Navigation and layout

Pane model

h5v has three panes:

  • the tree pane for HDF5 structure and selection
  • the content pane for preview, matrix, schema, image, and multichart views
  • the attributes pane for metadata inspection and editing

Wide terminals use a side-by-side layout. Narrow terminals stack the panes. Search takes over the working area.

Moving focus

  • Shift + arrow keys to move between panes directly
  • Ctrl+W, then h/j/k/l for vim-style pane navigation

The sidebar can be toggled with s or Ctrl+W o.

Tree navigation

  • j / k or arrow keys move the selection
  • h and l collapse or expand nodes
  • Enter or Space toggles the current node
  • g / G jump to the top or bottom
  • u / Ctrl+U and Ctrl+D move by larger chunks

When the current selection is previewable, m adds it to the multichart workspace.

Mouse support:

  • a click selects the row under the cursor
  • clicking the already selected group or compound container toggles it
  • repeated clicks on Load more keep expanding long child lists

Content modes

The content pane changes with the selected node:

  • numeric datasets prefer chart-style preview
  • matrixable datasets can switch to matrix mode
  • numeric datasets with at least two non-singleton dimensions can switch to heatmap mode
  • scalar and string data render as text
  • HDF5 image datasets render inline as images
  • compound container nodes show a recursive schema view
  • file nodes show filesystem metadata
  • groups stay previewable even when they only show an empty-state card

Use Tab to switch modes when more than one is available.

Search and help

  • / enters search mode
  • : opens the command minibuffer
  • ? opens the built-in help
  • . repeats the last successful command

The help view has tabs for Keymap, Commands, Multichart, Heatmap, and Customization. Tabs with a left-hand list use the normal list navigation keys.

See Controls reference and Commands.