Norton Commander was a prototypical file manager released in the 1980s that used function keys to perform common file operations like viewing, editing, copying, moving, and deleting files. The document provides a cheat sheet of the most used key combinations in Norton Commander and similar file managers for various common file management tasks. It also lists some additional useful key combinations and recommends several cross-platform file manager applications for different operating systems.

1. December 20, 2013
Blue Panels Cheat Sheet
Most used key combinations in Norton Commander like apps
About Norton Commander
Key
Action
F1
Help
due to its filename NC.exe) was a
F2
User Menu
prototypical orthodox file
F3
View File. Some File Manager apps support
also switching between ASCII and HEX mode
views.
acquired in 1990 by the
F4
Edit File
Symantec corporation).
F5
Copy File or Directory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
F6
Move/Rename File or Directory. If you are
‘inside’ of some archive it will copy files from it
into target destination you have selected on
opposite panel.
F7
Make Directory
F8
Delete File or Directory
Norton Commander (commonly
shortened to "NC" by DOS users,
manager (OFM), written by John
Socha and released by Peter
Norton Computing (later
Norton_Commander
This Cheat Sheet
Only most common and most
used key combinations are listed
here, for more details on how to
use each particular application
please refer to its user manual or
help file.
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2. December 20, 2013
F9
Call application menu allocated on top of the
panels.
F10
Exit, if you are inside the internal viewer or
editor it will exit from there, otherwise it exits
from the application
You might need to memorize also some additional key
combinations to make your life easier:
Key
Action
Tab
Jumps between panels
Ctrl + O
Hides/Shows panels. (Doesn’t do the same
thing in muCommander for some reason)
Ctrl + U
View File. Some File Manager apps support
also switching between ASCII and HEX mode
views.
Shift + F4
Create File. In muCommander it is Shift+F7.
Ctrl + Enter
Place in command line name of the selected
file or directory
Almost every single application has number of key
combinations that works together with Functional Keys, like
Shift + Fn, Ctrl + Fn, Alt + Fn. Please refer to your particular file
manager application user manual or help file for more details.
RECOMMENDED FILE MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS
Operating System
OSX
SKITSANOS™
info@skitsanos.com
Application
muCommander
http://www.mucommander.com
Windows
Far Manager
http://farmanager.com
Linux
Midnight Commander
http://www.midnight-commander.org
http://skitsanos.com
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