### 3.5 The Requester

In various situations, `ne` needs to ask you to choose one string from several (where “several” can mean a lot). For this kind of event, the requester is issued. The requester displays the strings in as many columns as possible and lets you move with the cursor from one string to another. The strings can fill many screens, which are handled as consecutive pages. Most navigation keys work exactly as in normal editing. This is true even of custom key bindings. Thus, for instance, you can page up and down through the list with `<Control>-P` and `<Control>-N` (in the standard keyboard configuration).

As with the input line (see The Input Line), you can confirm your input with <Return> or escape the requester with <f1> or the <Escape> key (or whatever has been bound to the `Escape` command). Moreover, if you are selecting a file name there is a third possibility: by escaping with the <Tab> key, the file or directory name that the cursor is currently on will be copied on the input line. This allows you to choose an existing name and modify it.

A special feature is bound to alphabetic characters: they move you to the next entry starting with the letter you typed. The search is case insensitive, and it continues on to the first string after having passed the last one.

An example of a requester is the list of commands appearing when you use the `Help` command. Another is the list of document words matching a prefix given to the `AutoComplete` command. A third example is the file requester that `ne` issues whenever a file operation is going to take place. In this case, pressing <Return> while on a directory name will enter the directory. Note also that, should the requester take too long to appear, you can interrupt the directory scanning with `<Control>-\`. However, the listing will likely be incomplete.

Note that there are two items that always appear in the file requester: `./` and `../`. The first one represents the current directory and can be used to force a reread of the directory. The second one represents the parent directory and can be used to move up by one directory level.

The requester presents the strings by default in “row major order,” which means the second string is on the same row as the first but to its right, at the top of the second column, and so on across each row before filling in the next row down. If you prefer your lists displayed in “column major order”—the first, second, and third strings are in the same column and each column is filled before starting on the next column to the right—then use the `RequestOrder` command to switch that preference. The setting will be stored in your default preferences the next time you save them. See Preferences Commands.