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Coming from Total Commander
PaneShift keeps Total Commander's way of working: two panels, keyboard first, F-keys for the main operations and red marks. This page translates your habits to the Mac.
Three rules for your keyboard§
- Alt becomes Option (⌥). Alt+F7 is ⌥F7, Alt+F5 is ⌥F5.
- Ctrl usually becomes Command (⌘). Ctrl+D is ⌘D, Ctrl+T is ⌘T. Where macOS leaves Control free, PaneShift keeps it: ⌃M, ⌃Q, ⌃B, ⌃Tab.
- Where macOS owns a key, PaneShift uses the Finder's shortcut. Ctrl+← switches Spaces on a Mac, so “open in other panel” is ⌥⌘←. Ctrl+F3 belongs to keyboard navigation, so sorting uses the Finder's ⌃⌥⌘1 and so on.
If you prefer your own layout, change any key in Settings › Keys. Total Commander Defaults there restores the standard set.
Key translation table§
| Total Commander | PaneShift | Command |
|---|---|---|
| Tab | Tab | Switch panel |
| Enter | Return or ⌘↓ | Open |
| Backspace | ⌫ or ⌘↑ | Enclosing folder |
| Alt+F1 Alt+F2 | ⌘1 ⌘2 | Drive list of the left or right panel |
| Alt+← Alt+→ | ⌘[ ⌘] | Back, forward |
| Ctrl+D | ⌘D | Folder hotlist (⇧⌘D adds the current folder) |
| Ctrl+R F2 | ⌘R | Refresh |
| Ctrl+U | ⌘U | Swap panels |
| Commands › Target = Source | ⌘= | Same folder in other panel |
| Ctrl+← Ctrl+→ | ⌥⌘← ⌥⌘→ | Open folder under the cursor in the other panel |
| Ctrl+F1 Ctrl+F2 Ctrl+Shift+F1 | ⌥⌘1 ⌥⌘2 ⌥⌘3 | Brief, Full, Thumbnails view |
| Ctrl+F3…Ctrl+F6 | ⌃⌥⌘1 name, ⌃⌥⌘2 extension, ⌃⌥⌘5 date, ⌃⌥⌘6 size | Sort (⌃⌥⌘4 date created, ⌃⌥⌘R reverse) |
| Ctrl+B | ⌃B or ⌘B | Branch view |
| Ctrl+Q | ⌃Q | Quick View panel |
| Alt+Shift+Enter | ⌥⇧Return | Calculate folder sizes |
| F3 F4 | F3 F4 or ⌘3 ⌘4 | View in the Lister, edit |
| F5 F6 | F5 F6 or ⌘5 ⌘6 | Copy, move |
| Shift+F6 | ⇧F6 | Rename in place |
| F7 | F7, ⌘7 or ⇧⌘N | New folder |
| Shift+F4 | ⇧F4 | New file |
| F8 Del | F8, ⌘8 or ⌘⌫ | Move to Trash |
| Shift+F8 Shift+Del | ⇧F8 or ⌥⌘⌫ | Delete permanently |
| Ins Space | Insert Space ⇧↓ | Mark and move down |
| Num + Num − | + - | Select group, unselect group |
| Num * | * | Invert selection |
| Ctrl+A Ctrl+Num − | ⌘A ⌥⌘A | Mark all, unmark all |
| Alt+Num + | ⌥⌘E | Mark same extension |
| Alt+F7 | ⌥F7 or ⇧⌘F | Find Files |
| Ctrl+M | ⌃M or ⇧⌘M | Multi-Rename Tool |
| Shift+F2 | ⇧F2 | Compare folders (mark differences) |
| Commands › Synchronize dirs | ⌥⌘S | Synchronize Folders |
| Files › Compare by content | ⌥⌘D | Compare by Content |
| Alt+F5 Alt+F9 | ⌥F5 ⌥F9 or ⌥⌘P ⌥⌘U | Pack, unpack |
| Alt+Shift+F9 | ⌥⇧F9 | Test archive |
| Ctrl+F | ⌘K | Connect to server (FTP and more) |
| Ctrl+T Ctrl+W | ⌘T ⌘W | New tab, close tab |
| Ctrl+Tab Ctrl+Shift+Tab | ⌃Tab ⌃⇧Tab | Next, previous tab |
| Ctrl+Enter | ⌃Return | Put the file name in the command line |
| Show hidden files (Configuration) | ⇧⌘. | Show hidden files |
| F9 (menu) | ⇧⌘P | Command palette: every command by name |
Things that work differently§
Drives are volumes§
A Mac has no drive letters. Everything starts at the startup disk (“Macintosh HD”), and other disks appear under /Volumes. The pop-up button before each path is your drive bar: it lists disks with free space, the Finder's places (Home, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Applications…) and your hotlist folders. External and network disks can be ejected from its Eject submenu.
Delete moves to the Trash§
F8 moves items to the Trash, from where the Finder can put them back. Use ⇧F8 to delete without the Trash.
The mouse follows Mac rules§
- Click puts the cursor on an item. ⌘-click marks or unmarks it, ⇧-click marks everything from the cursor to the click.
- The right mouse button opens a context menu like the Finder's. Right-button marking is not available.
- Dragging marked files drags all of them. Dropping follows the Finder: ⌥ copies, ⌘ moves, otherwise a drop on the same disk moves and a drop on another disk copies.
Packages look like files§
Apps and other bundles (.app, .bundle, Photos libraries) are folders that macOS shows as one file. Return opens them as the Finder would. ⌥⌘↓ (Go › Show Package Contents) enters them as folders.
Hidden files start with a dot§
Files like .zshrc and .DS_Store are hidden on macOS. ⇧⌘. shows or hides them, the same key as in the Finder.
Configuration is not an INI file§
Settings live in PaneShift › Settings (⌘,): Colors, Columns, Appearance, Keys, Button Bar, Access and Language. Total Commander's usercmd.ini buttons are user commands on the button bar; its cm_ command names are command IDs such as file.copy.
What PaneShift adds§
- Quick Look (⌘Y) and a Quick Look-based Quick View panel.
- Instant copies on APFS disks (clones), Finder tags and iCloud status columns.
- SFTP, SCP, WebDAV and S3 built in, with passwords in the Keychain.
- The Spotlight index and on-device text recognition in Find Files.
- Shortcuts, AppleScript, the Services menu and the Share menu.
See Mac integration.
Not available yet§
These Total Commander features are not part of PaneShift today:
- Total Commander plugins (WCX, WFX, WLX, WDX). They are Windows DLLs and cannot run on a Mac. Archives, servers and viewers are built in instead, and scripts cover simple automation.
- The tree view.
- The quick filter (Ctrl+S) and the folder history list (Alt+↓). Back and forward work.
- File comments (
descript.ion). - Changing files inside an existing archive, creating RAR archives, multi-volume and self-extracting archives.
- FXP, direct copying between two FTP servers. Copying between servers works, but through your Mac.
- Operations as administrator.