Quick Panel Settings

The Quick Panel is a floating workspace designed for high-frequency file retrieval, project context management, and drag-and-drop file staging. When invoked, it docks automatically to the bottom-right corner of the active foreground window, allowing you to access and stage files without switching contexts.

1. Core Architecture & Global Toggle

• Enable Quick Panel: Master switch; when disabled, the hotkey does not intercept input.
• Summon Hotkey: Default Ctrl+F2 (customizable under Settings → Hotkeys).
• Smart Docking & Sizing: Sized by default to half the width and height of the host window (constrained to a minimum of 280 × 200px to guarantee legibility). If a Lertaro window is already focused, summon requests are ignored to avoid stacking; pressing the hotkey while the panel is open closes it.

2. Workspaces

Workspaces organize folders by project or task:

• Workspace Management: The left list manages workspaces (New, Duplicate, Delete), supporting drag-and-drop reordering that maps directly to the horizontal tab bar.
• Properties:
  • Name: Text shown on the tab header (falls back to a localized default name if blank).
  • Enable Switch: Toggles visibility in the tab bar. Clicking the × button on a tab in the panel hides it; re-enable it here.

Selected workspaces are configured across two tabs: Sources and Applications.

3. Sources Configuration

Each source represents a distinct group within the workspace:

• Add Folder: Selects the target directory on disk.
• Display Mode:
  • Recently modified files — Queries the memory index in sub-milliseconds to show recently changed files (newest first).
  • All contents — Shows every file, optionally ordered by last modified date (descending) or by name (handy as a pinned shortcut launcher).
  • Folders only — Lists directories only.
  • Files only — Lists files only.
• Include Subfolders: Recursively includes descendant files when checked.
• Accept Dropped Files: Allows dragging files, folders, or web images from other windows into this group. Lertaro executes a native Windows copy with conflict prompts and undo support.
• Filtering Rules: Uses wildcard patterns or search-syntax @ filters to constrain displayed file types (e.g. *.mp4;*.mkv, *.lnk;:@doc;:@img, or *.lnk;:@doc|img).
• Max Count & Time Limit: Limits total items displayed (0 for unlimited) or restricts results to files modified within N minutes.
• Detailed List vs. Thumbnail Tiles: Choose between a compact list view or thumbnail grid (tiles scale proportionally while preserving image aspect ratios).

4. Plugin Tabs

Plugins can register global dynamic lists into the Quick Panel. The CoreExtensions plugin provides five built-in tabs:

Plugin Tab	Contents
Favorites	Pinned starred items; URLs open directly in your default browser.
History	Items and applications recently launched through Lertaro.
Windows History	Resolves Windows Recent Documents into physical file targets.
Last Directory	Tracks the folder you just navigated in File Explorer or a file dialog.
Recent Files	Aggregates the newest files across all configured folders using the memory index.

Each plugin tab can be enabled/disabled and configured with List or Tile views.

5. Application Binding & Dedicated Blacklist

• Applications: Associate workspace tabs with foreground process names (e.g. chrome.exe or devenv.exe). Summoning the Quick Panel over those apps switches directly to that workspace.
• Quick Panel Only Blacklist: Configure apps where the Quick Panel should not appear. This list is additive to the global blacklist.

6. Panel Navigation Guide

• Live Fuzzy Filtering: A search box in the top-right corner supports fzf fuzzy matching and pinyin aliases to filter the active workspace. It filters names only and never reorders a list; a group whose items all drop out disappears, while its tab stays. Escape clears the filter first and only a second Escape closes the panel.
• Keyboard Navigation: Arrow keys navigate across group boundaries; press Enter to open the highlighted item and the panel stays up. The sequence does not wrap: the first and last visible items are hard ends, empty groups are stepped over, and with nothing selected yet both ↑ and ↓ land on the first item. In tile view the four arrows move around the visual grid instead — ←/→ follow reading order and cross row boundaries, ↑/↓ keep the column.
• Tab Switching: Press Ctrl + 1–9 to jump directly across workspace and plugin tabs.
• QuickLook & Pinning: Press Alt+P to open the docked instant preview; press Ctrl+T — or the pin button in the header — to pin the panel so it stays open when focus is lost.
• Where Focus Lands: Summoning puts the caret in the filter box with the first entry already selected, so typing narrows immediately. While that box holds focus, plugin action hotkeys deliberately stand down — Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C mean text editing here, not file operations.
• Action Flyout: Right-click release (not press) opens the same action flyout the Full Window shows, anchored to the cursor, so a right-click on an unselected row acts on that row. The flyout then owns ↑ ↓ ← →, Enter, Space and Escape. Because it hangs its key handler off the panel, a click-away that would otherwise close the panel is ignored while the flyout is open.
• Mouse on Rows: Left double-click opens; a double-right-click only reopens the flyout and never launches. Middle-click toggles the preview. Hovering a row moves the selection.
• Moving the Panel: A drag strip appears in the header when the pointer approaches it; dragging there moves the panel and it survives the drag (which is why a drag-out from Explorer can land in it).
• Clicking Away: The panel hides ~200 ms after focus leaves, and stands down when you were dragging it, when it is pinned, while the action flyout is open, and while the preview it opened holds the foreground — clicking into your own preview is not clicking away.
• Selection Editing: Clicking blank space inside a group clears the selection in every group at once (unless Ctrl or Shift is held). A rubber-band drag selects within its own group, Ctrl making it additive; a band that starts in one group does not reach into another.
• Dropping Files In: A drag that started inside Lertaro is never accepted, so a half-finished drag-out cannot turn into a stray copy. Because the panel closes on click-away, dragging a file in from Explorer only works while the panel is pinned. Drops are always a copy, never a move.
• Group Headers: Clicking the header's name, path, or rule line collapses and expands the group; Sort and View are separate buttons beside it. Sorting, view mode and collapse state are per session, while tab order and closing a tab persist.