Displaying Files with a Mask
File masks display at the bottom of the FileTiger screen. You can add a file mask in Tools, Add File Mask (shortcut F9). Up to ten file masks can be entered, and are remembered between work sessions. The default file masks *.*, *.exe, *.txt, *.doc, *.htm, and *.pdf are always displayed.
If any file mask other than *.* is selected, FileTiger changes the file mask list to blue as a visual reminder that not all files are showing.
Selecting Files with a Mask
(Shortcut F11)
Uses a file mask that you enter to select files that match a pattern, with options to select on both or either sides, and with or without matching case. You can use any standard wild card characters in the file mask. For example, "Meeting?.txt" or "*.CDR" are both OK.
Matching upper and lower case filenames is rarely needed; the default setting is to not match case.
What's a file mask?
File masks date back to the DOS days, and are still useful and fully supported in 32-bit Windows. A mask is creating by substituting wild card characters for the text in a file name, chosen separately for the filename and the extension, which are separated by a period.
Reminder: 32-bit Windows, by default, does not show the extensions for most files. This is an option that can be turned off or on, Control Panel, View, Folder Options (varies with version of Windows). When the option is on, a filename such as "December Sales Letter.DOC" will display in most programs as "December Sales Letter". If you also have a file named "December Sales Letter.PDF" then there will be two files listed in My Computer or Windows Explorer that appear to have the same filename.
FileTiger will ALWAYS show the extension. In the example above, the DOC and PDF extensions would be visible no matter what extension settings are chosen for Windows.
Examples:
* means any number of characters.
? means one character.
*.* means any filename with any extension.
*.txt means any filename, with the extension 'txt'. This would match name987.txt and letter.txt, but not letter.doc
project9*.plan means any filename starting with 'project9', with the extension 'plan' including 'project9201.plan' but not 'project8915.plan'.
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