BeTree II has only one unique window. It's organized in two panels : one for the tree of folders and one for their contents. There is also a menubar with two menus : "File" which contains most of the features and "Help".
(Click to enlarge)
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The tree displays all the folders in all the mounted volumes. You can therefore explore the filesystem in a unique window without having hundreds ones everywhere. The mechanism is simple : just click on the little box to expand or collapse a branch and click on the name to select it and display its contents in the file panel. If there is no box, that means there are no subfolders. The tree contains all the volumes mounted. They are represented by the volume icon. You can drag them for anything but link them. If you mount/unmount a volume (if you insert a cd, for instance), the tree will be automagically updated to reflect the change. The folders are represented by the folder icon. You can drag them to move, copy, or link them. In all cases, the right click on a folder/volume pops a contextual menu which will allow you to : expand/collapse the branch, rename the folder, move it to the trash, or create a subfolder. Some options may be disabled, like if it's a volume or if it's read-only. 
They are two "special folders" : the Desktop and the Trash. For those, some functions are disabled, intentionally : you can't rename or move them to the Trash. Also, subfolders of the Trash are not displayed under it. However, you can still create a subfolder in the Desktop or copy/move/link items in both. 
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The files panel contains a list of all the selected folder's entries, such as folders, links, and all other regular files. Files are represented with the appropriate icon, given by the Tracker.
Each entry can be dragged to be moved, copied, or linked. See here how. However, they are the same limitations as for the tree side (read_only, desktop, trash,...).
Also, you can popup a contextual menu similar to the one we've already seen by clicking with the right mouse button on a list entry.
If you click on an empty zone, you'll be able to create a subfolder of the folder whose contents are displayed.
The menu "File" contains all the commands that are accessible via the popup menus. The command will apply on the selected folder in the current activated panel.
They are two supplemental commands : "Empty Trash" and "Quit". Both are quite obvious. If you choose "Empty Trash", a modal window will appear, displaying the process. You can interrupt it by hitting the Escape key
The "Help" menu gives you access to this and to the about window (check it !)
Move, Copy, and Link operations are exclusively driven by drag'n drop (time and the linker limit prevented me to implement other ways but this will change with R4 :-)). The type of drag'n drop operation is visualized by the image you drag. In all cases, you'll have the icon and the name.
To move a file, just click on it to select it and drag it to the desired folder. However, if the volume is read-only, the operation will automagically be transformed into a copy operation.
To copy a file, hold the Control key then drag the file exactly like for moving it. This time, a little "plus" will appear on the icon to indicate that's a copy operation. You can release the Control key after beginning dragging. Then, a modal window will appear to inform you of the progression of the copy. You can hit the Escape key to interrupt it.
To link a file, hold both Control and Shift keys and then drag the file. This time a little "L" will appear on the icon. Like for the copy, you can release they keys once you have begun the drag operation.
You can navigate both panels with the keyboard. Use the Tab key to activate successively the panels. Combos "Alt-r" and "Alt-t" will call "Rename" and "Move to Trash" from the file menu.
For the tree, use the up/down arrow to navigate the folders. Use the left/right arrow to collapse/expand them.
For the files, use the up/down arrow to navigate. And the Enter key to open the selected file. If it's a folder or a link to a folder, it will find and select it in the tree.
Like every new software, this one may have some bugs I haven't noticed. In any cases, the filesystem should not be harmed at all and you can always rely on the real thing (the Tracker) to check if everything is ok.
In case the tree is beginning to behave strangely, just quit and launch BeTree again.
©1998 Frederic Marchand