Comments on: OS X Finder tutorial and customizations (Part 5)

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:08:51 +0000

This is the best Mac tutorial I’ve ever encountered!
Thanks!!

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:44:59 +0000

@Scott, Bravo Scott! Creds to y’all! This was a nagging point for me which came to a head the other evening. A “once power user” myself, this was a simple point that I had not pursued resolution for until now.

Your response was exactly what was needed and the unexpected promptness of reply, a pleasant surprise.

The nature of my time constraints while perusing your sites pages lent itself to frustration. I did read the main bodies of your blogs/pages, as they were pointed to via a search of “combined file size” and “multiple file size” etc, and I did also read most of the questions/responses as well. However, you are correct, you had answered this matter in a response that I had missed (Part 3 of this Finder series/macrussian). Yes, I am in agreement with what was mentioned.

The simplest solution, to me, is obviously the inclusion of a choice in the configuration of view options for the status line. Done. This is indeed rudimentary stuff, but then, as we agree, OSX/Mac is great but admittedly not perfect… but then, I guess that’s what feedback and progressive design is all about.

While I’m at it… can you specify what the “Calculate all sizes” choice relates to (found in the View Options when either List or Coverflow views are selected, as above)?

One final comment. While far from a newbie myself, sometimes it is sites like yours here, Scott, that users of varying experience goto to get an answer simply and quickly. Bravo. Further, while sifting through the various questions and responses on various pages here, it is clear that your efforts are effective and appreciated (oh, to wish for such a perfect world, lol) and there are no signs of any egos involved here.

Keep it up Scott!

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:31:03 +0000

@Steve, somewhere in our archives we covered this. If you select more than one file, then hold the option key, and go to the File menu, you will see the “get info” menu turns to “show inspector” which will then show you cumulative data for more than one file at a time.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:23:34 +0000

OK, why is it that the most rudimentary crap one needs to find an answer for in a hurry (rudimentary stuff being that which shouldn’t have needed an answer sought for in the first place) is the stuff that appears to be the most overlooked! …by many sources of info including your own…

The question: displaying of total/combined size of selected files in Finder - where and how?!?! The status line displays remaining hard drive space which is trivial at the moment when I need to know the total size of multiple files that I’m transferring or manipulating!

“Get Info” on groups of less than 11 selected files display multiple/individual “infos”, 11 or more selected files display fine in a single “info”?!?!

By: shaun

shaun — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:06:56 +0000

Hey you can actually search by size in Spotlight by adding the parameter by clicking the + arrow at the right hand topside of the window under save. Choose others and tick the size box inside that.

Fill in your parameters to define what size of file you are searching for.

By: CamCham

CamCham — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:31:55 +0000

Yeah, it sucks.
I have to use HoudaSpot, but I’d like OS X to handle it naturally.
Anyone that know hows to manipulate OS X to do this, please post the solution! I’ll offer a 15$ paypal reward the first solution!

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:12:45 +0000

@CamCham, you seem to be correct, I can not determine any way to get size in the search area either.

By: CamCham

CamCham — Sun, 04 May 2008 03:02:02 +0000

I don’t understand why there are “no view options for the searching this mac” window. I’d like for my searches to show the file sizes of the results. Anyone have a solution? Thanks!

By: Kristin

Kristin — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:44:16 +0000

I tried that a couple of times, but no luck… guess Ill have to just live with command-2! Thanks

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:50:01 +0000

@Kristin, I had the same issues in 10.4. I would find that setting it, closing the window, opening it again, setting it again, and then closing it one last time will lock it in place.

10.3 had it’s own quirks, 10.5 has a way to set this and define it more globally, but it is still not perfect.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:29:14 +0000

Any clue as to why my finder view resets to Icon after every restart/logout??? Seems only to do this on my main drive partition. I know a command-2 will easily reset it to list view, but it’s annoying to have to do this every day.
MacIntel (MacMini) running OS 10.4.11.
Didn’t seem to do this in OS 10.3… not ready to upgrade to 10.5 yet.

Thx!

By: Scott Haneda (Admin)

Scott Haneda (Admin) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:59:21 +0000

@Vance, of your only reason for an alpha sort on the Desktop is downloaded files, I would suggest you edit your preferences to change the download location, and then sort that folder. It seems cleaner this way to me to have a separate download folder.

In this way, when you are cleaning up download files, you will not accidentally delete a file you wanted to keep.

However, if while on the Desktop, you you go to “View Options” in the “View” menu, you can set it to “Arrange by Name” which should do what you are talking about.

By: Vance

Vance — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 06:01:02 +0000

I remember in OSX 10.2.8 that you could set the desktop to always sort your icons “alphabetically.” I always thought this was useful when moving things around or downloading, etc., and finding things quickly. Unfortunately, it seems that OSX 10.5 has removed this feature. Has it been relocated somewhere else, or has Apple decided to eliminate it altogether.
Your help or comments would be greatly appreciated.