Manual

Cmd is the Mac key. Almost every shortcut also accepts the Windows Control key, because the app listens for both.

1. The window

The window title is the folder name. The app follows the Mac light or dark theme, and switches live when the system theme changes.

Tabs

• Cmd+T new tab, Cmd+W close tab, or the + button.
• Ctrl+Tab next tab, Ctrl+Shift+Tab previous tab.
• Drag a tab to move it.
• Each tab keeps its own Back and Forward history, and its own view mode.
• The last tab cannot be closed.

Windows

• Cmd+N opens a second window on the same folder.
• Right click a folder → Open in new window.
• Each window is independent: its own tabs, history and undo list.

2. Moving around

The address bar shows clickable path parts. A long path keeps the last few parts and shows … for the start.

3. View modes

Five modes, in the toolbar menu or with Cmd+1 … Cmd+5:

1. Details — Name, Size, Kind, Date Modified. Click a column to sort.
2. Extra large icons — 160 px
3. Large icons — 96 px
4. Medium icons — 56 px
5. List — small icons in columns

Three rules match Windows:

• Folders always sort before files, in both directions.
• Size sorts by real bytes and dates by real time, never by text.
• Columns can be dragged and resized.

Previews

The icon views show real previews for photos, PDF, video, Office, Pages, Numbers and Keynote files. Images are read directly. Everything else asks macOS Quick Look, the same source Finder uses, from inside the app, so nothing flashes in the Dock.

• Previews are 256 px, so they stay sharp in Extra large icons.
• Apps and disk images keep their normal icon on purpose: Quick Look is slow on them, and the normal icon is already the right picture.
• Turn previews off in View › Show Previews.

Hovering any file shows its full name and the folder it sits in, which helps when a long name is cut short.

4. The left panel

One tree, folders only, with four sections.

Quick access

Your own shortcut list. It starts with Home, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, Movies and Applications.

• Right click any folder → Add to Quick access.
• Right click a Quick access row → Remove from Quick access.
• The list is saved, and comes back next time you open the app.
• Quick access rows never offer Rename, Cut or Delete, so tidying your shortcuts can never damage a real folder.

This Mac

Your disks. Macintosh HD opens into a folder tree that shows folders only, like the Windows navigation pane. The tree follows the main pane: open a folder anywhere, and the tree opens down to it and highlights it.

Locations

Network disks and cloud folders, found automatically:

• anything mounted that is not a local disk;
• Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox folders;
• iCloud Drive.

Several accounts of the same service are listed separately, with the account name, for example Google Drive - you@example.com.

Trash

Clicking it opens the Trash, and the Trash row stays highlighted. Its own right click menu holds only Empty Trash; the items inside it offer Restore.

macOS guards the Trash. If the list looks empty when you know it is not, give the app Full Disk Access in System Settings → Privacy & Security. After an update you mustgive that permission again.

5. Cloud files

A file that lives online and is not downloaded shows a small cloud next to its name, like Finder. The check uses the real macOS flag, so it matches what Finder shows.

Open such a file and the cloud disappears by itself once the download finishes. While a network folder is open, the list quietly checks again every few seconds. On a normal folder that timer does not run.

6. Working with files

Selecting

The selection survives a change of view mode.

Copy, cut, paste

• Cmd+C, Cmd+X, Cmd+V, or the Control versions.
• Right click a folder → Paste into folder pastes without opening it.
• Copying puts the file paths on the system clipboard as file URLs.

Copying and moving show a progress window counted in bytes, so one big file still moves the bar. Big files are copied in 1 MB pieces. Cancel stops the job. Moving inside the same disk is instant: it renames instead of copying.

When a name already exists

One question appears, with four answers:

• Replace — overwrite;
• Keep both — the new one becomes report (2).txt;
• Skip — leave it alone;
• Cancel — stop the whole job.

Pasting into the folder a file already sits in makes report - Copy.txt, like Windows.

Drag and drop

• Drag inside the app, or to and from Finder.
• Same disk → move. Different disk → copy.
• Hold Cmd to force a copy, Control to force a move.
• You can drop on a folder in the left tree. The row lights up, and a closed folder opens if you wait on it for a moment.
• The tree refuses a drop on a section title and on the Trash.

Rename, and making new things

• F2, or right click → Rename. In the file list you type over the name in place.
• New Folder — Cmd+Shift+N, or right click empty space → New › Folder.
• New Text Document — right click empty space → New › Text Document.

Delete

The "delete for good" question shows the file's own preview, so you can see what you are about to lose. Cancel is the default button. A file already in the Trash is not offered "Move to Trash". It is offered Restore instead.

Restore

Right click an item inside the Trash → Restore puts it back where it came from. macOS keeps its own put back note inside Finder's private .DS_Store, so WizMac Explorer writes its own note for the items it trashed.

• Restore to… asks for a folder. Use it for anything Finder or another app trashed, where no note exists.
• A name already in use is never overwritten: the item comes back as name (2).txt.
• Restoring is a move, so Cmd+Z puts it straight back in the Trash, and Restore still works afterwards.

Compress

Right click anything → Compress to .zip. One item makes name.zip; several make Archive.zip. The zip lands next to the files, with a progress window, and it can be undone.

Extract

Right click a .zip → Extract here. The files land in a new folder next to the zip, named after it, with a progress window and a Cancel button. Cancel removes the half folder, and the zip itself is never touched.

• A name clash gets (2), so nothing is overwritten.
• One zip at a time, and it can be undone.
• Entries that try to escape the folder, such as ../../etc/passwd, are skipped and reported.

7. Undo and redo

Cmd+Z undoes, Cmd+Y (or Cmd+Shift+Z) redoes. It works for copy, move, rename, new folder, new text file, zip, extract, restore and delete.

• Undoing a delete takes the file back out of the Trash.
• Undoing a copy removes the copies and keeps the originals.
• Undoing a new thing, a zip or an extract puts it in the Trash. Redo takes that same item back out, so a zip comes back whole and not empty.
• The Edit menu names the job, for example Undo Move of 3 item(s).
• The last 25 jobs are remembered. A new job clears the redo trail.
• Each window has its own list.

8. Search

Two kinds, one box.

Filter this folder — just type. The list narrows as you type. Instant.

Search every folder below — type, then press Return.

• Results show Name, Size, Kind, Date Modified and In Folder.
• Results work in every view mode, icons included, with previews.
• Click a column to sort them.
• Double click a result to open it, or a folder to go there.
• Everything you can do to a file works on a result: copy, zip, delete, Properties, Reveal in Finder.
• Esc leaves the results and brings the folder back.
• It stops at 5000 hits and skips system folders, so it cannot run away.

9. Right click menus

The same menu works on the file list and on the folder tree. A click outside an open menu closes it and does the click, in one move. A right click outside opens the menu for the item you clicked on.

10. Open with, and Properties

Right click a file → Open with lists the real apps macOS knows for that file type, your default one first. Always open with ▸ changes the macOS default for that type, and asks first: Always open .pdf files with Preview?Other… lets you pick any app from /Applications.

Properties (Alt+Return or Cmd+I) shows name, kind, size, location, modified and created dates, permissions and the full path. Folder sizes are counted in the background, so the window opens at once. With several files selected it shows the total, the file and folder counts, and every folder on its own line.

Also here: Show Hidden Files(Cmd+Shift+.), Reveal in Finder, Copy as Path (Cmd+Shift+C) and Terminal here.

11. Every keyboard shortcut

12. Permissions after an update

macOS ties a permission to the app's signature, not to its name or its place on your disk. Every version of WizMac Explorer carries a new signature, because the app is not signed with a paid Apple certificate. So macOS sees each new version as a new, unknown app, and the permissions you gave the old one stop working.

You notice it straight away: the Trash looks empty even though it is not. That is Full Disk Access, gone.

After installing a new version:

1. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access.
2. Find the wizmac-explorer line. Turn its switchoff, then on again.
3. Quit the app and start it again. The switch only counts on a fresh start.

You do not have to remove the line with the − button and add the app again. Turning the switch off and on is enough.

The same is true for Files and Folders, and forAutomation, the permission that lets the app talk to Finder and to Terminal.

13. What it does not do

These are choices, not missing pieces:

• It does not replace Finder. macOS always keeps Finder as the default.
• No "Recent files" list.
• No saved searches.
• No automatic update: a new version must be downloaded and copied over the old app.

See also: WizMac Explorer · Privacy policy · Terms of use