Interface Understanding

This page gives you a tour of the GpgFrontend window, so you can find your way around and do your tasks with ease.

Windows

macOS

Linux

The Window at a Glance

The window has five main parts:

• Operations Bar (top): the main buttons, like Encrypt, Decrypt, Sign, and Verify.
• Workspaces (center): tabs where you work on files, text, or email.
• Key Toolbox (right): the list of your keys.
• Status Panel: shows the result of each task.
• Status Bar (bottom): tells you which setup and which engine you are using.

The rest of this page looks at each part in turn.

Workspaces

GpgFrontend splits your work into tabs called workspaces, so you can work on files, plain text, and email at the same time.

There are three kinds of workspace, each shown as a tab:

• File Panel: work on files and folders.
• Text Editor: write, encrypt, and decrypt plain text.
• Mail Editor: work with email messages.

You can open many tabs of each kind and switch between them whenever you like.

File Panel

The File Panel handles tasks on files and folders. You can:

• Browse and select files or folders from your system.
• Encrypt, decrypt, sign, or verify one file or many at once.
• Choose between text (ASCII) and binary output.
• Turn on Batch Mode to work on many files at once.
• Automatically pack and encrypt whole folders (see the File Operations guide for details).

Along the top is a path bar showing the folder you are in, one step at a time. Click any step to jump straight there.

Files and folders you open always appear in a File Panel tab.

Text Editor

The Text Editor lets you type new text or open existing files.

Main Features

• Operations Bar: at the top, with buttons to encrypt, decrypt, sign, and verify text.
• Standard Shortcuts: supports basic shortcuts like Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, and Ctrl+S for copy, paste, and save.
• Plain Text Only: text is saved as UTF-8 with no formatting, for clarity and compatibility. Rich text editing may come later.
• Files up to 1 MB work best. Bigger files may slow things down and aren’t recommended.
• While a large file loads, editing is paused until it finishes.

Mail Editor

The Mail Editor is made for email messages in EML format.

• Open and edit EML files: load .eml files (a standard email format) to view and edit them.
• Write and secure email: write or change email content, then encrypt, sign, or verify it.

Note

The Mail Editor works best with .eml files. This keeps things compatible with normal email apps and keeps the formatting and details intact during your tasks.

Status Panel

The Status Panel shows what happened after each task (encrypt, decrypt, sign) and whether it worked. It also shows useful details like the time, key IDs, and algorithms used.

Color Coding for Status

• Green: the task worked, no problems.
• Orange: the task worked, but with a warning to check.
• Red: the task failed, or the result cannot be trusted.
• Grey: nothing has happened yet.

Switching Views

The panel has two views. Use the switch at the top to change them:

• Status: a short, easy-to-read summary of the task.
• Details: the full, raw text straight from the engine.

Your choice is remembered, so the panel keeps showing the view you like.

Panel Actions

• Copy: copies the status text to the clipboard.
• Save: saves the status text as a plain text file (UTF-8).
• Magnify: opens the summary in a bigger view. Available only when the Status view is showing a summary.
• Clear: empties the panel, ready for the next task.

Key Toolbox

On the right side, the Key Toolbox lists all your keys: public keys, private keys, and key groups.

Main features:

• Selection: tick the boxes to pick keys for a task.
• Type / Usage / Email: see at a glance what each key is for.
• Search: the box at the top finds keys by name, email, key ID, or fingerprint. Press Escape to clear it.
• Categories: the thin coloured strip beside the list filters your keys. See Key Categories.

Keys that are expired, revoked, or unavailable are hidden by default. You can find them in the Manage Keys window, which is also where you look after your keys rather than just pick them. See Manage Your Keys.

The Small Buttons Above the List

• Refresh: read your keys again from disk.
• Sync Public Key: fetch updates for your keys from the key server.
• Check All and Uncheck All: tick or untick every key in the current category. The uncheck button shows a small count of how many keys are ticked right now.
• Columns: choose which columns to show, and reset their widths.
• New Key Group: make a group from the keys you have ticked.
• Key database: switch between key databases. The button shows the name of the one you are in.

Keep your ticks between sessions

Open Settings, go to General, and tick Remember which keys are checked in the key list between restarts. GpgFrontend then brings back your usual recipients each time it opens.

Reading the Key Toolbox Table

Each key has some columns and short codes (in the Type and Usage columns) that aren’t obvious at first. Here is what they mean.

• Type:
  • pub: a public key (for encryption or verification).
  • pub/sec: a key pair with both a public and a private key.
  • pub/sec#: a key pair whose primary key is missing.
  • pub/sec^: a key pair stored on a smart card.
  • group: a key group (several public keys used together as one recipient).
• Usage (what the key can do):
  • C (Certification): can sign other keys (usually primary keys only).
  • E (Encryption): can encrypt data to this key.
  • S (Signing): can create digital signatures.
  • A (Authentication): can be used to log in (for example, SSH).
• Status (whether the key is fit to use):
  • OK: nothing wrong with it.
  • Expiring Soon: still works, but will expire soon.
  • Expired, Revoked, Disabled: cannot be used.

Rows are tinted to match the Status column, so a problem key stands out at a glance.

Use the Columns button to show or hide columns such as Expire Date and Status. Each key list remembers its own choice, so you can keep the Key Toolbox short and the Manage Keys window detailed.

Operations Bar

The Operations Bar at the top gives you one-click access to the main features. Here are the buttons, from left to right:

1. Open: open a file or folder in the File Panel.
2. Workspace: manage and switch between tabs (File Panel, Text Editor, Mail Editor).
3. Encrypt: lock the selected files or text for the chosen recipients.
4. Decrypt: unlock the selected files or text. You don’t need to pick a key; GPG finds the right private key for you.
5. Sign: sign the selected files or text with your private key.
6. Verify: check the signature on the selected files or text.
7. New Keypair: make a new key pair.
8. Import Key…: add existing public or private keys.
9. Manage Keys: open the key management window.

Customization

You can hide buttons you don’t use, or add ones you use often. Open Settings, go to Appearance, and tick what you want under Actions.

Two of them are off by default and worth knowing about:

• Sym. Encrypt: encrypt with a passphrase instead of a key. See Symmetric Crypto.
• IM Encrypt: turn your text into one short line for a chat app. See Instant Messaging.

Status Bar

Along the bottom of the window, on the right, three small labels tell you what you are working with. Click any of them for more details.

• Profile: which setup this window is using. Click it to manage your setups. See Profiles.
• Engine: the OpenPGP engine and its version, such as GnuPG 2.4.3. Hover it to see which key database you are in.
• Mode: whether this is an installed copy or a portable one. See Portable Mode.