Finder
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Mac 101: Viewing long file names
Have you ever opened up a Finder window in column view and found yourself confronted with truncated file names? It's quite annoying. Here's a quick fix.At the bottom of the column, you'll see two short, vertical "pipes" (pictured above). Double click the pipes, and the window will instantly expand to accommodate the longest file name in the window. Hooray!
FileXaminer: a super "Get Info"
FileXaminer is like the Finder's built-in Get Info (??? - i) on steroids. The features are manifold, allowing you to edit permissions and ownership, dates, type and creator codes and much more. It's particularly handy for editing file attributes that the Finder simply won't let you touch. There are some very basic icon and image edition functions as well, but it is mostly a GUI for editing UNIX level file attributes.In addition, FileXaminer also adds contextual menu items with handy functions like copying a file path (for use in the terminal, for example) and Super Delete.FileXaminer is $10 and a demo is available.[via Macworld]
TUAW Tip: The best way to add the Trash to your Finder sidebar
Update: Alas, it looks like I'm going to have to withdraw this one. Do not use this tip, particularly on PPC Macs. Although it worked fine in my initial testing on an Intel Mac, it's becoming clear that this doesn't work for everyone, nor does it persist after a restart. So while I don't think it's dangerous (if you tried this and it didn't work properly, just force-restart the Finder to return things to normal), it is not actually a good solution. See our earlier Ask TUAW post for other, more permanent ways of doing this.On an older Ask TUAW we were asked how to add the Trash to the Finder sidebar. I pointed to several different solutions to this, but just recently reader DG left a comment on that post with far and away the most elegant solution. Basically, show the Trash folder in the Finder by clicking on the Trash can in the Dock. Next hit ???-i to reveal the "Trash Info" window (right). Click on the triangle to reveal the Preview if it's not already visible and then drag the preview icon onto the Finder sidebar and drop it. This will place the Trash in the sidebar with the proper icon and you can now drag and drop files to the Trash from the Finder. Not only that, the icon will even animate to show whether the trash is empty or not (though it may take a few moments to refresh your Finder window so you can see it).Thanks, DG!
Ask TUAW: Printing Finder window contents, CornerClick, a Finder hotkey, editing AVIs and more
This week's Ask TUAW takes us into questions about printing Finder window contents, assigning programs to the corner of your screen, bringing up the Finder with a HotKey, integrating Apple productivity programs, recording TV on your Mac and editing AVIs . Remember new Mac users and Switchers who are enjoying our Mac 101 series should feel very welcome to post questions for Ask TUAW; we're happy to take questions from all levels. As always, please submit your questions by commenting to this post or using our tip form.
Mac 101: Locating files with the Title bar
You've got a window open, any window. A Finder window, say, or in many of the built-in Apple apps like TextEdit. Ever wonder exactly which directory you're looking at? Here's a simple trick that may be new to you if you're a switcher. See the name of your file or folder at the top of that OS X window? It usually has a small icon right next to it. Command-click the name or title in that title bar and OS X will show you the directory tree that leads down to the item you're looking at. And if you click on a folder in that list? Finder automatically opens a new window showing that folder. Very convenient.
Terminal Tip: Showing and Hiding Disks using Developer tools
In a couple of recent posts, I showed you how to how to hide drives using Finder preferences and selectively show some of them using aliases. I received a number of emails looking for more elegant solutions i.e. avoiding the look of aliases and their won't-sort-properly-like-a-real-drive behavior. A few readers also asked how to hide their iDisks, which didn't respond to the preferences the same way that hard drives did. First let me note that iDisks aren't seen by Finder as normal hard drive volumes or, as you might expect, as connected servers. Instead, iDisks are controlled by the CDs, DVDs, and iPods preference--the same preference that shows and hides attached thumb drives and memory card readers. As for the more elegant volume-by-volume solution, that lies in the realm of Terminal and the command-line developer tool SetFile. You can join the Apple Developer Connection and gain access to the developer tools with a Free ADC Online Membership. After installing the dev tools, you'll find SetFile in the /Developer/Tools folder. To hide a volume, use the -a V flag with SetFile and then restart Finder. This will hide the iDisk, even in Sync mode % /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V /Volumes/iDisk/% killall "Finder"% To bring the volume back, use -a v instead. (Notice the lower case "v".) % /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a v /Volumes/iDisk/% killall "Finder"%
Finder Window Manager
Complaining about the Finder is a favorite pastime of Mac users, and one of the biggest annoyances has always been that it won't remember window placement and view settings. Well for the OCD set, Finder Window Manager may be just what the doctor ordered (as a supplement for the Prozac). This simple utility allows you "to save and restore your window placement and view options via Window Sets." You can have different Window Sets for different purposes (e.g. different projects, etc.). Just arrange the Finder windows as you'd like them and take a snapshot by creating a Window Set; later you can easily restore these settings through the menubar item (right). There are also a bunch of window management options in the Utilities submenu, such as stacking and tiling, etc.Finder Window Manager is $15 and a demo is available.
Mac 101: Hide Hard Drives, CDs, etc on your Desktop
I like a relatively neat Desktop. I keep out just those items I need to access right away for my day-to-day work. It's so easy to clutter Finder, especially when you use multiple hard drives and partitions, an iPod, a memory card reader and the odd CD or DVD. An often-overlooked Finder preference can come to the rescue. To hide volumes on your Desktop, choose Finder -> Preferences (or just type Command-, when Finder is active). In the General tab, choose which items you want to show on your Desktop. Place a check next items you want to see or clear the checkboxes to hide items. You can always bring hidden items back by updating your preferences later.And don't forget: whether you hide disks or CDs on your desktop, they're always there on the side drawer of your Finder windows where you'll find all hard drives, servers, removable media and so forth.
Mac 101: Preview Media with Column View
Finder's column view doesn't seem to be a big favorite among switchers, which is a shame. Switchers tend to prefer using icon views or lists but column view offers a huge win over these other when working with media, allowing you to preview your media directly in Finder. To switch to column view, choose View -> as Columns or just press Command-3. Finder changes over to this view which shows a tree-like structure of your disk. Not only do you see the contents of your current folder, but you can see other folders higher up the directory tree. And here's the good part: when you select an image, audio or video file, you can preview its contents directly in the Finder window. Select any media file and Finder shows you its name, kind, size and other file information. It shows you the contents of the file as well. If it's a picture, you see a small version of the image. If it's sound or video, a QuickTime-style player appears and you can play it back directly in Finder. Got a lot of pictures or other media to sort through? Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll through your files. Finder will update the preview to reflect your current selection until you find the file you were looking for.
Mac 101: A simple trick to rename files
There are many ways to rename files in OS X but most people use one of two approaches: either click-pause-click or click-return. And if you're used to using one style, the other style can prove a welcome surprise for your Mac-fu arsenal. In click-pause-click, you move your cursor to a file or folder, select it, wait a second and then click again on the name. A text edit field appears over the name and you can rename the file as desired. This is the renaming style I've most used over the years but there's a far easier way, and that's click-return. In click-return, you select a file or folder and then press the return key. Without having to wait, or worse, accidently open a file by double-clicking when you meant to rename, the text edit field instantly appears. Thanks, Steven.
Refresh the Finder
Before Tiger one of the things people complained about the Finder was its lack of a "Refresh" command along the lines of F5 in the Windows Explorer. Supposedly this was fixed in Tiger with automatic refresh, but as we've noted in one of our Ask TUAW columns, sometimes it doesn't quite seem to work. Having had enough of this, Samuel Svensson decided to do something about it and wanted to add a refresh button to the Finder similar to the one in Safari. He wrote this simple application, which is actually just a wrapper around a simple AppleScript: tell application "Finder" tell front window update every item with necessity end tellend tellThe nifty part is that it is just a regular application you place in your Applications folder. It merely has a very small icon so that when you drag it onto your Finder toolbar (as we just covered in Mac 101), it looks like a Finder button. In fact, it isn't a hack or plug-in of any sort. Cool idea.Refresh the Finder is a free download from design firm Söderhavet.Thanks, Fredrik!
The Little Things: Drag and drop
TUAW reader Chris Roberts was right: it's been far too long since our last post in The Little Things series, so I figured I'd pick up the slack with a really handy feature of Mac OS X: drag and drop. Sure, most OSes these days can drag and drop at least some things, but Apple has gone to great lengths to build this workflow-enhancing feature into so many facets of Mac OS X's experience, I don't really have time to cover them all (and there's no doubt that I don't even know about them all). Take my screenshot for example: I'm dragging an image of our puppy out of iPhoto on the left into iChat's icon well on the right. A simple gesture, sure, but a tiny example of how powerful this functionality can become. Try a few of these other drag and drop operations on for size: Drag a file onto an app's icon in the Finder or Dock; its icon should darken, signifying that it can handle whatever you're throwing at it. Hold the Command key to force an app to open a file if it isn't initially cooperating. Drag images from a browser (except Firefox and Camino) into a Mail message or iChat window to easily share them; no clunky 'right-click, Save, Open' workflows here. Pause a QuickTime movie, click on the video and drag out to the desktop to create an instant snapshot of the frame you paused on (this might only work in QuickTime Pro - can anyone verify?). Drag a file onto a Terminal window to instantly create a path. Highlight text in most apps, then click and drag it to the desktop to create a text snippet, or into another window (Mail, iChat and Yojimbo are great examples) for a drag 'n drop take on copy/paste. I'm sure there's a ton more where this came from, so try it on for size or stay tuned to the comments on this post where readers can share their own tricks and tips for dragging and dropping one's way to productive bliss.
Mac 101: Applications in the Finder toolbar
Last year (pre Mac 101) we told you about the ability to customize your Finder toolbar with folders for quick access, but you can also put applications there to use with drag and drop operations. For instance, in my Finder tool bar I have AppZapper, ImageWell, and Path Finder. This way I can easily uninstall applications, do simple image edits (especially resizing), or reveal the file in Path Finder just by dragging things onto the appropriate icon. This can be a real time saver for any applications you use regularly, particularly by drag and drop.To customize your Finder toolbar, just right-click on an empty area of the toolbar and choose "Customize Toolbar..." You'll want to have another Finder window open to your Applications folder and then you can just drag and drop application icons from the other Finder window onto the toolbar of the window with the customize sheet open.Update: As several folks have rightly pointed out you don't need to use the "Customize Toolbar..." command, though I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that Apple officially recommended doing it this way.
TUAW Tip: Stationery Pad option makes a template of any file
The Finder's Get Info window (View > Get Info or cmd-i) is one of those unsung heroes of Mac OS X computing. It houses a lot of great options, and Stationery Pad is one of them. If you have any kind of workflow where you need to repeatedly modify some sort of a file template, checking this option in any file's Get Info window will tell its parent application to open a copy of it by default, ensuring that the original file remains unedited. While some applications that manage files for you can offer similar functionality, this is a great option for anyone who, for example, use Word docs as contract templates, or begins with a basic pre-built file for various Photoshop or hand-coding CSS/PHP freelance work. You can simply build the file any way you like, save it and check this box in Get Info to tell any app you open it with to open a copy instead of the original. Easy breezy file templates, with no AppleScripts or plugins required.
Are you Wii-less? We can help [update 1]
[Update 1: Our apologies; we had simply assumed the service was free. Thanks to our trusty commenters, we found a better one! For free! WiiSearcher.com!]All right, well, maybe not us. We're too busy having way too much fun slamming our parents into the ground in Wii Tennis (except for Nikki, of course). The internet is a vast place, however, and the local denizens are sure to help you find your way if you ask nicely enough.Welcome to NintendoFinder.com WiiSearcher.com, a wonderful place that uses voodoo and sorcery to immediately discern availability of the Wii at pretty much every retailer ever. As soon as a store restocks, torrents of E-mail are sent to any and all subscribers to the system, letting them know to get their click on. It's a great tool for those of you worried about getting a system before Christmas, and we recommend you tell your parents (nudge nudge) to check it out. You know. So they can let Santa know, too.(Santa is a universally understood figure used for the purposes of a substandard joke. Please, no religious quarreling.)[Thanks, Matt, for shamelessly plugging your own site! ^^]
TUAW Tip: type a letter to find a menu item
This isn't quite a mind-blowing feature, but it might come in handy to those who frequently need to track down a specific menu item or command. In the menus of any apps (including even menubar utilities), you can simply type the first letter of an item you're trying to find in the currently selected menu. This unfortunately doesn't seem to work across all menus, i.e. - you can't type a command to find it in any menu in the current app, but it should at least help with those "oh I *know* it's in this menu somewhere" moments. This also appears to work across all apps, Carbon (Finder, Firefox) included.Oh a broader scale, this trick works in many apps in various ways. iTunes is perhaps the best example: you can type the first few letters of an item you're looking for in your media list (or in the Sources list on the left), and iTunes will take you to that particular section, based on which column you're currently sorting items by, or which Browse column you have selected.
Videos of Leopard's 'live preview' in action
Musings From Mars has posted some revealing videos of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's upcoming 'Quick Look' feature, which allows the OS to preview many different types of media, including audio and video, with unprecedented ease and power. MFM has created a YouTube playlist of three videos, all demonstrating different abilities of this new feature.Note that in the first movie, the Finder has an unmistakably different look to it, and this blogger would go so far as to wonder if it could be an early sign of an update to everyone's favorite file manager to hate. The second video demonstrates something peculiar that isn't quite apparent from simply watching it: once one video was playing in the preview pane, MFM began clicking on different videos in the Finder, which caused the preview pane to instantly start playing each new video, but picking up at the same point in the timeline - not beginning each video from square one. The third video is a basic demonstration of the preview pane's ability to preview movies even at full screen - unshackling Mac OS X users from the cramped chains of the Finder's tiny preview when in Column view.Now we don't have any way of verifying these videos, but if they are real, they're some appetizing examples of what is hopefully a shiny new Finder in Leopard.Thanks KurtUpdate: Leland, the author of the movies from Musings From Mars, stopped by to let us know that the interesting look of the Finder in the first video is in fact the work of Uno, and not evidence of a fancy new Leopard Finder.
10 Mac OS X Finder alternatives compared and reviewed
While the Mac community anxiously awaits a much-rumored and much-needed Finder update in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Simplehelp decided to survey the landscape of 3rd party alternatives for a temporary fix. A total of 10 Finder replacements are reviewed, with a chart that rounds up the basics, and plenty of screenshots to accompany each app.While Path Finder is obviously one of the reigning kings of this genre, Simplehelp found some pretty unique - though not always functioning - takes on the file management paradigm, all with significant pros and cons to consider.While I haven't put all these apps to the test recently, I've given many of them a spin at least in the last year or two, and I can't say I'm optimistic for a 3rd party's ability to replace the Finder any time soon. Apple seems pretty intent on locking down their (arguably aging) Finder, and it seems we're all stuck with it until those rumors of a revamp come true.
FileBrowse - a media browser companion for Finder
Romain Guy at The Apple Blog has penned a nice walkthrough of an interesting new app called FileBrowse, which acts as more of a streamlined tool for media file browsing and manipulating tasks, as opposed to a full-fledged Finder replacement (cuz we all know how well that's going). FileBrowse makes use of subtle display and 3D elements to provide more information when rooting through folders of images, music and video. As you can see, it draws Windows XP-like thumbnails on folders of images, allowing one to peek at what's inside without actually having to crack it open. It also offers far more information (like metadata) when viewing items individually, and it even renders album artwork on music folders, along with video file previews, a unique visual grouping system, and more.FileBrowse looks like an interesting app, so check out Romain's walkthrough if you've been feeling the Finder is a bit lacking in these departments lately. At $25 though, it probably won't be for everyone, but it's nice to see some new file browsing tools that focus on a few things, and doing them well.
Get that distraction-free, uncluttered desktop with latest MacBreak
It seems there are two slowly diverging schools of thought in terms of working on a Mac: to multi-task, or not to. While an independent (though Apple-commissioned) study has been released supporting the increased productivity theory via larger displays and more stuff on-screen at once, not everyone sits in the same camp. Merlin Mann of 43folders is one of those campers who is thinking different, and Russell from our sister-blog DV Guru dropped a note to say the latest episode of MacBreak (iTS link) features Leo and Mr. Mann waxing ecstatic on all things uncluttered and distraction-free. They cover techniques and tweaks for clearing your workspace in the Finder, as well as using 3rd party tools like our TUAW-favorite Quicksilver, Spirited Away (which we've covered) and MenuShade from Nullriver Software (scroll down, it's under their Open Source section).While I myself am firmly rooted in the 'more on screen = productivity' camp, I am a big fan of enabling users to work the way they need to, and I think this is a nice, quick video (it's only 4:20) to get started with the digital zen art of working clutter-free.
