizes show at a glance where your space goes – right in the list, without opening Properties.

  • The Size column shows the size of every folder with a small bar. The longest bar belongs to the largest item in the folder.
  • The values arrive after a moment and fill in while you keep working; the list doesn't jump. When you sort by size, the order updates once all values are in.
  • A ≈ in front of a value marks a first estimate from the cache or the search index. It is replaced as soon as Tern Files has counted the folder again.
  • Hidden files count, files with several names (hardlinks) count once, and links to other folders aren't followed. Cloud files that are only online count with their size – nothing is downloaded.

Choose under Settings › Appearance › Folder sizes:

  • Always – every folder, network drives included.
  • Local only – the default. Network folders are left out, because counting them over the network takes long.
  • Off – no sizes in the list.

The details pane always shows the size of the selected folder, even on a network drive or with sizes switched off. What fills a whole drive is shown in the storage view.

Details pane

The details pane on the right tells you more about the selected item without opening anything. Show or hide it with the Details pane button in the toolbar or Ctrl+Shift+D; drag its left edge to make it wider. With nothing selected, it shows the current folder.

  • For a folder: its size in large type, its share of the parent folder, a bar with the composition by type – images, videos, documents, code and more – and the list Largest contents.
  • For a file: a small preview of pictures and PDFs, and Calculate checksum, which shows the XXH128 and SHA-256 checksums.
  • For both: Path, Created, Modified, the Git status inside a repository, and the Tags with + Tag.
  • At the bottom: Terminal here, Open in editor (when an editor was found) and Start agent in this folder.

Online-only cloud files get no preview and no checksum here, so nothing is downloaded by accident.

Tabs

Tabs keep several folders open in one window – and they come back after a restart.

  • Ctrl+T opens a new tab, Ctrl+W closes the current one. A middle click on a tab closes it, too.
  • Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab switch to the next or previous tab; Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 jump straight to a tab.
  • Ctrl+Enter or Open in new tab in the context menu opens a folder in a new tab.
  • Drag a tab to change the order, onto another Tern Files window to move it there, or out of the window to give it a window of its own.

A tab shows the folder name – for a search the search term, for tools such as History the tool name. With two panes it shows both folders.

Each window remembers its tabs. With Restore tabs under Settings › General (on by default) they open again on the next start. New windows begin in the Start folder you set there.

Most keys on this page can be changed under Settings › Keyboard shortcuts.

Dual pane

Two panes side by side make copying and moving between two folders quick – the classic commander way.

  1. Click Dual pane in the toolbar or press Ctrl+Shift+2.
  2. Each pane has its own path line. The active pane has a coloured line at the top; Tab switches to the other one.
  3. Select files and press F5 to copy them or F6 to move them into the other pane. The button Copy 2 files to the right (the number follows your selection) does the same with the mouse.

The bar at the bottom lists the commander keys: F2 rename, Space preview, F5 copy, F6 move, F7 new folder, Del Recycle Bin, Tab switch pane. With one pane, F5 refreshes the list instead.

You can also drag files from one pane to the other; the target shows a hint like Drop 2 files here. New in the toolbar creates a folder or a text document, and Shift+Enter opens the selected folder in the other pane.

In dual-pane mode the lists show name, date and size, and the view buttons are hidden. The same button or keys switch back to one pane.

Workspaces Pro

A workspace is a saved set of tabs for one topic – your tax return, say, or a project. Switching brings back all its tabs at once, including two panes, sorting, columns, the sidebar and the details pane.

  1. Click the workspace at the top of the sidebar or press Ctrl+Alt+W. The switcher opens.
  2. Type a new name and press Enter: a workspace with the current tabs is created and becomes active.
  3. To switch, click a workspace or press its number 1–9 in the switcher. Ctrl+Shift+Alt+1…9 switch directly and bring Tern Files to the front, even from another program.

When you switch, Tern Files saves the workspace you leave. Save current tabs in the switcher saves it right away. Right-click a workspace for Rename …, Color and Delete workspace; deleting removes only the workspace, never folders or files. Until you create your own, the sidebar shows Personal. The launcher can open workspaces, too.

After the trial your workspaces stay in place, but switching between them needs Pro.

Tags Pro

Tags mark files and folders across all your drives – for example everything for your tax return, wherever it lies. There are eight colours and as many names as you like.

  1. Right-click one or more items and open Tags (or press T while the menu is open).
  2. Click a tag to give it to all selected items; click it again to take it away. New tag … creates a tag with a name and a colour.

A tagged item shows a coloured dot after its name. The details pane lists its tags as chips: + Tag adds one, the × on a chip removes it. The sidebar shows all tags under Tags with the number of items; a click shows everything with that tag, wherever it is – the same as searching for tag:Name (see filters). Right-click a tag there for Rename …, Color and Delete tag; the files stay.

Tags stay with a file when you rename or move it – even with other programs on the same drive, and onto other drives when you move it with Tern Files. Ctrl+Z undoes adding or removing a tag.

After the trial your tags stay visible, but adding and changing them needs Pro.

Git and developer tools

If you work with Git, Tern Files shows the state of your repository right in the file list – no extra tool needed. Git has to be installed.

  • Inside a repository, the Git column shows a letter per file: M modified, A added, ? not tracked, D deleted, R renamed, U conflict. Folders show the most important change inside them, and ignored files appear dimmed.
  • Above the list, a chip shows the branch, the commits ahead (↑) and behind (↓) and how many files changed.
  • The details pane shows the Git status of the selected item.
  • After you save a file, the status updates within about a second.

Tern Files only reads and never locks the repository, so your own git commands keep working in parallel. Switch the display off with Git status in file lists under Settings › Integrations.

The context menu has a Developer section: Terminal here and – with WSL installed – WSL terminal here for folders, Open in … for every editor found, such as VS Code or Visual Studio, and Start agent here, which starts a coding agent (by default claude) in Windows Terminal in that folder. Choose the terminal and add editors under Settings › Integrations.