Koffee

The Keyboard-Oriented File & Folder Explorer for Efficiency, or Koffee, is a no-nonsense alternative to Windows Explorer focused on VIM-style keyboard shortcuts, speed, and simplicity. It is built on .NET WPF, written in F#.

Why would I want to use this?

The goal of this application is to allow users to navigate and manipulate files and folders very quickly, almost at the speed of thought -- a speed only achievable via keyboard. If you've ever experienced the productivity boost that comes from learning and using all the keyboard shortcuts in an application (or learned to use the text editor VIM), you understand what a big difference it makes.

Installation

Koffee depends on Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1. You may already have it installed; look for it in the list of installed programs in "Programs and Features" (Windows 10, 8, 7, or Vista) or "Add or Remove Programs" (Windows XP). If you don't see it, head to Microsoft's download page to download and install it.

To install Koffee, go to the releases page. From there, you can download and run Koffee-Setup.exe, which will guide you through the installation with a wizard. Or, if you prefer to install it yourself, you can download the zip file, unzip the app wherever you want and create your own shortcuts.

Using Koffee

First of all, take your hand off of the mouse because this is a keyboard tool! Once you're familiar with the hotkeys, you'll be navigating your files more quickly than you ever could with a mouse. If you're familiar with the text editor VIM which is popular among programmers, you should feel at home.

The Basics

Capitalized letters indicate that the key is combined with Shift.

• j to move the cursor down
• k to move the cursor up
• h to go up to the parent folder
• l or Enter to open the selected folder or file
• H to go back in navigation history
• L to go forward in navigation history
• tab switches between the main view and the path box
• ? opens the Settings window, which displays the hotkeys for all commands.
• Ctrl + w to exit

Advanced Navigation

• Scroll quickly
  • Ctrl + j and Ctrl + k move the cursor by half-pages at a time.
  • gg (press g twice) jumps to the first item, and G jumps to the last item.
• Find / Jump to item:
  • Press f then any character to jump to the next item beginning with that character (not case-sensitive). For example, pressing fa will jump to the first file or folder starting with "a" or "A". Then press ; to continue jumping to more items starting with that same character.
  • Press F then any character to jump to the next item beginning with that character, case-sensitive.
• Search:
  • Press / to start a search. This will move your cursor to a search box at the bottom of the window. Enter any part of a file or folder name and press Enter to jump to the next item containing the search term in its name.
  • After doing a search, press n to go to the next match, or N to go to the previous match.
  • Searches' case-sensitivity is an option in Settings, or you can override the setting by suffixing a search with /c for case-sensitive or /i for case-insensitive searching.
  • The search box accepts regular expressions for powerful searching. (Don't know what regular expression are? That's OK, just know that some characters like ., *, +, ^, $, (, ), [, ] have special meaning. Put a \ in front of these characters to search for them literally.)
• Bookmarks
  • Set a bookmark by pressing m. The list of bookmarks already set are shown. Enter any character to set a bookmark to that character. Upper-case letters are distinct from lower-case letters.
  • Go to a bookmark by pressing '. The list of bookmarks are shown. Enter one of the bookmark characters to go to that bookmark.
  • When viewing bookmarks, press Delete then a bookmark character to delete that bookmark.
• Sorting
  • Press sn to sort by name, ascending then descending.
  • Press sm to sort by modified date, descending then ascending.
  • Press ss to sort by size, ascending then descending.

File & Folder Manipulation

• Create File or Folder: Press o to create a file or O to create a folder. Type in the name of the new item and press Enter.
• Rename: There are several ways to start renaming the currently selected file or folder.
  • Press i to start with the cursor at the beginning of the name
  • Press a to start with the cursor at the end of the name, before the extension
  • Press A to start with the cursor at the end of the extension
  • Press c to start with the name (without extension) selected so that typing will replace the name
  • Press C to start with the full name selected
  • When you are done editing the name, press Enter
• Move / Copy
  1. Press d to start a move or y to start a copy of the selected file or folder. The item and operation will be displayed in the lower-right corner of the window.
  2. Navigate to the destination folder and press p to move or copy the item there. A copy to the same folder will append "(copy)" to the name. If an item with the same name already exists, you will be prompted to overwrite it. If you choose to overwrite a folder, the contents will be merged (existing files in the destination with the same name will be overwritten, but the others will remain).
• Delete
  • Press Delete to send the currently selected item to the Recycle Bin. If the item cannot be recycled, an error message will be shown instead.
  • Press Shift + Delete to delete it permanently. You will be prompted to make sure this is what you want to do; press y to proceed with deletion or press n to cancel.
• Undo / Redo Action
  • Press u to undo the last file or folder action (this includes creating, renaming, moving, copying and deleting). The status bar will report the action that was undone. Since deletions cannot be undone, the status bar will simply report the deletion that cannot be undone.
  • Press U to redo the last action that was undone. Note that performing any action after an undo will clear the redo list.

Other

• Open a second window for easier file comparison or moves with Ctrl + n
• Open Windows Explorer at your current location with Ctrl + Shift + e
• Open the commandline tool (configured in the Settings window) at your current location with Ctrl + Shift + c
• Open the currently selected file with your text editor (configured in the Settings window) with Ctrl + Shift + t
• Show/hide hidden files and folders with F9

There are more commands at your disposal. Open the Settings window with ? for the full list of commands and their key bindings!

Future Planned Features

• Search sub-folders
• Text content search
• Select multiple items
• Configurable hotkeys
• Batch renames
• Themes
• And more... check out the issues list and please add your own ideas and contributions!