Everyday work

Copying, moving and deleting

F5 to F8 work as in Total Commander. Operations run in the background with progress, pause and a queue, and PaneShift asks before it overwrites anything.

Copying (F5)§

Mark the items (or put the cursor on one) and press F5 or ⌘5. The dialog suggests the other panel's folder.

Destination: a folder to copy into. When you copy a single item you can type a new name instead, and the copy gets that name.
Verify copied files: reads every copy back and compares it with the original.
OK starts at once. Queue waits until the operations queued before it have finished, like F2 in Total Commander's copy dialog.

On an APFS disk, copies within the same volume are clones: they finish instantly and take no extra space until one of them changes. Copies keep dates, permissions, tags and extended attributes.

Moving and renaming (F6)§

F6 or ⌘6 moves the items to the other panel's folder, or to the path you type. On the same disk a move is a rename and takes no time. Between disks PaneShift copies, then removes the originals once the copy is complete.

⇧F6 renames the item under the cursor in place. The name is preselected without its extension. To rename many files at once, use the Multi-Rename Tool.

New folders and files§

F7, ⌘7 or ⇧⌘N: New Folder.
⇧F4: New File. Creates an empty file with the name you type.

Deleting (F8)§

F8, ⌦ (Delete on a full keyboard, fn-⌫ on a MacBook), ⌘8 or ⌘⌫ moves the items to the Trash after you confirm. The Finder's Put Back works on them.
⇧F8, ⇧⌦ or ⌥⌘⌫ deletes them permanently. This can't be undone.

After deleting or moving, the cursor goes to the next item that is left, so you can keep working with the keyboard.

When a file already exists§

If a file with the same name exists in the destination, PaneShift stops and asks:

Overwrite / Overwrite All: Replace this existing file, or every one for the rest of the operation.
Overwrite All Older: For the rest of the operation, replace files only when they are older than the ones you copy; newer ones are skipped.
Skip / Skip All: Leave this file out, or every file that already exists.
Keep Both: Copy under a free name, such as “Report 2.pdf”.
Cancel: Stop the operation.

Folders with the same name are merged.

When a file can't be read or written, the choices are Retry, Skip, Skip All and Cancel. PaneShift refuses to copy a folder into itself.

Undo§

⌘Z (Edit › Undo) reverses the last file operation, ⇧⌘Z does it again. The menu names the step, for example “Undo Move”.

Copies go to the Trash, moves and renames go back where they came from, and items moved to the Trash are put back.
New folders and files, and the renames of a Multi-Rename session, can be undone too.
Undo never deletes anything for good. A file changed since the operation, or one whose old name is now taken, is left alone, and PaneShift tells you which.
Permanent deletion, overwritten files and operations on servers can't be undone.

The Operations window§

⌥⌘O (File › Show Operations) shows every running and queued operation. It opens by itself for long operations. Each operation has two progress bars: the upper one for the file being copied now, the lower one for the whole operation, with items and data done out of the total, the speed and the time left. While PaneShift is still finding out what there is to copy, it says so and shows how much it has found.

Pause holds an operation; Resume continues it. Downloads from FTP and SFTP servers resume where they stopped.
Cancel stops it. Files already copied stay where they are.
Queued operations show “Queued — waits for the previous operation”.
Packing and unpacking archives show progress and can be cancelled, but not paused.

Drag and drop§

Drag between the panels, to and from the Finder and other apps. Dragging a marked item drags all marked items.
Drop on a folder row to put the items into that folder, or anywhere else in the list for the folder the panel shows.
The Finder's rules apply: hold ⌥ to copy, ⌘ to move. Without a key, items move within the same disk and are copied to another disk.
You can drag files out of an archive or a server panel. They are unpacked or downloaded when you drop them.
Files dragged from Mail, Photos and similar apps are copied in.

Clipboard§

⌘C and ⌘V (also Copy and Paste Items in the right-click menu) work with the Finder's clipboard: copy files in the Finder and paste them into a panel, or the other way round. Hold ⌥ for Move Items Here (⌥⌘V), which moves them instead. Items copied from a server or an archive can be pasted into the other panel too.

When the clipboard holds something other than files, ⌘V makes a file of it in the panel's folder: an image becomes Pasted Image 2026-10-24 at 17.05.12.png (a screenshot taken with ⌃⇧⌘4 goes straight into the folder you're in), text becomes a .txt file, styled text an .rtf, a PDF a .pdf and a web address a .webloc link. ⌘Z takes it away again.

Copy Name (⇧⌘C) and Copy Path (⌥⌘C) copy text instead.

Right-click an item for a menu laid out like the Finder's: Open, Open With, Move to Trash, Get Info (Change Attributes), Rename (Multi-Rename when several items are marked), Compress, Quick Look, Copy, Copy Path, Copy Name, Share, Tags, Copy to Other Panel, Move to Other Panel and Open in Terminal. Right-click empty space for commands about the folder itself, including Paste Items.

Opening files§

Return opens a file in its default app. Open With in the right-click menu lists other apps.
⌥⌘T opens the current folder in Terminal.
⇧⌘S shows the Share menu: AirDrop, Mail, Messages and other services.