filenames
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Mac 101: Finder filename sorting
The neat-freaks among us (myself included) enjoy keeping things in their particular place and order. When making a folder of files, sometimes I want items to fall outside their alphabetical order -- for instance, often I like to have a special folder that's always at the top of a list. The easiest way to do that is to name your folders with a symbol as the first letter in the file or folder name: like a space, an underscore ( _ ), or a tilde ( ~ ). Mac OS X determines the order of these special characters using your language settings in the International pane in System Preferences. The names of files and folders in Mac OS X can use almost any character out of thousands of Unicode characters, which include symbols, arrows, and icons as well. There are only two characters you can't use: one is the colon (because it's used by the system). You also can't usually use periods (or full stops) as the first character in a file name (because they're reserved for hidden files). Also, as far as Mac OS X is concerned, the folder name "AARON" is the same as the folder name "Aaron" (or "aaron" for that matter): this is called case insensitivity. Mac OS X filenames are considered case insensitive. After the jump, a list of 112 common, easy-to-type characters, and how they're sorted by Mac OS X for English.
File-naming differences in OS X, Linux, and Windows
File names aren't sexy, but they are an integral part of your experience at the computer. That's why this post that details some of the differences between how Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows handle long file names, and odd characters in file names, is an interesting read. All the the OSes support 255 characters in a file name (though Windows was a little late to the party); however, they support them in different ways.If you are at all curious about file names, or need to make sure that your files can be read on Windows and Linux machines check out this post.[via Slashdot]
TUAW Tip: View long file names faster in list/column view
A lot of Mac users know and love the Finder's column view. While I can't speak for Linux, I'm pretty sure it's a fairly unique view to Mac OS X, and it's a great way to browse and move files throughout your folder system. Today's tip, however, deals with one of the column view's occasional shortcomings: its relatively (default) thin column widths. Since long file and folder names get truncated in the column view, it isn't always easy finding just the right one in a long list of chopped-off and summarized names. Instead of holding your mouse over a long file or folder's name and waiting for its full title to appear as a tooltip, there is a much quicker way to do it: simply hold down the option key. This will cause the tooltip to appear immediately, and if you keep browsing in the same directory, you can let go of the option key as it actually toggles this immediate tooltip's functionality on while you remain browsing in that folder. This also works in file open/save dialogs, where the column view can typically get scrunched the most.via [apple.com/pro]
