Files and Pages

Phials gives you two ways to work with a selected file: File presents the underlying file, while Page presents the information you keep around that file. Both are available in selection-following panels and persistent file tabs.

Follow the Explorer selection

The File panel follows the selection in the active Explorer tab. It shows an appropriate representation of the selected file together with metadata that Phials reads from the file or filesystem.

The Page panel also follows the active Explorer selection. For a file in a Workspace Folder, it combines that file’s properties with a body. A Markdown file uses its own contents as the Page body. Other files can use a per-file note.

These panels are useful for inspecting several files without opening and closing a tab for each one. Selecting another file updates both panels.

Keep one file open

When a file opens in the center, Phials creates or focuses a file tab. The tab is named for the file and has two presentations:

• File mode shows the underlying file through its available viewer or editor, together with relevant metadata.
• Page mode shows the same file’s Workspace Folder properties and Page body.

File and Page are modes of the same file tab, not separate tabs or separate files. Switching modes keeps the file tab focused on the same subject. The tab remains independent of the Explorer tab that opened it, so you can navigate elsewhere without changing the open file.

See Inspect files in the File panel, Open files in file tabs, View a selected file’s Page, and Open a Page in a file tab for the complete behavior.