Using Filters & Filter Groups

Filters act on your files and folders and can be activated by the View a Filter Bar on/off command. You can also use the Keyboard short cut Alt + F to activate the filter bar.

Optimal Desktop offers a manual filter mode, where you type your filter command in a command line, or pre-defined filters that you define and label.

To Switch between the Manual Mode and Pre-Defined filters use the context menu in the Filter bar. You can also de-activate filters without hiding the bar using the Activate\Deactivate filters command.

You can create filters for files, file extensions and folders. Filter bars only work when you are browsing your desktop. When you activate your filter bar you will de-activate your Page Tabs, so all of your active Page Tabs will be closed.

You can group your filters into filter groups and switch between them. You can for example have a filter group for searching office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and one for searching graphic files (jpg, bmp, ico, ect)

Creating a New Filter

Click Tools > Desktop Manager > Filter Manager. The Filter Manager window displays with 2 options – Filters and Filter Groups. To create a Filter, double-click on the Filters option.

Use the context menu to add a new filter or modify an existing filter. Use the Settings tab to enter your filter commands. For example to filter Word files type in *.doc. You can both include and exclude files in your filter options. Choose the Folder tab in the bottom of the screen to include or exclude folders from this filter.

Creating a New Filter Group

You can create a new Filter Group as follows:

Click Tools > Desktop Manager > Filter Manager. The Filter Manager window displays 2 options – Filters and Filter Groups. To create a Filter Group, choose the Filter Groups option.

Setting Filter Group Options

You now need to assign Filters to your Filter group. Open the Settings tab in the Filter Group:FilterName window, as shown below:

Select the required Filter(s) from the Available Filters pane.

Click the Forward icon . The selected Filter is moved to the Assigned Filters pane.

To remove a Filter from the Assigned Filters pane, select the required Filter and click . The selected Filter is moved to the Available Filters pane.

To select a group of Filters to be assigned or removed, hold down the CTRL key and click on the required Filters. To select a group of Filters that are placed in a row, hold down the SHIFT key and click on the required Filters. Click OK to save your Filter group.

To select your filter groups use the context menu in the Filter Bar.