Commander One is one of the offerings from Eltima which is best described as Finder replacement, but its better description would be that it is actually what Finder could have been in case it had an advanced user option.
Commander One can be easily utilized in place of the Finder for just about any type of file management task that you have to undertake. Mac power users will definitely enjoy all of its additional and great features which are available to them.
If you have been frustrated when it comes to management of the files with the Macs Finder, then there is a good chance that you have been looking for an alternative. It is a common and often discussed complaint that Mac power users have with the Finder since they are forced to use while they are waiting for the Apple to bring about the fundamental improvements.
Well, for these Mac power users, the wait is finally over, and it isnt provided by the Apple but by the Eltima Software which creates a great number of impressive Mac apps. The Eltima has recently announced the release and availability of Commander One with its press release, and it has touted this app as being entirely written in Swift, which is the new programming language that Apple has developed for development of apps for iOS and OS X.
Lets get into the usage of Commander One. It is essentially a Finder replacement, but it isnt an entirely new take on the file management working on the Mac. Any person who has utilized the Finger will instantly find the Commander One similar to Finder which is quite a good thing. There is no reason whatsoever to reinvent which is already working for the people, and that is the major basic of what the Finder actually works, i.e. it provides a view and details of Macs file system that provides the user to easily manipulate the files in the system.
Commander One takes this Finder app which is a basic one, with few steps further.
When you launch this particular program, you will witness a dual-pane window which will open along with a toolbar which is across the top containing the most commonly used features, like the three ways to see and view files: quicklook, file info and search. There is also a switch present for viewing all the hidden files along with an archiving button for the purpose of compressing files as well as an FTP button, which is called File Transfer Protocol, for connecting the system to any remote file system like another Mac or any web server.
Just below the toolbar, there is a window which is broken into two panes. Both panes are the view into a folder present on the Mac. By means of having two panes allow the user to work with two different file folders and easily and seamlessly copy, move and also examine files.
In addition to these two panes, Commander One also supports unlimited tabs which let you to open a view into more folders at a time.
Finishing off the main window that we have described is a hotkeys set which can be used for common functions like copy, delete, and move. You can easily assign favourite hot keys as per your choice.
Views
Now lets talk about the views of Commander One.
It supports basic three views in each tab or pane. It is called as Full, Thumb and Brief and the views correspond closely to Finders List, Icon and Column views. Each Pane or the tab can also have its own view, which allows you to set up view of each pane the way that suits best for you.
The two-pane view allows the moving as well as copying of the files quite easy. However, one of the significant cons of this software is that you can never ever set a single-pane view. You can easily drag the bar between the different panes to make only one pane as big as you can, which provides you with a view of single-pane but essentially the panes should actually have a close button and need to be treated just like any tab you have opened to view any folder. There is, however, nothing remarkable about this two-pane setup which should prevent the user from performing in a single-pane view in case this is what the user is looking for.
Special Features
Moving onto the special features of Commander One. It could easily be called as well-designed and aesthetically builder Finder-look-alike, but it does have quite a few additional features which you should definitely explore.
It has the ability to view all the files which include binary as well as hex data, without any requirement of opening the files. It is quite similar to the Quick Look option of the OS X, but the major feature of Commander One is that it supports additional types of files which are commonly used by application developers as well as IT professionals. Along with this, there is in-built FTP as well as SFTP (the SSH File Transfer Protocol) client meant for connecting to any remote system.
Lets look into the Pro Pack of Commander One. The Commander One is particularly designer to provide add-ons to offer specific new features which a user might need. The first group of add-ons that it has is called the Pro Pack is which duly available for merely $29.95. The Commander One is actually free. The Pro Pack comes with the ability to mount any iOS device directly on the Mac as well as integrates the Dropbox, also adds an FTP, FTPS (File Transfer Protocol Secure) and SFTP manager. It also adds a robust and essential compression as well as extraction engine which handles almost all of the common types of file compression and also allows the user the add themes along with some more goodies.
Pros
- This software comes with a Dual-pane file manager.
- It has unlimited tabs where each tab holds the contents of a folder.
- All of the tabs have their own independent settings.
- It utilizes Regular Expressions in order to perform complex searches.
- It also renames files as they are moved from one place to another.
- It comes with user-assignable hotkeys.
- It has a separate Pro Pack which comes with more features and adds even more capabilities.
Cons
- It doesn’t support a single-pane view.
- The Pro Pack costs $29.95 for an upgrade.
Conclusion
Many of us have faced issues with Finder tool in Mac. When it comes to Commander One, it is quite impressive as it is a more capable app which is Finder-like which comes with advanced file management capabilities. It is a great file manager app which has a plethora of capabilities and does have a few rough edges that we think may get smoothen over in the future updates.
Commander One offers additional file management capabilities at quite a reasonable price (free) and also provide advanced functions as add-ons which you can easily purchase or not, all depending on your requirements. It has great viewing options, Android file transfer and the pro pack comes with great add-ons.
It has a great add-on capability to mount any type of iOS devices on the Mac, but we havent gone through all the other add-ons yet.
With all these great features, Commander One is definitely worth a look and should be considered by Mac users. They will certainly find it as a great utility to have in Macs Application folder. The Commander One is free while the Pro Pack cost $29.95 which provide additional capabilities.