When the highlighted directory in the tree pane is changed by using the keyboard (ie. by the arrow keys, page up/down, home/end, backspace and any others I might have missed), I'd like the files pane to subsequently change to the contents of the newly highlighted directory without having to press another key to make it happen, ie. return or space.

The trouble with pressing return or space is these also move the keyboard focus to the files pane, so if I'm browsing between multiple sibling directories then I have to press shift-tab (twice) to get back to the tree pane before I can move up or down to another one.

Having said that I suppose another way to ease the kind of browsing I'm talking about would be to change the behaviour of either return or space or some other currently unused key to update the files pane but leave the keyboard focus on the tree pane. But personally I'd prefer the files pane to change automatically just as a result of moving the directory highlight, to facilitate maximum laziness.

By the way when I say I'd like the files pane to update, it should also change the path shown in the toolbar and menubar, the statistics in the status bar, etc - ie. I'm really asking for the current directory of the file manager in general to change, same as if you clicked on the other directory.

This request is part of my larger wish to navigate through a directory tree one-handed; the suggestion imitates Windows Explorer in which you can do that very easily, and follows on from bug 4519 which I've commented on.