The Main Menu
The Manager’s functions are divided into several menus based on where they fit in the photo workflow. These menus are: Acquire, Edit, Information, Organize, Publish, Create, and View.
The left part of the top toolbar shows buttons for switching among the Manager’s display modes. The right part contains a slider that changes the zoom level for thumbnails/tiles. This is followed by three buttons for changing the Browser display: 
One Browser, 
Two Browsers, Stacked, 
Two Browsers, Side by Side. The default setting is Single Browser. When two Browsers are displayed, each one can show a different folder and use different methods for file and folder 
Display and Sorting.
The main, middle area in the Browser lists the contents of whatever location has been selected in the Navigator. By default, it displays them in a mode called Thumbnails. Modes for Thumbnails with Extended Info, Tiles, and Details are available as well. You can switch among modes in the Display and Sorting window.
The Zoner Photo Studio Browser works in many ways similarly to file management in Windows itself. To select pictures, copy and move them via drag and drop, etc., do what you would normally do in Windows.
File management options are shown in the toolbar located at the top of the Browser’s main area. This toolbar contains these elements:
Display and Sorting – opens the Display and Sorting window.
Autostack – this automatically creates groups based on similarities among photos, and it offers features for burst shooting, exposure bracketing, and panoramas.
Up One Level – takes you to the parent folder of the current folder.
box with absolute file path – shows the full path to the folder on your computer that contains the currently displayed files and lets you change or copy the file path.
Multiselect – Use this function to easily select multiple files. To select files, press the arrow keys and the spacebar or click on the files directly (without needing to hold down Shift or Ctrl).
Delete – deletes the selected file or files.
New Folder – creates a new folder.
Copy – copies the selected file or files. Cut, Copy To, and Move To functions are also available under the arrow next to this button.
Paste – pastes a copied file or files.
Rename – renames a single selected file. This button is not active when multiple files are selected.
Batch Filter – applies one or more filters of your choice at once to one or more pictures at once.
Variants – Creates a virtual variant of the selected picture.
Add to Stack – Add pictures to a stack. Stacks group pictures together. Only available when two or more pictures are selected.
Share – offers tools for sharing to other platforms.
Export button – creates a copy of the original file, into which all of a picture’s non-destructive changes are then applied.
When organizing photos, the best route is sometimes to use a second Browser pane. To do that, use View | Two Browsers Stacked / Side by Side. To switch from one Browser to the other, click inside the other Browser. The listing in the Navigator automatically changes to match the active Browser: whatever location you visit in the Browser automatically becomes selected in the Navigator.
When thumbnails are loading in the background, an hourglass appears by the mouse cursor.
Thumbnails Mode
This is the default mode. Browser panes in this mode show thumbnails (small previews). To turn on this mode, Display and Sorting | Display | 
.
The thumbnails show icons indicating the presence of picture information (metadata) and other facts about the thumbnailed pictures. Moving from the top left corner of each thumbnail, the icons refer to photographic picture information, other picture information (name, author, description, etc.), keywords, audio notes, a backup of the picture’s original version, a backup of its information, its digital signature if any, GPS data, and online/offline status.
For audio and video files, an icon clearly defining the file type is shown at the top left corner of the thumbnail. The file’s duration is shown at the thumbnail’s bottom left corner.
Double-click any of these icons to bring up a window showing information related to them.
Along the bottom, a thumbnail can have a Windows shortcut symbol, denoting that you are working with a shortcut to a file, not the “real” file. At the bottom right, any rating and/or colored label that the picture may have are shown.
For faster browsing, the program makes use of thumbnails stored inside of pictures (e.g. in their EXIF information) and of thumbnails stored (“cached”) on disk after your first visit to a folder. Cached thumbnails are loaded in during your next visit; this is much faster than re-generating them.
Rotate the mouse wheel while holding down [Ctrl] to change the thumbnail display size.
Thumbnails with Extended Info Mode
To turn on this mode, Display and Sorting | Display | 
.
By default, the extended info includes the date and time a picture was taken and its dimensions, file size, exposure time, aperture, and ISO. The default extended info for video files is the date and time they were filmed and their dimensions, file size, video frame rate, video encoding bitrate, and video codec. However, this information display can be changed under View | Preferences | Thumbnails using metadata tokens.
Tiles Mode
To turn on this mode, use the button in the left part of the top toolbar in Display and Sorting | Display | 
.
This mode is similar to Thumbnails mode, but includes extra information to the right of the thumbnails. This is especially practical for long texts such as descriptions. The column width is set automatically based on thumbnail size and the width of the Browser window. To change settings for the Tiles display mode, use Settings | Preferences | Thumbnails.
If the description shown for a thumbnail is wider than the space available for showing it, then at the right of the descriptions area, a scrolling arrow is shown. You can also scroll description text by middle-clicking the area with the description and dragging in the desired direction.
Rotating the mouse wheel while holding down [Ctrl] changes the thumbnail display size.
Details Mode
To turn on this mode, use the button in the left part of the top toolbar in Display and Sorting | Display | 
.
Details Mode always shows a row of column headers at the top, similar to its namesake in Windows. Using the right-click menu for these column headers, you can add or remove columns for a variety of picture information. Clicking and dragging a header moves the whole column to another position. Just clicking a header sorts the file listing by that column’s information type. Clicking it repeatedly toggles between an ascending sort and a descending sort. The arrow next to the column name indicates ascending/descending.
The backgrounds of the files in the listing have different colors depending on the files’ types. You can turn this behavior off if desired: go to Settings | Preferences | Display | Highlight to distinguish bitmap/vector/video/sound. Wherever possible, the program shows a thumbnail for a picture next to the mouse cursor as you run the cursor over that picture.
Displayed File Types
Normally, the program displays all files in all supported graphics, audio, and video formats. To show a broader or narrower range of file types, use Settings | Preferences | Display.