Every plugin consists of one or more plugin functions. The available plugin functions are: file viewer, archiver, menu extension, thumbnail loader, and file system. You can see the list of supported functions in the plugin in the Plugins Manager dialog box. See how to use the different plugin functions in the following sections.
Each plugin has its own help, which is available in the Plugins section of this help (see the Contents tab). There you can find details about each plugin's purpose, use, configuration, and keyboard shortcuts.
This function adds the ability to display the contents of a file.
See Viewing a File for details about using viewers.
Every plugin with the file viewer function adds its file type associations to Viewers configuration, where you can see what file types are supported.
The Archiver function includes packing, listing, unpacking, and deleting from archive files.
See Opening Archive Files, Packing Files and Directories, and Unpacking an Archive File for details about using archivers.
Some plugins support only unpacking. In such cases, you can install additional archiver software and use it as an external archiver (see External Archivers Locations configuration for supported types of archivers).
Every plugin with the archiver function adds its archive file type associations to Archives Associations in the Panels configuration, Packers in Pack Dialog Box configuration, and Unpackers in Unpack Dialog Box configuration, where you can see which archive file types are supported.
A plugin with this function adds commands to the Plugins menu. To separate commands added by different plugins, Sally creates a submenu named after each plugin.
To make repeated use of a plugin menu command easier, we have added the Last Command item (Ctrl+I) to the Plugins menu (just below Plugins Manager). This item always changes to the last used plugin menu command.
You can assign a keyboard shortcut to any plugin menu command; see the Keyboard button in the Plugins Manager dialog box.
When you use Thumbnails view mode in a panel (see Selecting Current View), you can see a thumbnail (small picture or preview) for each displayed file. A plugin with the thumbnail loader function can supply thumbnails for many types of files; see the line Thumbnails in the Plugins Manager dialog box.
This function makes it possible to communicate with various servers, services, and devices (e.g. FTP servers, SCP servers, Windows Registry, and Windows Mobile devices) as if they were local file systems. This means you can use, for example, the Copy command to download files from and upload files to FTP/SCP servers, or the View command to view files from FTP/SCP servers.
See Opening Plugin File Systems for details about using plugin file systems.