Finder Tweaks

This article from Lifehacker I found quite interesting, though I only applied a few of the tricks myself. The two tricks from the article I applied were the ability to view the contents of compressed folders and normal folders in QuickLook.

I underutilise QuickLook myself, and these should allow me to use it more than I currently do. The instructions for both are the same: download the QuickLook Generator file from the website and paste it under ~/Library/QuickLook and restart Finder. (The easiest way to restart finder is to hold Alt, right-click the Finder icon in the dock and select "relaunch."

For viewing compressed folders, download the file here.
For viewing normal folders, download the file here.

The article is great and definitely worth a read.

Show Hidden Files and Folders

As I am a curious sort, I always want to know exactly what is on my hard drive. One thing that always irks me about OS X is all of the hidden files and folders. Because of this, I prefer to keep them hidden. However, it is always good to know how to reveal them, and as such I will tell you how here.

Open Terminal and type the command:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

This reveals the hidden files and folders.
Hit enter and then type the command:

killall Finder

This restarts Finder so the folders and files will be visible.

To revert it, the process is basically the same. Open Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.finder ShowAllFiles FALSE

Hit enter and then type:

killall Finder

A utilitarian trick all should know.

Preventing .DS_Store

A helpful hint I found in the Apple Knowledge Base today.

Because I still have a Windows machine hanging around (in its death throes, I might add) and dislike lots of hidden files lying around (one of my little annoyances with Mac), I was excited to see there is an easy way to prevent the .DS_Store files from being created on your networked drives.

Open Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
and then hit enter.

After a reboot, this should disable any more of those from being created. Whether the old ones ever get deleted is up to you and your OCD.

There is a disclaimer that this "can cause unexpected Finder behaviour," but nothing too dire will occur.

Links:
Apple Knowledge Base Article

A Few Finder Tips

Here's some Finder tips that everyone should know. Some of them I feel stupid about for not discovering earlier, some of them are obvious, some redundant, but most all are helpful.

1. Icon View Sorting
When one views the finder window in icon view, it is helpful for sorting photos. However, when you start copying items into the folder or accidentally (or purposely) dragging the files around, it can get messy (and seriously bother one's OCD). However, there is a fix. Hit Command + A (to highlight all of the files) and then in the OS X toolbar click View -> Clean Up Selection. Voilà, all of the files will snap to a nice grid and be arranged!

2. Some File-Moving and Navigation Tips
You probably already know that when you hover a file over a folder it opens the folder (this is "spring-loaded folder" which is enabled by default). However, this can be shortened two ways: the first is to hit the spacebar when hovering over a folder, which will open it immediately; the second is to change the time the folder waits to "spring" in Finder's preferences. You can also press Escape to sop the file move before it occurs.

3. The Finder Toolbar
If you have certain programmes, files, or folders that you like to access on a regular basis, you can drag the file, folder, or programme into the finder toolbar (in the window itself, not the OS X toolbar) and hover it there for a second until the + sign comes up and allows you to add it. You can hold Command and drag the file/folder/programme off of the toolbar to remove it, and can right click (or control click) on the toolbar to mess with further options.

4. Finder Path Bar
This gives the option to see the file path of the folder you are currently in at the bottom of the Finder window. The added bonus is that you can click and drag a file into any of the listed folders to move it higher in the hierarchy and can double-click any of the listed folders to view it. To enable this, click View -> Show Path Bar at the top (OS X) toolbar.

5. Finder's Proxy Icons
The little folder icon you see at the top of a Finder window, next to the title, can be right-clicked (control-clicked) to view the file path to the folder you are currently viewing. (This is somewhat redundant to tip #4.) You can click any of the folders listed there to jump to it, or hold command while clicking it to open that folder in a new Finder window.

6. Arrow Key Navigation
As most of you probably know, you can use the arrow keys to navigate around finder (as well as the alpha keys to jump to files). The arrow key navigation is rather self-explanatory and intuitive, so I won't go into too much detail. The only real trick in this one is Spacebar (for Quick Look) when any object is highlighted, and Command + Down Arrow to open a file or folder.

Disabling Finder Indexing (Sort Of...)

Still on my quest to find out how to disable Finder/Spotlight indexing, I have found a solution of sorts. My ultimate goal is to prevent finder indexing any external drives by default, but this is a partial solution that will at least prevent any further indexing of a specific drive. Unfortunately, you will still have to go and delete the indexing that occurs when you first plug it in.

So, the solution?

Launch Terminal.app and use the command

sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/

You have to do that for each drive in turn, but at least you should only have to do it once.

You can check the status of the drive by running the command

sudo mdutil -s /Volumes/

It should give the status as "Indexing disabled."

Note: You will probably have to eject and (when applicable) shut off the external drive and reconnect it to have the status accurately displayed.

Finder Folders First

This is an old one resurrected from a time when I had no time to write on it. How to list folders first in Finder, similar to Windows Explorer.

Rather than bore you with more senseless speech, I shall simply start saying such sayings as I simply should speak.

Launch Terminal.app and then type:

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj

After doing so, type the following commands, hitting Enter with each line break:

sudo chmod 777 InfoPlist.strings
sudo chmod 777
open InfoPlist.strings

The file should open in TextEdit or a similar application. Within that file you will find "Folder" = "Foler". Change it to "Folder" = " Folder" (note the space inside of the quotes within the second " Folder"). Save the file. Next use the Control-Option-Click combination on the Finder icon in the Dock and select Relaunch. When Finder restarts, when you sort lists by type, folder should always appear on top.

Note: I have noticed that this trick only works on my local hard drives, that is, it does not work on any of my NAS drives in Finder. Nevertheless, it is still a nice trick.

Note: Another shortcut that works is to copy the file to the desktop, edit it, save it, and then copy the file back to its original location and restart Finder.

UPDATE: Alas this no longer works! If you use the list view (as opposed to column or icon) and sort it by kind, then it works. But not for any other. I prefer column view myself, so I guess we will all have to keep our fingers crossed for Snow Leopard functionality...