# 93 tips for PaneStack

Short tips for getting more out of PaneStack. Every one describes something in the current build. Shortcuts are the defaults, and any of them can be changed in **PaneStack › Keyboard Shortcuts…**. Get more from your Finder alternative.

## Getting around

1

**Go back with your mouse or trackpad.** The back and forward buttons on a mouse work, and so does swiping (three fingers, or two with "Swipe between pages" on).

2

**Coming from Windows?** Settings › General › Keyboard switches to Windows Explorer keys (Return opens, F2 renames, Backspace goes back) or Total Commander keys (F5 copy, F6 move, F7 new folder, Tab switches panes).

3

**Jump anywhere with ⌘K.** Type a few letters of a folder, file or command and press Return. ⇧⌘P opens the same palette.

4

**Go to Folder completes paths.** Press ⇧⌘G, start typing a path and press Tab to complete it, the way the shell does. ~ means your home folder.

5

**Number your favourite folders.** ⌥⌘B bookmarks the folder you're in. ⌥⌘1 to ⌥⌘9 jump straight back to bookmarks 1 to 9.

6

**Jump back several steps at once.** Go › Back To and Go › Forward To list where you've been, so one click goes back as far as you like.

7

**Finder's Go shortcuts work.** ⇧⌘H Home, ⇧⌘D Desktop, ⇧⌘O Documents, ⌥⌘L Downloads, ⇧⌘A Applications, ⇧⌘U Utilities, ⇧⌘I iCloud Drive, and ⌥⇧⌘L your Library folder.

8

**Save a whole set-up as a workspace.** Window › Workspaces › Save Windows as Workspace… stores every window, tab and pane. ⌃⌥1 to ⌃⌥9 bring one back.

9

**Open in a new tab.** ⌃⌘O opens the selected folder in a new tab instead of replacing the one you're in.

10

**Send an Open or Save dialog to PaneStack's folder.** In any app, with an Open or Save dialog in front, press ⌃⌥G and the dialog jumps to the folder PaneStack is showing. Turn it on in Settings › General. It needs Accessibility permission.

## Views

11

**Five views, five keys.** ⌘1 icons, ⌘2 list, ⌘3 columns, ⌘4 gallery, ⌘5 size map.

12

**See where the space went.** ⌘5 shows the folder as a size map. Big blocks are big items. Click one to go into it.

13

**Folder sizes in the list.** List view shows the real size of each folder, worked out in the background and kept up to date. Hard links are counted once, and cloud files aren't downloaded to measure them. You can turn it off in Settings › Advanced.

14

**Group a folder.** View › Group By groups the items by kind, date modified, size or name.

15

**Show hidden files.** ⇧⌘. shows or hides dotfiles, as in Finder.

16

**Keep folders on top.** Turn on "Keep folders on top" in Settings › General to list folders before files.

17

**Read the README first.** When a folder has a README, PaneStack shows it in a card above the files, collapsed to its first line. Click it to read the rest.

## Panes

18

**Turn on dual pane with ⌃⌘P.** Two folders side by side in one window.

19

**F5 copies and F6 moves to the other pane.** Select files, press F5 to copy them to the folder in the other pane, or F6 to move them. With more than two panes, "the other pane" is the one you used last.

20

**Split in any direction.** View › Panes › Split Right (⌃⌘]) or Split Down (⌃⇧⌘]). Up to 16 panes per window.

21

**Drag a folder to a pane's edge.** Drop it on the left, right or bottom edge of a pane to open it in a new pane on that side.

22

**Zoom one pane.** ⇧⌘↩ lets the active pane fill the window; press it again to bring the others back. ⌥⌘] and ⌥⌘[ move between panes, ⌃⌘U swaps two panes' folders.

## Searching

23

**Filter as you type.** ⌘F filters the folder you're in, instantly, even with 100,000 items. The filter ignores case and accents.

24

**Search in plain words.** ⌥⌘F searches this folder and ⇧⌘F searches this Mac. PaneStack understands kinds, dates and sizes, so "pdfs from last week over 5 mb" works. What it understood appears as chips you can remove.

25

**Find text inside pictures.** Search finds the text in screenshots and scanned PDFs, and pictures by what they show, such as "dog" or "beach". All of it is read on your Mac with Apple's Vision.

26

**Ask in plain English.** Pick "Ask" in the search menu and type a question like "the invoice from Acme last March". On Macs with Apple Intelligence, the on-device model turns it into a search. Nothing is sent to a server.

27

**Save a search as a Smart Folder.** ⌥⌘S saves the search you're running. PaneStack uses Finder's own .savedSearch format, so the Smart Folder opens in Finder too.

28

**Search drives that aren't plugged in.** With "Remember what's on external disks" on in Settings › General, each external disk's file list is saved when it's connected. Unplug it and it appears under Offline Disks in the sidebar, still searchable.

## Copying, moving and undo

29

**Undo anything, even much later.** ⌘Z undoes the last operation. ⌥⌘Z opens the undo history, where any copy, move, rename, organize or sync can be undone, not just the last one.

30

**Move with ⌘C then ⌥⌘V.** As in Finder: copy, then "Move Item Here" with ⌥⌘V moves the files instead of copying them.

31

**Paste a picture or text as a file.** If the clipboard holds an image or text instead of files, ⌘V saves it in the current folder as "Pasted Image.png" or "Pasted Text.txt".

32

**Copies to external drives are checked.** When you copy to a USB, external or network disk, PaneStack reads each file back and compares it before the copy counts as done. You can turn this off in Settings › Advanced.

33

**Copies on the same disk are instant.** On APFS, PaneStack clones files, so copying a 1 GB folder on the same disk takes a fraction of a second and no extra space.

34

**Collect files on the shelf.** ⇧⌘Y opens the shelf, a small floating tray. Drop files on it from different folders, then drag them all out at once, or copy, move or zip them into the folder you're in.

35

**New folder from a selection.** Select some files and press ⌃⌘N to put them into a new folder.

36

**Put Back works.** Right-click an item in the Trash and choose Put Back to return it to where it came from.

## Renaming and organising

37

**Rename many files at once.** Select several files and press Return. You can number them, use dates (including the date a photo was taken), find and replace, use regular expressions, change case or add text. A live preview shows the new names, and one Undo puts them all back.

38

**The extension is safe when you rename.** Return renames one file and keeps its extension unless you change it, and PaneStack warns you before changing an extension.

39

**Sort photos into dated folders.** Right-click a folder › Reorganise › Sort into Year › Month Folders (or Year, or Year › Month › Day). It uses the date the photo was taken when there is one. Flatten Folder…, Split into Parts… and Find Duplicates… are in the same menu.

40

**Organize a folder.** Reorganise › Organize This Folder… (or Go › Organize This Folder…) shows which files go into which new folders, by kind or by date, before anything moves. Untick files, rename folders, then organize it all as one undoable step.

41

**Clear out Downloads.** Go › Organize Downloads… sorts it into folders; Tools › Downloads Inbox… (⌥⌘J) shows new downloads one at a time to keep, file, rename or trash.

42

**Tag from the keyboard.** ⌃1 to ⌃7 toggle Finder's colour tags (Red to Gray) on the selection.

## Automation

43

**Set up folder rules.** ⌥⇧⌘R opens Folder Rules. For example: "when a PDF with 'invoice' in its name arrives in Downloads, rename it by date, tag it and move it to Documents/Invoices." Files still downloading are left alone until they're done.

44

**Try a rule before it runs.** In the rule editor, Preview Matches lists the files the rule would act on without changing anything. Every real run is logged and can be undone.

45

**Use placeholders in rule names.** Rename actions understand {name}, {ext}, {date}, {date:FORMAT}, {created} and {counter}.

46

**Keep two folders in step.** Select two folders, right-click › Compare & Sync Folders… to see what's only on each side and what's newer, then sync one way or both ways. Sync never deletes, and the whole sync can be undone.

47

**Run your own scripts on files.** Put executable scripts in ~/Library/Application Support/PaneStack/Scripts. They appear in the context menu's Scripts submenu and run with the selected paths as arguments.

## Files, archives and media

48

**Open archives like folders.** Right-click a zip, 7z, rar, tar or iso › Browse Contents to look inside without expanding it, and drag out just what you need.

49

**Expand every archive at once.** In a folder that holds archives, right-click an empty spot › Extract All Archives Here…. It expands them all and can move the archives to the Trash afterwards.

50

**Convert and shrink media.** Right-click pictures › Convert to JPEG, PNG, HEIC or TIFF, or to a PDF. Videos convert to MP4 (plays everywhere) or HEVC (about half the size). Shrink makes smaller copies of pictures and PDFs. The original is never touched, and a result that didn't come out smaller is thrown away.

51

**Share without the hidden details.** Right-click › Share Without Hidden Details… makes a copy without the photo's location, camera details, PDF author and the "downloaded from" record.

52

**Lock a folder with a password.** Right-click a folder › Encrypt Folder… seals it into an AES-256 encrypted disk image. The original stays until you choose to move it to the Trash.

53

**See where photos were taken.** In a folder of photos, right-click an empty spot › Show Photos on Map.

54

**Compare two files.** Select two files and right-click › Compare to see a text diff, or two pictures side by side or overlaid with a slider.

55

**Get a file's earlier versions back.** Right-click a file › Versions… lists the versions apps saved and Time Machine local snapshots. Open one, save a copy or restore it. The current version is kept.

56

**Check a download's hash.** File › Checksums… works out SHA-256, SHA-1 and MD5. Paste the hash the website gave you to see whether it matches.

## Previews and AI

57

**Previews that understand code.** Code is shown with syntax colours, Markdown is rendered, CSV and TSV appear as a table, and JSON is pretty-printed, all inside PaneStack.

58

**Edit small text files in the preview.** Click Edit in the text preview, make the change and Save. PaneStack refuses to save if the file changed on disk in the meantime.

59

**Summarise a document.** Right-click a PDF or document › Summarise for three short points from Apple's on-device model (macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence).

60

**Let it name your scans.** Right-click a scan or screenshot › Suggest a Name… proposes a name from the file's own text, such as 2026-03 Acme Invoice.pdf.

## Phone

61

**Send files to any phone.** Go › Send to Phone… shows a QR code. Scan it with an iPhone or Android phone on the same Wi-Fi and tap to download. No app, cable or cloud is involved.

62

**Pull photos in from a phone.** Go › Receive from Phone… does the reverse: photos and files sent from the phone's web page land in the folder you're in. The link has a random secret and stops working when you close the panel.

## Developers

63

**Git status at a glance.** In a repository, changed, new and conflicted files get badges, ignored files are dimmed, and the status bar shows the branch and how many files changed.

64

**Run project scripts and clear build folders.** In a code project, right-click an empty spot. PaneStack can open the project in your editor, run its scripts, and move build folders such as node_modules to the Trash with Clean Build Folders….

65

**A terminal right here.** ⌃⌘ opens a real terminal under the files: your login shell, in the folder you're looking at, and it cd`s along as you browse (never while a program is running). vim, top and tab completion all work; ⌘K clears, ⌘C/⌘V copy and paste, and pasting copied files types their paths. Right-click for "Pane Follows the Shell's Folder". ⌥⌘T still opens the folder in Terminal.

66

**Modules beside your files.** View › Panes › Add Module Pane puts a Terminal, a live Preview of what's selected, the Shelf or a Notes pane (a note per folder, saved by itself and never written into the folder) next to the active pane. Click a module's name to switch it to another; scenes remember them.

67

**Copy the path the way you need it.** ⌥⌘C copies the path. The Copy Path menu also has Path with ~, File URL and Path for Shell (escaped).

68

**Use PaneStack from the command line.** panestack opens the current folder, panestack ~/Projects opens a folder or reveals a file, and panestack -s "pdfs last week over 5 mb" searches. Link scripts/panestack into your PATH. There is also a URL scheme: panestack://open?path=…, panestack://search?q=….

## When things go wrong

69

**Undo works after quitting.** The last 20 operations of the past 24 hours can still be undone with ⌘Z after PaneStack restarts.

70

**See every problem in one list.** Edit › Show Problems lists what couldn't be copied, moved or changed, says why in plain words, and offers Retry where trying again is safe.

71

**Find out what's holding a file.** When a disk won't eject or a file won't delete because it's in use, PaneStack names the apps holding it open.

72

**Fix broken aliases.** Go › Find Broken Aliases Here… finds aliases and symbolic links whose target is gone.

73

**Make "Show in Finder" open PaneStack.** Turn on "Use PaneStack for “Show in Finder” from other apps" in Settings, and other apps' Show in Finder lands in PaneStack. The same switch turns it off again.

## Servers

74

**Add a server to the sidebar.** Go › Add Remote Server (WebDAV, S3, SFTP)… saves an SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2 or other S3-compatible server under Servers. Passwords and keys go in your Keychain.

75

**Share a file from S3 with a link that expires.** In a bucket, right-click a file and choose Copy Share Link… for a link that works for 1 hour up to 7 days.

## Look

76

**Give a folder its own colour and symbol.** Right-click a folder and choose Colour and Symbol… to pick one of the kind colours (or the theme's) and a symbol. It shows on the folder's card, in lists and columns, in the sidebar if it's a favourite, on Start and in the path. Reset Colour and Symbol puts it back. Nothing is written into the folder itself.

77

**Let the desktop show through.** Settings › Appearance › Window background: Frosted blurs what's behind the space around the panes, Clear shows it sharp, and the Tint slider sets how much of the theme's colour stays. The panes stay solid so files read the same. With Reduce Transparency on in System Settings the window stays solid.

78

**Narrow panes keep everything.** When a pane gets narrow the view switch becomes one button with a menu (card sizes are in it too), and the kinds that don't fit go behind "+N". Nothing is lost, it's one click further.

79

**Read the size map.** Tiles are tinted by kind, the same colours as the chips under the title; a folder's tile has a bar of what's inside. Click a kind in "Space by kind" to pick its tiles out, and use the arrow keys to move between tiles.

## PDFs

80

**Combine PDFs and pictures into one PDF.** Select them, right-click › PDF › Combine into One PDF…. A small sheet lists them in order; drag the rows or use the arrows, name the file and press Combine. The originals are kept, and ⌘Z removes the new file.

81

**Split a PDF.** PDF › Split PDF… makes one file per page, or one file for each range you type: 1-3, 5, 8- gives three files (pages 1 to 3, page 5, and page 8 to the end).

82

**Make a PDF smaller, and see by how much first.** PDF › Compress PDF… shows the size before and after at Smallest, Balanced or Sharp. Only the pictures inside are re-saved; text stays sharp and searchable. Replace Original sends the old file to the Trash, so ⌘Z brings it back. Keep Both writes a "(smaller)" copy instead.

83

**Turn pages the right way up.** PDF › Rotate PDF Left, Right or Upside Down turns every page of the selected PDFs. ⌘Z undoes it.

84

**Make a scan searchable.** PDF › Make PDF Searchable reads scanned pages on your Mac with Apple's Vision and writes the words as an invisible layer over the picture, so you can search, select and copy them. You get a "(searchable)" copy; pages that already have text are left alone.

85

**Find the PDF tools from the keyboard.** They are in File › PDF as well, so ⌘K finds "Split PDF", "Compress PDF" and the rest while PDFs are selected.

## Start, Library and looks

86

**Start is one key away.** ⌘0 opens Start: your disks as rings, one-click jobs such as Organize Downloads, the folders you were just in and your latest files.

87

**Browse by kind in the Library.** ⇧⌘0 shows pictures, videos, music and documents from your usual folders, with a search that understands plain words.

88

**Narrow a folder with a kind chip.** The coloured line under a folder's name shows what it holds. Click a chip such as Pictures or Documents to show only that kind; click it again to see everything.

89

**See whole pictures in Mosaic.** ⌘6 lays pictures out in rows without cropping them. In the card view, S, M and L (or ⌘+ and ⌘−) change the card size.

90

**Pick a theme.** View › Theme (or Settings › Appearance) switches between eight colour themes, each in light and dark.

91

**Save a pane layout as a scene.** ⇧⌘L opens Scenes: save the panes you have open, with a thumbnail, and bring a layout back with ⌃⌘1 to ⌃⌘9.

92

**Link two panes.** ⌃⌘L links the panes so that going into a folder in one goes into the folder of the same name in the other, which is handy for comparing two trees.

## Licence

93

**Move your licence to a new Mac.** A licence works on one Mac at a time, with every future version included. On the old Mac choose PaneStack › Licence… › Deactivate This Mac, then enter the same key on the new one. Lost or broken Mac? Write to support and we'll free the licence.

PaneStack, the Finder alternative for Mac · macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · [support@panestack.app](mailto:support@panestack.app)[Home](https://panestack.app/index.html) · [Keyboard shortcuts](https://panestack.app/shortcuts.html) · [Guides](https://panestack.app/guides.html) · [Finder alternatives compared](https://panestack.app/best-finder-alternatives-mac.html) · [Release notes](https://panestack.app/releases.html) · [Support](https://panestack.app/support.html) · [Refunds](https://panestack.app/refund.html) · [Privacy](https://panestack.app/privacy.html) · [Terms](https://panestack.app/terms.html)