# File Filters Options

This section describes the options presented under the File Filters Tab of the preferences dialogue.

## Filters

Show hidden files or folders

- Enables the display of hidden files and folders, also known as dot files.

Use dot prefix as hidden file indicator

- Use only the file dot prefix as a method of identifying hidden files. This may speed up file operations. However, the contents of a `.hidden` file will be ignored, as will some other methods of hiding files.

Show parent folder

- Enables the display of the parent folder as a double dot in the directories views.

Case sensitive sort (Collection and Search windows, and tab completion)

- Files and folders are sorted such that upper case letters occur before lower case letters.

  Enabled result: A, B, C, a, b, c

  Disabled result: A, a, B, b, C, c

Disable file extension checks

- During rename operations, allows files to be renamed to a different extension with no warning issued.

Disable file filtering

- Enable this to allow Geeqie to list all files, even those that do not contain images.

## Grouping sidecar extensions

This field defines which extensions will lead to file grouping. Grouped files will appear as a single entry in file views. This is useful, for example, when browsing directories containing two files for the same image (such as raw+jpeg files generated by some cameras).

The group is represented by the first extension in the list for which a file exists.

Each extension should include the starting dot and should be separated by a semi-colon from following entries. It is possible to use wild-cards corresponding to entries in the File Types Class below:

`%unknown`

- expands to all files listed in class Unknown ,

`%image`

- expands to all files listed in class Image ,

`%raw`

- expands to all files listed in class RAW Image

`%meta`

- expands to all files listed in class Metadata

## File types

This list contains the image formats that are understood by Geeqie. To disable a specific file type from being displayed, uncheck it's corresponding check-box. Filters can be edited by first selecting the line containing the item to be changed, then clicking the filter or description field, making any changes, then pressing Enter ; press Escape to cancel an active edit.

Unlike all other options in the dialogue, filter list changes are applied immediately.

The table consists of:

Enabled

- Whether or not the filter is used.

Filter

- List of extensions this filter applies to, separated by a `;` . Each extension must be preceded by a dot.

Description

- Brief description. This is not used elsewhere.

Class

- This may be used to define sets of file types, for use in the Grouping function described above. The drop-down list has 7 entries:
  - Unknown
  - Image
  - RAW Image
  - Metadata
  - Video
  - Collection
  - Document
  - Archive (.zip, .rar etc.)

Writable

- If this option is checked, Geeqie will try to write metadata to the image file itself. This, and the following option, are mutually exclusive.

Sidecar is allowed

- If this option is checked, Geeqie will try to write metadata to a sidecar file associated with the image. This, and the previous option, are mutually exclusive.

Add

- Adds a new blank line to the filter list, change the parameters to match the desired file type.

Remove

- Removes the selected line from the filter list.

Defaults

- Resets the filter list to the default values, discarding any customizations made by the user.

Column Sorting

- Columns other than Filter can be sorted in ascending or descending order by clicking on the column header.

Filter Search

- A search of the file extensions listed in the Filter column can be initiated either by typing `Ctrl + F` or by pressing any alpha-numeric key when the File Types table has focus.