Working with files
Copy, move, paste
⌘C copies the selection, ⌘X cuts it, ⌘V pastes it into the folder on screen. Cut items are moved on paste, copied items copied. Drag and drop works between panes, tabs, the sidebar and other apps: a drag within one disk moves the items, a drag to another disk copies them, and ⌥⌘-drag makes an alias. A move to another disk is a full copy followed by the removal of the original; if the copy fails or you cancel, the original stays untouched.
Every operation shows its progress in the status bar with a Cancel button. A copy counts items, not bytes, so a few large files move the bar in steps.
Name clashes are asked about one at a time. The sheet shows the item already there beside the one arriving, marks which is newer and which is larger, and offers Skip, Replace and Keep Both; for folders also Merge, with a choice of what to do with the files that exist in both. "Do the same for the other N" answers the rest at once. Return keeps both (for folders: merges) and never replaces. Stop cancels the whole operation before anything is touched.
Replace moves the existing item to the Trash first, then puts the new one in its place, so Undo can bring the old one back. If the item at that path changed while the question was on screen (swapped, rewritten, removed), it is left alone and reported.
Keep Both names the arriving item "name 2", then "name 3", as the system file manager does. Pasting the same file twice copies it once.
Undo
Every operation is one Undo step (⌘Z), whatever its size: a paste of a thousand files comes back as one step, so does a merge, a rename or a change of permissions. Redo is ⇧⌘Z or ⌘Y. The Edit menu and the toolbar's Undo button name the step ("Undo Move").
Some things have no Undo: Delete Permanently, a deletion on a volume without a Trash, and, on servers browsed through the app's own clients, a delete, an upload or a copy.
Undo is unavailable while an operation runs, and a second operation started while one runs is refused with a message. Undo of a move leaves alone a file that has taken the original place since; Undo of a Replace brings the old item back under its own spelling.
Rename
F2, ⇧⌘R or Rename in the context menu starts a rename; so does a click on the name of an item that is already selected, after a short pause. A double-click never renames: it opens. The name is selected without its extension; Return confirms, Esc cancels. A rename that changes only the case of letters ("file" to "File") works on the usual case-insensitive disks. A rename that trips on a locked item asks "Unlock and Continue", "Skip Locked Items" or "Cancel"; Undo locks the item again.
New folders and documents
⇧⌘N creates a folder, selected and in rename. File ▸ New (also in the context menu of the empty area) creates a document right in the folder: Text, Markdown, Rich Text, Document (.docx), Spreadsheet (.xlsx) or Presentation (.pptx). The three office files are minimal valid packages that open in the usual apps and in Quick Look. The new file is named "Untitled" with the right extension, then "Untitled 2", and starts in rename. One Undo moves it to the Trash.
New ▸ Templates lists your own templates: any file or folder you put into ~/Library/Application Support/OcelotFM/Templates (up to 50 are shown), copied as it is. "Open Templates Folder" creates the folder and opens it. New is unavailable in read-only folders and inside archives.
⌘D duplicates the selection beside the original.
The Trash
⌘⌫ or ⌫ moves the selection to the Trash. The app asks first ("Move “name” to the Trash?") until you tick "Do not ask again"; Settings ▸ General ▸ "Ask before moving items to the Trash" brings the question back. Dropping items on the Bin in the sidebar does not ask. Undo brings the items back.
⇧⌘⌫ (File ▸ Delete Permanently…) always asks and cannot be undone. A volume without a Trash of its own, such as some network shares, offers the permanent deletion instead of the Trash. Servers browsed through the app's own WebDAV and S3 clients have no Trash either: Delete there is permanent and asks first.
Locked items, flags, tags, icons
Lock / Unlock is in the File menu and the context menu; Properties ▸ Flags has the Locked checkbox beside Hidden and Hide extension. A move or deletion that meets a locked item asks what to do, as a rename does.
Tags are the system's own: the colour tags appear as dots beside the name in the list and the icon views; named tags appear in the Tags column and in the sidebar. Properties ▸ Tags shows the item's tags as chips, with a "+" that opens a picker: the seven colour tags, a field for a name (Return adds it) and suggestions from the tags used recently and in the folder. Tags set by other apps show up in the list within a couple of seconds.
Folder icons. Properties ▸ "Change Icon…" puts a picture of your own on a folder; "Remove Custom Icon" takes it off. Both are one Undo step.
File icons. Settings ▸ General ▸ File icons chooses between the system's icons, "Mixed" (the default: source code, configuration files, logs and files no app opens get an icon by type, with the logo of the language or tool where one exists) and "By type" for every file.
Aliases and links
The app creates aliases, never symbolic links by itself: Make Alias (⌃⌘A), Paste Alias and ⌥⌘-drag. "Paste as Symbolic Link" in the Edit menu and the empty-area menu creates a symbolic link to each copied item, pointing at its full path; one Undo removes them all.
A link shows its target's icon with an arrow, and its target's kind and size. A link to a folder sorts with the folders, opens at the link's own path (Up returns to the link and selects it) and expands in the sidebar tree, except a link that points back at one of its own ancestors. A broken link is dimmed; opening it asks "Move Link to Trash" or "Edit Target…". An alias follows its original when the original is moved.
Properties show the link type (Symbolic link or Alias), the original (click it for Show Original) and "Edit Link Target…": a text field for a symbolic link, a file panel for an alias. Both are undoable.
Open With and default apps
The context menu's Open With lists the apps that open the file and ends with "Other…" for any app, once. Properties show "Open with:" for a file: pick an app and press "Use for All .pdf files" to make it the default for the whole type, system-wide; macOS may ask you to confirm. One Undo brings back the previous app.
"Show in Finder" is offered for files on disk. The Services menu of other apps gains "Open in Ocelot" and "Reveal in Ocelot"; see Getting started.
Compress
"Compress" in the context menu makes a zip archive beside the selection: "name.zip" for one item, "Archive.zip" for several. Cancelling leaves no half-written archive. Everything else about archives is on the Archives page.
Properties
⌥⌘I opens the Properties panel for the selection, or for the folder on screen when nothing is selected. It shows the size (a folder's size counts up live), the dates, the kind, the mode in rw-r--r-- (644) form, Flags, Sharing & Permissions (see Permissions), Tags, Open With and, for a link, the original. A selection of several items shows what they share; a change applies to all of them.
Flags and permissions are not written as you click: a bar under the section counts the pending changes, Reset discards them, Apply lists them, asks, and writes them as one Undo step. Showing other items drops unapplied changes.
Names with hidden characters
A file name may contain an invisible character that reverses the letters after it, so that a program passes for a picture ("photogpj.app" reads as "photo.jpg" in a plain text field). The app shows such a name in its real order, marks the character and adds a warning sign in the list, the icon views, the gallery and Properties.