Quick Look
Quick Look is the interaction where one press of the space bar floats a large preview window and the next press closes it. What it draws is not tessoa's own preview panel but a separate window drawn by the system (macOS) or by the QuickLook or Seer app you installed yourself (Windows). This page covers what the feature is on each of the three systems, and how to hand the space bar over on Windows.
The three systems are three different things behind the same key and the same meaning:
| System | Who provides Quick Look | State |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | The system's own Quick Look | Works out of the box; Space is it |
| Windows | The third-party QuickLook or Seer, which you install and keep running | Install one, then hand Space over in Settings |
| Linux | No general-purpose equivalent | Not supported; the key does nothing |
On macOS
Space belongs to Quick Look out of the box: select a file, press Space, and the preview window zooms out of that row. Press Space again (or Esc) to close it. Quick Look in the context menu takes the same path.
Finder has worked that way for over a decade, so tessoa swaps the pair on macOS:
| Action | Default key elsewhere | Default key on macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Look | Ctrl+Shift+Space | Space |
| Toggle check | Space | ⌥+Space |
Arrow keys page through while the window is open: tessoa hands the whole current listing over, so up and down move through the same set of files. Close it and the list's cursor follows to whatever you looked at last.
Both keys can be rebound under Settings → Keyboard Shortcuts, see Keyboard shortcuts.
On Windows
Windows has no Quick Look of its own, so install a program that does the job first. tessoa supports two of them, and either one will do:
| Program | Licence and installers |
|---|---|
| QuickLook | Free and open source. It ships as an installer, a portable build and a Microsoft Store version; take your pick |
| Seer | Closed source and paid |
What tessoa checks is whether the program is running right now, not how it was installed.
Once one is installed and running:
- Open Settings and go to the Input group.
- Find Space opens Quick Look (or Space opens Seer, a little further down, to use Seer instead) and turn it on.
- Back in the file list, select a file and press Space.
Turning the switch on swaps the two keys rather than taking one away: Quick Look takes Space and Toggle check takes over the Ctrl+Shift+Space it gave up. Turn the switch off and the two go back.
With a switch on, the context menu also gains a Quick Look entry. That entry follows the switches: with both of them off, the menu does not carry it.
Choosing which program gets Space
The two switches are mutually exclusive: turning one on turns the other off. There is only one space bar, and which program gets it is yours to say.
The context menu carries a single Quick Look entry either way; which program it goes to is whichever switch is on.
Quick Look already has a key if you would rather keep Space. On Windows and Linux the default for Quick Look is Ctrl+Shift+Space. With both switches off, that key goes to QuickLook; to send it to Seer instead, you still have to turn the Seer switch on.
The status row
Below each switch sits a QuickLook status and a Seer status row, with what tessoa detects right now written at its right end:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Running | tessoa found it, and the space bar does something right now |
| Not detected | tessoa did not find it. Check that the program really did start; if it is running and still is not detected, restart it |
| Busy (QuickLook) / Timed out (Seer) | tessoa found it, but it did not answer in time — try again in a moment |
| Cannot check | Only QuickLook status shows this: tessoa cannot read the current user identity, so the feature cannot work on this machine |
| Check failed (N) | Communicating with it failed, and N is the Windows error code |
Click the row to check again, and the result arrives as a toast. Both pairs of rows are always there, installed or not and running or not, so when you cannot find them in Settings there is no need to go and check on the program first.
When a switch is on and the space bar does nothing, tessoa puts up a toast explaining why, once per reason per run. With the switch off it stays quiet — Space is checking items then.
The first time tessoa sees one, a toast reads QuickLook detected — Space can open the preview directly (or Seer detected — Space can open the preview directly). That toast appears once per machine, and not at all once either switch is on.
After opening QuickLook or Seer with Space, use the arrow keys or mouse in tessoa to select another file; the preview window follows the selection. Closing the preview leaves the current file selected. QuickLook or Seer controls how the preview window is displayed.
Where it sits next to tessoa's own preview
The two do not interfere and can be used together:
| Quick Look | tessoa's preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it draws | A separate window floating over everything | The details panel, the last column, or a preview tab inside the tessoa window |
| Who draws it | The system, QuickLook or Seer | tessoa itself |
| Which formats | Whatever that side supports | See the Preview pages |
| Can you keep working while it is open | No, it takes the focus | Yes, the panel is part of the window |