What "dual-pane" means
A dual-pane (or two-pane, or "commander") file manager splits the window into a left and a right pane. One is active. You mark files in it, press a key, and the files copy or move to the folder in the other pane. There's no clipboard to remember and no second window to line up: source and destination are always both on screen.
The style comes from Norton Commander in the 1980s, and lives on in Total Commander, Midnight Commander and Marta. Its keys are shared across all of them: F5 copies, F6 moves, F7 makes a folder, F8 deletes.
Why it's faster for servers
With servers, the two-pane layout matters even more:
- You see both ends. The local folder and the server folder, or two servers, side by side. You know where the files are going before you press the key.
- The keys do the work. Marking with Space and copying with F5 is quicker than dragging between windows, and works the same on every protocol.
- Patterns scale. Press +, type
*.log, and every match is marked, however many there are.
The keys
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⇥ | Switch to the other pane |
| Space | Mark or unmark, then move down |
| + / − | Mark or unmark by pattern |
| F2 | Rename |
| F3 | Quick Look |
| F4 | Edit with any app; changes upload when you save |
| F5 / F6 | Copy / move the marked files to the other pane |
| F7 | New folder |
| F8 | Delete |
| ⌘\ | One pane or two |
| ⇧⌘\ | Swap the panes |
Every shortcut is also in the menus. All shortcuts are on one page, and on a MacBook the F-keys may need fn, or Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys in System Settings → Keyboard.
Two panes, any two places
In AnyBucket, a pane isn't tied to "local" or "remote". Each one shows This Mac or any server you've added, so the same two keys cover every direction:
- This Mac → server: upload a build folder to SFTP.
- Server → server: copy from SFTP to an S3 bucket, or between two buckets. On the same server, the copy runs on the server itself.
- Server → This Mac: pull logs or backups down.
Tabs let you keep several pairs open at once. Their titles read like Staging ⇄ Assets, with a badge for each protocol, so you can tell them apart at a glance.
Getting started
- Open AnyBucket and connect a server with ⇧⌘K.
- Press ⌘\ to open the second pane, and pick This Mac or another server from its source menu.
- Find your files, mark them with Space and press F5.
To try it first, the live demo runs in your browser and listens to the same keys.
Other dual-pane apps on the Mac
Several Mac apps offer two panes. ForkLift and Commander One are full file managers that also connect to servers; Transmit has a dual-pane view for a local and a remote folder. AnyBucket is built for servers first, with any server in either pane, a ⌘K palette, Compare & Sync and a queue that survives quitting, for $9.99 once. The comparison lists what each one's own pages describe.
