Dexterity: Articulate file management for the Mac

Dexterity was born out of frustration with the Finder's incomplete support for keyboard driven navigation and file management. Lovingly crafted for keyboard oriented Mac users, Dexterity combines powerful features of the command line such as glob pattern selection with the intuitive simplicity of the graphical user interface to create a file management tool with unprecedented expressiveness.

Features

100% keyboard driven

Dexterity was designed with power users in mind. The first principle is efficient, articulate file management so you never have to break your stride or drop tempo by reaching for the mouse. With a little practice, Dexterity facilitates a level of fluency that is just like a conversation with your Mac.

Unlimited file system undo

With all that power, it would be dangerous to operate without a safety net. Fortunately, Dexterity provides unlimited file system undo for every file move, rename, group, copy… in fact everything you do with Dexterity can be undone until the directories you're working with are changed by another program.

Tabbed file browsing

Dexterity's one-window, tabbed interface lets you move around the file system with ease. One window means files are always in view the way you like it, and because everything is keyboard operated, you can switch tabs or directories with a keystroke.

Cut-and-paste files and directories

Dexterity allows you to move files around your system by cut-and-paste which means you can re-organise your files without touching the mouse. You can tell which files are currently 'on the clip' by looking at them, so you know what will be moved or copied when you hit Command-V. Like everything else you do in Dexterity, unlimited undo is supported for all file move and copy operations.

View hidden files and directories

If you're tied of starting up Terminal to work with hidden svn or configuration files, Dexterity may be just the ticket. You can easily toggle hidden files on or off and work with them like any other file.

Group and ungroup directories

Dexterity's powerful group files command allows you to move the selected files into a new directory at a keystroke. Combined with Dexterity's powerful glob pattern selection feature and keyboard based sorting, this is an extremely quick way to sort directories into like files. You can even ungroup an existing directory, moving its contents up into the parent. It even works across deep directory trees.

Glob pattern file selection

Previously available only in the domain of the command line, Dexterity brings glob pattern file selection to the GUI. This is a handy way to quickly select all files of the same type, or matching a particular naming convention. Better than the command line: the selection works on all files in the current view, which can include expanded directory trees. You're not just limited to the working directory. Once selected, you can manipulate the files with Dexterity's powerful keyboard driven commands.

Create files at a keystroke

Power users and programmers often need to create new text files; unfortunately, the Finder expects you to do this in other applications. With Dexterity, you can create an empty file at a keystroke. Combined with agile directory navigation, this makes it easy to quickly set up file structures for programming or outlining projects.

Multi-level directory filtering

The filter field allows you to rapidly filter the directory listing to files which contain a given substring. This also works with expanded directory trees which means you can focus only on, say, all the RTF files within the sub-folders of a given directory. Selection and manipulation commands apply only to those files currently visible through the filter. The combination of pattern based selection and filtering is a powerful, two-tier system for rapidly finding and manipulating like sets of files.

Fast multi-file rename

Ever found yourself needing to rename a large set of files and cursing the tedium? No longer. With Dexterity you can rename multiple files just as quickly and easily as you rename a single file. Each file is automatically suffixed with a number. Like everything else, multi-file rename is accomplished in a keystroke and completely undoable.

System Requirements

What? No PowerPC support?

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