The Select Files dialog has two modes; simple and advanced. It is accessed with the Edit / Select by Pattern command (or press Ctrl+S). The dialog remembers which mode it was last used in and will open in that mode the next time it is used; you can switch modes using the Advanced or Simple button at the bottom of the dialog.

 

The Advanced Selection dialog is built upon the file filter control. It lets you select files by building up complex filters that can compare files and folders against many different attributes. The above example shows a filter that would select all files that end in .jpg that were modified within the past week.

See the Filtered Operations section for information on using the filter control.

Selection actions

At the top of the dialog, the Action drop-down lets you choose the action to perform:

Hiding non-matching items

The Hide items that don't match option can be used in conjunction with both the Select and Deselect actions (it doesn't make much sense to use it with the Hide action). If this option is enabled, items that don't match the filter will be removed from the display altogether.

When items are removed from the display (hidden) by the use of this function, they can be brought back in two ways:

Applying the selection

Once you have built your filter, or selected one from the drop-down filter list, click the OK button to make the selection. Alternatively, you can click the Apply button - this lets you apply the selection without closing the dialog. You could then edit the filter and click Apply again if your selection filter didn't quite perform as expected.