Configuring Networks | Configuring 4Pane | The Context Menu

## Configuring Misc

This is where to configure the bits that don't fit anywhere else. The first sub-page is for "How many?".
Most of the alterations that 4Pane makes to files can be undone and redone again. Each time it is opened, 4Pane reserves a certain amount of space to hold the data needed to do this. By default this is enough for 10000 items, but remember that it would immediately be filled by selecting and then deleting all the contents of a directory that contains >9999 files! Change the number here if you wish. This will take effect when 4Pane next opens.
Next, dropdowns. These are used in two places: the Undo/Redo buttons on the main toolbar, and the Back/Forward buttons on the small dir-view toolbars. To process several items at once, you click the side button with the 'down' arrow and a dropdown page opens containing the first so-many available items. This is where you can configure how many that is, the default being 15.
The second sub-page is for "How long?".
The first two items concern the transient message dialogs that appear, telling you the result of e.g. extracting an archive. Unless you stop them these automatically close after a few seconds: 2 seconds if the process succeeded, 5 if it failed (to give you longer to read why). You can change either of these times here.
Similarly you can change how long statusbar messages last e.g. "3 items copied". By default this is 10 seconds.
The next sub-page is about becoming superuser. Sometimes you'll need administrative privileges e.g. to mount a non-fstab partition. You can do this by using a gui 'su'-type program, for example gksu, but since v1.0 4Pane can do this 'in-house'.
4Pane should have detected whether you're on a distro that uses sudo (ubuntu) or the commoner su, but if it gets it wrong you can set it here. You can also choose whether the password is temporarily remembered and, if so, for how long (maximum 1 hour) and whether the countdown is restarted on each use.
Alternatively if you'd prefer to use an external front-end, choose which one here; 4Pane should prevent you selecting any missing from your system.
Next, four buttons. The first deals with how to open a file, for example when a text file is double-clicked. Since version 3.0, 4Pane has two methods for doing this:

- It can ask your system for the default application for that extension, and use that.
- 4Pane's original, built-in method. When 4Pane first starts, it searches your system for standard applications like kwrite and gedit, and 'associates' these with text files. You can change these and add others at any time using the "Open With..." dialog.

By default both are tried, with the system method going first. Here you can change that to use only one, or to try the 4Pane method first.
The second button brings up a dialog for configuring Drag and Drop. The first part of this lets you change which metakeys do what. By default with no metakeys pressed D'n'D does a Move; with Ctrl pressed Copy; Shift + Ctrl creates a Hardlink; and Shift + Alt a softlink. Change these if you wish.
Below you can configure the triggering sensitivity of D'n'D. By default this won't trigger until the mouse has dragged more than 10 pixels horizontally, or 15 vertically. (The horizontal figure is lower because you will often want to drag horizontally onto the adjacent pane, and D'n'D won't trigger once you leave the original pane.)
The last D'n'D item is about scrollwheel sensitivity. Sometimes during D'n'D you'll want to scroll a pane to make visible a destination subdirectory. One of the ways to do this is to use the scrollwheel. Here you can change how many lines a pane will scroll per wheel 'click'; the default is 2.
The third button produces a dialog for statusbar configuration. The statusbar is divided into 4 sections, and here you can alter the proportion each section gets.
The last button is "Export Configuration File". If you think you might want to do this (to transfer your preferences to multiple computers, or perhaps because you're a packager for a distro) see here.