> (shortcut: C+o) displays a file system browser dialog box and loads the specified file into a new buffer.
Multiple files can be opened at once by holding down Control while clicking on them in the file system browser. The file system browser supports auto-completion; typing the first few characters of a listed file name will select the file.
More advanced features of the file system browser are described in Section 5.6, “The File System Browser (FSB)”.
The > menu lists recently viewed files. When a recent file is opened, the caret is automatically moved to its previous location in that file. The number of recent files to remember can be changed and caret position saving can be disabled in the pane of the > dialog box; see Section 8.3.1, “The General Pane”.
The > menu lists all files and directories in the current buffer's directory. Selecting a file opens it in a buffer for editing; selecting a directory opens it in the file system browser (see Section 5.6, “The File System Browser (FSB)”).
Files that you do not have write access to are opened in read-only mode, where editing is not permitted.
jEdit supports transparent editing of GZipped files; if a file begins with the GZip “magic number”, it is automatically decompressed before loading and compressed when saving. To compress an existing file, you need to change a setting in the > dialog box; see Section 8.1, “The Buffer Options Dialog Box” for details.