Getting started with P4V

P4V displays one main window with two panes: the Tree pane and the Specs pane. These panes are described in detail below.

A few general points about using P4V:

To get information about Perforce objects and P4V buttons, position the mouse cursor over the object without clicking. P4V displays a small window (tooltip) containing status or explanatory information about the object. P4V makes extensive use of tooltips.

To display the context menu for an object:

This help system says "context-click" when directing you to display a context menu.

To display the log of Perforce activity performed by P4V, choose View>Show Log Pane.

The Tree pane

The Tree pane has 2 tabs:

To view the contents of a folder in the right-hand pane, click on that folder, and select View> Files in Folder.

The Specs pane

The Specs pane displays the objects in the server to which you are connected, including changelists, labels, clients, users, jobs, and branches.

To select which specs are shown in this pane, go to the View menu and select specs to view. Each list of specs is shown on a separate tab. To close any tab in the Specs pane, context-click the tab and select Close Tab.

The Spec Details tab

Double-click on any spec in to view its details in the Spec Details tab. If you have viewed more than one spec, the Back and Forward buttons are enabled, allowing you to page through the specs that you have looked at.

Click on the Tear off button to capture that spec in a separate window. This allows you to compare two different specs, side-by-side.

To view a list of specs in a separate window, context-click on the name of the tab and select Undock tab. To return it to the Specs pane after undocking it, context-click the tab and select Dock tab.

Modifying views

There are several ways to modify the way that information is presented in P4V's Tree and Specs panes. At the top of these panes, you may see the following buttons:

Bookmarks
Bookmarks acts like shortcuts to locations in the tree. Set a bookmark by context-clicking on a directory and selecting Bookmark. You can then use this dropdown link to go to that location.

Sort order
Use this drop-down button to sort the order of the list that you are viewing. The sort options are shown when you click on the button.

Filter
This drop-down button allows you to filter your view in a couple of ways:

Tear Off
This button allows you to "tear off" the current view. This is useful for comparing two different specs or lists side-by-side. Once you have torn off a view, you can close the tear off by simply closing that window.

If you have several views torn off, you can view the list of them by clicking on the Tear Off pulldown menu in the toolbar at the top of the screen. When you hover your mouse over it, it says "View tear offs."

File list view
On the Files in Folder tab, use this icon to view files listed by file name or as icons.