FileMatrix description
Manage your files effectively with this multi-column file manager

The FileMatrix was designed to be a multi-dimensional file manager which gives you the ability to navigate, organize and manage files effectively.

The FileMatrix name comes from the fact that files are organized like a 3 dimensional matrix of files (files in a column, columns in a board, boards in the program).

This matrix gives you the power to quickly organize in groups the directories in which you navigate often, particularly by putting several directories side by side, and let's you access later each group with just a click of a button.

Here are some key features of "FileMatrix":

Basic
· Extensive integrated help (configuration and help wizard, hints), between 1 and 10 columns for navigation in directories, 30 sets of columns called boards for organizing sets of directories, directory tree navigator, thumbnail pictures, drag-and-drop between columns and boards and to / from other applications, skins, special graphical effects.

Advanced
· 20 containers (which are lists of files that can store, for example, the results of a search), picture converter (including the ability to normalize pictures to a specified size), media player (with the possibility to resume playing later), mouse gestures with a user interface called mouse menu, file hover information (which includes a thumbnail and a played media clip), text search with ranking (like an online search engine), steganography integrated with the viewer / editor (noise management included).

Configuration and help wizard
· When you run the program for the first time, a wizard dialog will be displayed. This dialog will take you through a few steps which explain the most important features of the program and allow you to make some changes to the default interface.
· You can display this dialog anytime you want, from the "Help Wizard" menu.

Navigation
· FileMatrix is dedicated to make file navigation and organization easy.
· You can navigate and manage files using up to 10 columns, and 30 boards. Each column, in each board, can display the content of a different directory. Each column's status is saved, so that the next time you start the program, you can pick up working from where you left.
· Columns can be grouped to act in a similar manner as a menu: when you open a directory listed in a column, its content is displayed in the column at its right. Also, when you "go up", the content of the parent directory is displayed in the column at its left. Still, each column can be used to navigate individually.

Mouse operations
· You can change what to do with the mouse, on a file. You can have 6 click and 4 drag operations at the same time. There is also a customizable mouse menu.

Document organization
· Files are sorted by type: directories, links, programs, documents, and generic files. For programs and documents you can change the recognized extensions.
· Any column can display one of 20 containers. One application for containers is to work with the files resulted from a search. Basically, these files can be displayed in a column and you can work with them just as with the content of a directory.

File hover information
· When the mouse cursor is moved over the top-left area of a file from a column (where the file type would be), and waits for a moment, some information (which includes a thumbnail and a played media clip) about the hovered file is displayed in a popup window. When the mouse is moved away, this window is closed automatically.

Multimedia
· A file-viewer is integrated within the interface, oriented for multimedia. You can play all music or movies in a directory with just one click (automatic play-list), or you can make your own play-list files. It is possible to close a play-list and restart it later from where you stopped it (see the "MPLs" menu).

Search
· The text search within files performs in a similar manner as an online search engine. Found files are displayed in order of a calculated priority. You can simply enter words in an edit-box, and the program will search and rank the found files, giving higher priority to files that contain more words, or words that are near each other, or words that are whole (= not a part of a longer word). The search can be performed in a file's name, description, and / or content.
· You can also search the navigation history for directories (which you previously visited) and files (which you previously launched).
· You can find common text in selected files (for example, if you want to find the name of a person that occurs in all files).

Steganography
· Integrated steganography: documents are hidden in pictures, and stored as PNG pictures.

Skins
· Skins are "faces" for the main window of the program. A skin stores various options for the user interface, like: colors, background picture, buttons style, special effects.
· A skin editor is available, so you can create your own skins, save them and load them at any time.