The interface

Newt’s main window contains two file panes above a terminal panel. Drag the dividers between them to resize.

File panes

Each pane keeps its own location, selection, sort order, filter, and navigation history. The active pane receives keyboard commands. Press Tab to switch panes, Enter to open the focused entry, and Backspace to go to the parent directory.

The pane header contains:

• A focus dot: filled in the accent colour in the focused pane, grey in the active pane while focus is elsewhere (such as the terminal), and outlined in the other pane
• A filesystem selector for local and mounted filesystems
• Clickable path breadcrumbs
• Git branch and working-tree information inside a repository
• Free disk space, when available; select it to open the volume’s Properties
• A button that maximizes the pane; see Maximized layout

Both panes show their cursor, in the accent colour in the focused pane and in grey in the other, so you can see where Tab would land. Selected files have their name in the accent colour.

The status bar shows file and directory counts, hidden entries, the size of the selection, and, while a filter is active, how many entries are shown. A spinner and progress appear while work such as loading, reading Git status, indexing an archive, or searching is under way. A listing that did not load completely, for example because loading was cancelled or a search could not read some directories, is marked partial; hover the marker for the reason.

The window title shows the active pane’s folder and the session, such as logs - Newt [build-01]. Row spacing is set under Appearance → Row Density.

Maximized layout

Press Mod + F11 to replace the split layout with whatever has focus: the active pane alone, or the terminal panel alone. The layout then follows focus: Tab swaps which pane is shown, and moving focus between the terminal and the panes switches between them. Press Mod + F11 again to restore the split and its divider positions.

With the pointer, use the maximize button at the right end of a pane header or the terminal tab bar; it becomes a restore button while maximized. A maximized pane’s header also starts with a button that shows the other pane. New windows always open split.

Selection

Press Insert to toggle the focused item, or hold Shift while moving to extend the selection. File operations act on the selection when one exists, or on the focused item otherwise. See Focus and selection for more ways to select.

Terminal

The terminal panel can be shown, hidden, and resized, and holds multiple tabs. It runs in the same local, SSH, elevated, or WSL session as the panes. Click a terminal to give it keyboard focus. See Terminal and shell.

Command Palette

Press F1 or Mod + Shift + P to search all actions available in the current context, including those without a default shortcut. Viewer and editor commands are not listed.

Use the arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End to move through results. Press Enter to run an action or Escape to close the palette.

Command bar

The command bar along the bottom of the window shows common commands with their shortcuts, such as Copy, Move, Delete, and the Command Palette. Clicking one runs it without moving keyboard focus. To hide it, right-click the bar and choose Hide Command Bar; turn it back on with Show Command Bar under Appearance in Settings.

Accessibility

Newt works with the platform screen readers: VoiceOver on macOS; Narrator, NVDA, or JAWS on Windows; and Orca on Linux. File lists, dialogs, and searchable lists such as the Command Palette announce the focused entry and its state. The terminal and editor do not yet switch to their screen-reader modes automatically.

Icon-only controls have tooltips that include the command’s shortcut, and truncated names show in full on hover. Windows high-contrast themes are respected.

Bidirectional formatting characters in a name, such as a right-to-left override, show as � in the file list, path bar, and operation dialogs. A file named to look like photoexe.jpg therefore reads photo�gpj.exe. Right-to-left names themselves display normally.