Collect your favorite apps, files in the Finder, Dock for easy access
OS X’s Finder makes it easy to collect your favorite stuff for easy access. Give these shortcuts a try:
- ⌘-T will add the currently selected app or file to the sidebar on the left
- ⌘-⇧-T will add apps to the left side of your Dock, and files to the right side
Note: if you don’t see a sidebar or a toolbar at the top of your Finder window, hit ⌘-⌥-T (View > Hide Toolbar) to show them.
You can also drag just about anything to the toolbar at the top of your Finder window, though I haven’t been able to find a keyboard shortcut for that.
Finder now offers to search the App Store for applications capable of opening a file with an unrecognized extension.
Create a folder containing your current selection by choosing File > New Folder with Selection or by pressing Control-Command-N (⌃⌘N).
How to make the Library folder visible under OS X Lion (Updated)
OS X Lion hides the ~/Library folder from view in an effort to prevent users from tampering with sensitive files or unwittingly tossing out their precious data. It’s easy to get to your user’s Library folder with a simple Go > Go to Folder command in Finder, then typing ~/Library. But moapp found a Terminal command that can bring your library folder back into focus:
Open the Terminal and type:
chflags nohidden /Users/[username]/Library/
Alternatively, PBenz pointed out in the comments that you can also hold the Option key when clicking Finder’s Go menu to make a hidden Library option appear, like so:
And thanks to Paul Conigliaro in the comments, you can also assign a shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts to open ~/Library. In the demo screenshot below, I used Command-Option-Shift-L.
Lion’s copy dialog allows you keep both copies of a file by appending a “copy” or number to the new file.
Finder: Double-click column separators to auto-size the column
When using a Finder window in the Column view, you can double click a column divider to automatically resize it to the widest name in that column. This works whether your column is too wide or too thin and you need more room to fit all your file names.
Finder allows you to specify a default search location when using the built-in search tool at the top right of any Finder window. Your choices are “Search This Mac” (the default, which seems to annoy most users), “Search the Current Folder” (which is what I’ve always wanted), and the verbose “Use the Previous Search Scope.” This option is under Finder > Preferences > Advanced, and I believe it arrived in 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Can I rank subfolders in column view to always be above individual files also within that same column?
Asked by Anonymous
Unfortunately, the Finder doesn’t offer this option. You would need to use a third-party plugin like TotalFinder or a full-blown app like PathFinder. If I remember correctly, TotalFinder offers the option but it is not enabled by default, while PathFinder uses it right out of the box.
Finder: zoom into photo previews in Columns view
In the Finder’s Columns view, you can Option-click a photo in the Preview column on the right to zoom into it. You can then use two-finder gestures to pan around, Option-click to zoom in further, and Option-Shift-click to zoom back out.
This works on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Anyone have word on previous versions?
via Cabel Sasser
