Navigating and Browsing			Project Browser
Chapter 2, Navigating and Browsing

Topics on this Page:

Customizing the Browser

Common Browser Settings and Controls

Using Bookmarks

Floating Browsers

Browsers are central tools in the overall Toxik workflow. There are five browsers in Toxik and they have the following general uses:

• Identifies Toxik compositions or external media, such as files on a hard disk.

• Helps you locate, organize, and manage compositions already in a project.

• Provides access to compositions for Toxik tools and for Toxik utilities.

Customizing the Browser

You can resize any component panel in the Toxik browser by dragging its side. For example, you can change the division between the Folders and Contents area by dragging the border between the two areas.

The Folders area shows the hierarchy of available folders in your project, as well as external drives and resources, in an expandable tree-like structure. By default, the Folders area appears on the left side of the browser, but you can close it to increase the size of the Contents area.

• Click the View button and select Folders.

Common Browser Settings and Controls

Of the four browser types, the Import, and Library Browsers have several common navigation and UDA functionalities.

The following navigation buttons are common to the Import and Library Browsers--see Import Browser, and Library Browser.

Note: You can also navigate in the browsers using hotkeys--see Browsers.

You can enter paths directly in the Path field. The Path field uses the following notation to distinguish between paths inside and outside Toxik.

Toxik folder paths are prefixed by Library:/ and are separated by forward-slashes (/). For example, Library:/Projects/MySampleProject.

Paths for outside folders start with the name of its file system (File: for Windows) and are separated by forward-slashes (/). For example, File:C:/My Documents.

Note: You can also navigate in browsers using hotkeys--see Browsers.

A view is how the browser displays information in the Contents area. You can view information as a list or as thumbnails in the Contents area. The List view displays more information in the Contents area than other views and allows you to easily sort information by clicking one of the column headings. A thumbnail is an icon for a folder, source, or composition. There are thumbnails for folders, fonts, audio, and so on. The thumbnails for sources or compositions show a frame.

You can change thumbnails to show a source or composition's matte, if it contains one.

The folder hierarchy shows folder relationships: child folders cascade from the parent folder(s). Parent folders are displayed with triangle icons that cascade child folders below and to the right when clicked. The area below the folder shows either thumbnails or a list of the folder's contents depending on the mode you're in (list or thumbnail).

• Click the View button and select Proxy View to view thumbnails. Deselect Proxy View to see a list.

• Click the View button and select Small Proxies or Large Proxies.

  The sources or compositions in the Contents area are resized as follows:

• Click the View button and select Alpha.

  Thumbnails for sources or compositions with mattes display their black and white matte. Thumbnails for sources or compositions without mattes remain in color.

Using Bookmarks

Bookmarks allow you to quickly navigate to a directory. You can access bookmark in the Import or Library Browser. Then click a name in the pop-up list. Clicking a bookmark's name positions the browser in the target directory just as if the path had been entered manually.

There are three predefined bookmarks, which cannot be removed or renamed. They are the following:

In addition to the predefined bookmarks, personal bookmarks can also be created. There are two methods to create personal bookmarks:

• From the bookmarks list, select Add Bookmark or press Ctrl + D. The Add Bookmark dialog appears.

  

  

All personal bookmarks are automatically assigned the name of the bookmarked directory, or the name of the bookmarked directory plus a "#" extension, where "#" is the first number, beginning with 1, which makes the name unique. Although multiple bookmarks can share the same target directory, duplicate naming of bookmarks is not permitted. The "#" extension ensures that no two bookmarks have exactly the same name. For example, if you name a bookmark "New Bookmark," and then try to give another bookmark the same name, it will be named "New Bookmark (1)."

Bookmarks are managed through the Bookmark Manager. It is used for the following tasks:

Adding new bookmarks

Creating bookmark folders in order to categorize bookmarks

Editing personal bookmark labels

Editing personal bookmarks or the Media bookmark's target

Customizing the bookmarks and bookmark folders order

Moving personal bookmarks from one folder to another

Removing bookmark folders and personal bookmarks

1. Use the Manage Bookmarks option. It is accessible through the bookmarks pop-up list of the Import or Library browser. Clicking Manage Bookmarks opens the Bookmark Manager.

   

   

2. Use the up or down arrows to rearrange the order of the bookmarks in the Bookmark Manager. Click the Sort button to arrange the bookmarks in alphabetical order.

Floating Browsers

Floating Browsers are browsers that you can use at any point during a session to access project folders.

• Press Ctrl + O.

• Press Ctrl + I.

• Press Alt + O.

  Note: You can drag any view from the Views folder and drop it into the floating view or you can right-click a view in the Views tab and select Open in Floating View.

• Press Esc, click the Close button at the top-right of the browser, or press Ctrl + O.