Folder Slice Quick Start Guide

Introduction

Folder Slice is a productivity tool designed to make file access on Mac more convenient, helping users access files more efficiently, maintain workflow fluidity, and focus on important tasks. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced user, this guide will help you get started quickly and take full advantage of this powerful tool.

Installation and Initial Setup

Download and Installation

  • Visit the Folder Slice official website, click the download button to be redirected to the Mac App Store.
  • Open the Mac App Store, search for "Folder Slice", click download and install.

Initial Setup

  1. After opening the app, an icon will appear in the menu bar at the top right of your screen.
  2. Click the icon to display Folder Slice's main interface.
  3. Follow the prompts to click the "Add Folder" button and select frequently used folders to add.

Understanding the Main Interface

Folder Slice's main interface is divided into several sections:

  • Top Area: Contains the file list area and file filtering area

    • File List Area: Displays the list of currently added folders, and includes buttons to add folders and pin the main window.
    • File Filtering Area: Contains search box, date filters, file type filters, file tag filters, and view switching buttons

  • File Display Area: Shows files/folders in the currently selected folder. Depending on the file display view, this area will show either list view or thumbnail view. Right-click on files/folders to perform operations such as opening, copying, or deleting. Right-click on empty space to access sorting options.

  • Bottom Area: Contains the task queue button, display area, settings button, and quick action area that automatically appears when files are dragged to the bottom.

    • Task Queue Button: Shows an overview of current tasks; click to view detailed running task queue.
    • Settings Button: Click to enter the settings page for Folder Slice customization.
    • Display Area: Automatically shows relevant information based on file selection, such as the number of items in the current folder or the name of selected files.
    • Quick Action Area: Automatically appears when files are dragged to the bottom, offering functions like AirDrop, Pin to Desktop, Move to Trash, etc. Drag files to the target area to trigger the corresponding action.

Adding and Managing Favorite Folders

Adding Favorite Folders

  • Click the add button on the right of the folder list to open a window where you can select folders to add.
  • Right-click on any added folder and select "Add Folder" to open a window where you can select folders to add.
  • You can also drag folders into the top area, which will display a confirmation window; click "Add" to complete.

Removing Added Folders

  • Right-click any added folder and select the "Remove" option.
  • In Settings-Folders page, right-click the folder you want to remove from the folder list and select "Remove".

Updating Folder Display Names

  • In Settings-Folders page, right-click a folder in the list and select "Edit Display Name" to customize the folder display name.

Sorting Favorite Folders

  • In the main page folder list, directly drag folders to reorder them.
  • In Settings-Folders page, directly drag folders in the folder list to reorder them.

Quick Access and File Sharing

Quick Access to Files

  1. Use provided shortcuts such as clicking the menu bar icon, keyboard shortcuts, or hot corners to quickly open the main interface.
  2. Click different folders at the top to quickly switch to the corresponding folder and display its contents. (The first folder is selected by default, showing its files/folders.)

Quick File Sharing

  • Simply drag files to anywhere on your screen, such as email, chat windows, browsers, etc., to quickly share them. You can also select multiple files/folders by dragging a selection box and share them in batch.
  • Drag files to the quick action area at the bottom of the screen, select "AirDrop" to open the AirDrop window, and select the device you want to share with.
  • Right-click selected files/folders and choose "AirDrop" to quickly share files.

File Display Views and Sorting

File Display Views

Folder Slice provides two file display views: list view and thumbnail view.

  • List View: Shows file name, type, size, modification date, etc., ideal for viewing detailed file information. You can right-click the header to choose which columns to display.
  • Thumbnail View: Shows file thumbnails, ideal for viewing images, videos, and other multimedia files.
  • Click the "List View" or "Thumbnail View" button in the top right of the file display area to quickly switch between views.
  • Each folder has independent settings; when switching folders, it automatically uses that folder's view configuration.

File Sorting

Folder Slice provides multiple file sorting methods to help users sort according to their needs, such as by name, type, size, creation date, modification date, etc.

  • In thumbnail view, right-click on empty space, select "Sort by" option, and choose your preferred sorting method.
  • In list view, click the column headers like "Name", "Type", "Size", "Date Created", "Date Modified", etc., to quickly switch sorting methods.

Prioritize Folders

  • In thumbnail view, right-click on empty space, select "Prioritize Folders" under the sorting options to display folders at the top of the file list.

File Filtering

Filtering Files

The file filtering area at the top of the main page provides date filtering, file type filtering, file tag filtering, and other functions. Click on the desired filter and select the filtering conditions.

  • Default Filters: Folder Slice provides fixed date filters and file type filters by default
  • Dynamic Filters: Folder Slice automatically generates dynamic date filters based on the files in your added folders, such as "Today", "Yesterday", "Last 7 Days", "Last 30 Days", etc., and displays the number of files for each date filter and file type filter option. Options with no files are automatically grayed out and unselectable. You can see the number of files for each option at a glance and quickly select the desired filter condition. You need to enable dynamic filters in Settings-Filters page.
  • Tag Filtering: The tag filtering feature automatically indexes tags of files/folders in the current folder and generates corresponding tag options. Click on the desired tag to filter.

Editing Filter Options

In Settings-Filters page:

  • Set the basis for date filtering, such as filtering by "Creation Date" or "Modification Date", or generate dynamic filter options
  • Edit existing file type filter options, such as adding new file types to the image type filter, deleting existing file type filter options, or adding new file type filter options

Quick Preview

System Quick Look

Select a file you want to preview and press the spacebar to quickly preview its content. This works just like Mac's built-in Quick Look feature.

Folder Slice Hover Preview

Folder Slice provides a hover preview feature that offers a more convenient preview method for certain scenarios beyond the system's built-in Quick Look. It also supports preview for special file types and provides specialized rendering effects for a better preview experience.

How to Use

  • By default, in the file display area, hover your mouse over a file and press the spacebar. Folder Slice will display a floating window near the file showing the preview content.
  • You can also set it to automatically preview when hovering in Settings. With this enabled, simply hover your mouse over a file and Folder Slice will display a floating window with the preview content.

Settings

  • Folder Slice provides more detailed configuration for hover preview, such as hover time settings, which can be adjusted in Settings-General-Enhanced Display.
  • It supports preview of all common file formats, but you need to manually add the file types you want to preview in Settings-General-Enhanced Display. Only the most commonly used formats are enabled by default; you can add more as needed.

Additional Preview Support

For specific file types, Folder Slice provides extra support:

  • Audio files: Optimized player interface, supports MIDI file preview
  • Subtitle files: SRT, FCPXML formats can directly display formatted subtitle content
  • Markdown: Directly displays rendered content
  • SVG images: Displays at optimal size

Display Position

Folder Slice provides 8 display positions, including:

  • Menu bar icon (default)
  • Top left corner
  • Top right corner
  • Bottom left corner
  • Bottom right corner
  • Top center
  • Left center
  • Right center

You can choose your preferred display position in Settings-Window. When you switch display positions, except for the default menu bar icon, other positions will automatically enable hot corner quick trigger functionality. Simply move your mouse to the screen edge to trigger Folder Slice's main interface for quick file access. More trigger methods can be set in Settings-Trigger Methods.

Quick Trigger Methods

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • The default keyboard shortcut is Command + Shift + D. You can change this in Settings-Shortcuts.

Hot Corners

  • Since the default window position is the menu bar icon, the hot corner shortcut is disabled by default. When you select the menu bar icon position, you can enable the top-right hot corner in Settings-Shortcuts. Moving your mouse to the top-right corner of the screen will trigger Folder Slice's main interface.
  • When you set a position other than the menu bar icon, the hot corner shortcut is automatically enabled. Moving your mouse to the corresponding screen edge will trigger Folder Slice's main interface. For example, the top-right corner display position's hot corner is at the top-right corner of the screen, and the left center display position's hot corner is at the left center of the screen (with height matching the window height).
  • You can disable the hot corner shortcut in Settings-Shortcuts.
  • In Settings-Shortcuts, you can set the hot corner trigger to delay triggering and set the delay time, such as 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 2 seconds, etc.

Middle Mouse Button

  • If you use a mouse, you can enable the middle mouse button trigger option in Settings-Shortcuts. Click the middle mouse button to quickly open Folder Slice's main interface.

Optimization Solutions

Folder Slice provides various optimization solutions to help you operate files more efficiently and improve work productivity.

  • Pin Folder Slice window to desktop: In Settings-Window, enable the "Pin Window" option. The Folder Slice window will be pinned to the desktop with higher priority than all other windows and will remain even when switching desktops.
  • Pin files to top: In thumbnail view, right-click a file and select "Pin to Top". The file will be displayed at the top. Each time you open that folder, the file will always appear at the top for quick access.
  • And more

Professional Tools

Folder Slice provides professional tools for certain files to help you complete specialized tasks more quickly, such as compressing videos, converting video formats, converting SRT to FCPXML, etc. Simply right-click a file and select the corresponding quick action from the context menu. For example, right-click an SRT subtitle file and select "Convert to FCPXML" - Folder Slice will automatically convert the file to FCPXML format and save it in the current folder. For batch operations on large files, such as compressing 10 videos, Folder Slice will automatically add them to the task queue and process them one by one in the background until all are complete, so you don't need to worry about performance issues.

More Display Settings

  • File Extension Display: In thumbnail view, you can enable the display file extensions on icons option in Settings-General-Enhanced Display. File icons will show clear file extensions for easy identification.
  • Hide Filename Extensions: In thumbnail view, you can enable the hide filename extensions option in Settings-General-Enhanced Display. File icons will not display file extensions for a cleaner look. It's recommended to use this together with the file extension display on icons feature.
  • Show File Size: In thumbnail view, you can enable the show file size option in Settings-General-File Icons. File size will be displayed below the filename.
  • Show Image Dimensions: In thumbnail view, you can enable the show image dimensions option in Settings-General-File Icons. Image dimensions will be displayed below the filename for image files.
  • File Icon Hover Effect: In thumbnail view, you can set the file icon hover effect option in Settings-General-File Icons (enabled by default). When you hover over a file, the file icon will display a hover shadow effect.
  • Set Icon and Text Size: In thumbnail view, you can set the file icon and text size in Settings-General-Style Settings.
  • Hide Menu Bar Icon: In Settings-General-Style Settings, you can enable the hide menu bar icon option to keep your menu bar clean. Note that this feature can only be used with non-menu bar icon positions; you cannot hide the menu bar icon when using the menu bar icon position.
  • And more

More Behavior Settings

  • Auto-hide Window After Dragging Files: In Settings-General-Behavior Settings, enable the auto-hide window after dragging files option. After dragging files, the window will automatically hide.
  • Continue from Last Visited Subfolder: By default, every time you open a folder, it opens the home page of that folder. However, in Settings-General-Behavior Settings, you can enable the continue from last visited subfolder option. Folder Slice will remember the subfolder you last visited and directly open that subfolder when you reopen.
  • And more

Conclusion

Thank you for choosing and using Folder Slice!

Through this guide, you've completed all the key steps from downloading and installing to efficiently using the app daily. We hope Folder Slice helps you manage and access files more efficiently, enhancing your work and study experience.

Folder Slice continues to update, with more practical features and professional tools coming in the future. We welcome your valuable suggestions during use to help us continuously optimize the product experience.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us through the in-app contact methods. You can also visit our official website for more support or join the user community to share experiences about efficient file management with others.

We wish you a pleasant experience and improved productivity!

Return