By default, new folders are shown in icon view. You can select a view for each folder as you browse, and the file manager will remember which view you prefer for each folder. But if you often use the list or compact views, you can use these views by default.

Change the view for an individual folder from the View menu by clicking Icons, List, or Compact.

You can arrange the items in your folder by name, file size, file type, when they were last modified, when they were last accessed, or when they were trashed. You can change how files are sorted in an individual folder using the View ▸ Arrange Items menu, or by clicking the list column headers in list view. See Sort files and folders for details. This menu only affects the current folder, and the file manager will remember your preferred sorting technique for each folder.

Use the Arrange items drop-down list in the preferences to change the default order used in new folders.

By default, the file manager will show all folders before files. Folders and files will each be arranged according to the selected sort order. If you would rather not treat folders specially and have them mixed with files according to the sort order, select this option.

The file manager does not display hidden files or folders by default. See Hide a file for information on hidden files. You can show hidden files in an individual window from the View menu. If you prefer to always show hidden files, or want to see hidden files in every open file manager window, select this option.

You can make the icons and text larger or smaller in icon view. You can do this in an individual folder from the View menu, and the file manager will remember your zoom choice for each folder. If you frequently use a larger or smaller zoom level, you can set the default with this option.

In icon view, more or fewer captions are shown based on your zoom level. See Icon captions for more information.

Selecting this option will place folder and file names to the right of icons, rather than below them. This is a more compact layout that allows you to see more information at once.

You can make the icons and text larger or smaller in compact view. You can do this in an individual folder from the View menu, and the file manager will remember your zoom choice for each folder. If you frequently use a larger or smaller zoom level, you can set the default with this option.

By default, each column in compact view is as wide as it needs to be to fit the names of the items in that column. Selecting this option will make all the columns have the same width. This will make files and folders that have names longer than the column width be displayed with an ellipsis (...) at the end.

You can make the icons and text larger or smaller in list view. You can do this in an individual folder from the View menu, and the file manager will remember your zoom choice for each folder. If you frequently use a larger or smaller zoom level, you can set the default with this option.