The Finder is the first thing that you see when your Mac finishes starting up. It opens automatically and stays open as you use other apps. It includes the Finder menu bar at the top of the screen and the desktop below that. It uses windows and icons to show you the contents of your Mac, iCloud Drive, and other storage devices. It's called the Finder because it helps you to find and organize your files.
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Open windows and files
To open a window and see the files on your Mac, switch to the Finder by clicking the Finder icon (pictured above) in the Dock. Switching to the Finder also reveals any Finder windows that might be hidden behind the windows of other apps. You can drag to resize windows and use the buttons to close , minimize , or maximize windows. Learn more about managing windows.
When you see a document, app, or other file that you want to open, just double-click it.
With the Mac OS X Lion Finder search box, Spotlight can search for files, search for folders, search for text inside documents, and search for files and folders by their metadata (creation date, modification date, kind, size, and so on). Press Command+Option+F to move the cursor to the search box of the active window. You can learn more about general Spotlight search operators for OS X here, or read a few more specific use cases, like locating large files on the Mac with size searches, or finding files from a specific date with another operator set, or even searching system files in Mac OS X. I'm looking for a regular expression based search/replace GUI tool that is able to handle multiple files/subdirectories, something like grepWin but for Mac OS X. I'm aware of grep and I don't need an editor, just a standalone tool. CNET's Forum on Mac OS is the best source for finding help or getting troubleshooting advice from a community of experts. Discussions cover Mac OS such as Tiger, Panther, Leopard or Snow Leopard.
Change how your files are displayed
To change how files are displayed in Finder windows, use the View menu in the menu bar, or the row of buttons at the top of the Finder window. You can view files as icons , in a list , in columns , or in a gallery . And for each view, the View menu provides options to change how items are sorted and arranged, such as by kind, date, or size. Learn more about customizing views.
When you view files in a gallery, you can browse your files visually using large previews, so it's easy to identify images, videos, and all kinds of documents. Gallery View in macOS Mojave even lets you play videos and scroll through multipage documents. Earlier versions of macOS have a similar but less powerful gallery view called Cover Flow .
Gallery View in macOS Mojave, showing the sidebar on the left and the Preview pane on the right.
Use the Preview pane
The Preview pane is available in all views by choosing View > Show Preview from the menu bar. Or press Shift-Command (⌘)-P to quickly show or hide the Preview pane.
macOS Mojave enhances the Preview pane in several ways:
- More information, including detailed metadata, can be shown for each file. This is particularly useful when working with photos and media, because key EXIF data, like camera model and aperture value, are easy to locate. Choose View > Preview Options to control what information the Preview pane can show for the kind of file selected.
- Quick Actions let you easily manage or edit the selected file.
Use Quick Actions in the Preview pane
With Quick Actions in macOS Mojave, you can take actions on a file without opening an app. Quick Actions appear at the bottom of the Preview pane and vary depending on the kind of file selected.
- Rotate an image
- Mark up an image or PDF
- Combine images and PDFs into a single PDF file
- Trim audio and video files
To manage Quick Actions, click More , then choose Customize. macOS Mojave includes a standard set of Quick Actions, but Quick Actions installed by third-party apps also appear here. You can even create your own Quick Actions using Automator.
Use Stacks on your desktop
macOS Mojave introduces Stacks, which lets you automatically organize your desktop into neat stacks of files, so it's easy to keep your desktop tidy and find exactly what you're looking for. Learn more about Stacks.
Search for files
To search with Spotlight, click the magnifying glass in the menu bar, or press Command–Space bar. Spotlight is similar to Quick Search on iPhone or iPad. Learn more about Spotlight.
To search from a Finder window, use the search field in the corner of the window:
When you select a search result, its location appears at the bottom of the window. To get to this view from Spotlight, choose “Show all in Finder” from the bottom of the Spotlight search results.
In both Spotlight and Finder, you can use advanced searches to narrow your search results.
Delete files
To move a file to the Trash, drag the file to the Trash in the Dock. Or select one or more files and choose File > Move To Trash (Command-Delete).
To remove a file from the Trash, click the Trash to open it, then drag the file out of the Trash. Or select the file and choose File > Put Back.
To delete the files in the Trash, choose File > Empty Trash. The storage space used by those files then becomes available for other files. In macOS Sierra, you can set up your Mac to empty the trash automatically.
Whether you have the files on your computer neatly organized or they're all over the place, a great desktop search utility makes getting right to the file you need when you need it a super-simple proposal. All of the major operating systems have some built-in search, but there's usually a better option out there that's faster, has more accurate results, or has more great features. This week we're looking at five of the best, based on your nominations.
Earlier this week we asked you which desktop search apps were the best. You responded with tons of great suggestions, but we only have room for the top five:
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Alfred (OS X)
Alfred is a combination app launcher and desktop/web search utility for OS X. Once installed, Alt+Space brings up a search bar that you can use to lauch any application on your system, search the web, and of course, search your system for files, folders, images, and more. You can add and remove folders from Alfred's search scope, and use its built-in engine to search for documents, or you can turn on Alfred's search 'Extras' to make it index and present file and folder results as you type. It's a little slower (especially when you can press space again after bringing up Alfred's search bar to look for files) but it gives you everything up front. The beauty of Alfred is that it's an app launcher and desktop search tool in one, but it's also much more. Alfred sports an iTunes mini-player, built-in calculator, support for customizable hotkeys, and has a wealth of available extensions to add even more features. It's free, although the Alfred Powerpack will set you back £15 (approx $23 USD) and toss in some extra useful features.
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Everything (Windows)
Everything originally came out back in 2008 (I should know, I covered its launch for another publication!) and quickly rose to become one of Windows' most popular search utilities. It's not the only one by any means, but Everything was fast—fast like no other desktop search tool at the time really was. It builds its search index while you use it, making it easy to start searching as soon as you download it and get even more accurate results the longer you leave the app running. It won't search the contents of your files like the other apps do, but its speed is pretty enticing as a result. Everything stopped development in 2009, and the last official version is still from then, but Void, the developer, reappeared last month on the forums with a new beta version designed for current versions of Windows. So far, it works like a charm, and retains the speedy search capabilities that made Everything great to begin with. It still needs admin access for best performance, and it still only works on NTFS volumes (and some features have been removed for privacy or performance reasons), but Everything is definitely back. Worst case though, you can still grab the old version. Everything is freeware, although the developer notes he may release some features as add-ons in the future.
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Quicksilver (OS X)
Quicksilver has a long and storied history. For a while, it was the best app launcher and customization tool available for the Mac. We loved it then, and when its future looked a little grim, we mourned. Still, it went open source, and when independent developers picked it up, we were happy. Since then it's been updated frequently, and is still our favorite app launcher for Mac. Even though it's an app launcher, it's also a great file and document search tool, and allows you to browse and search your Mac's file system quickly and with a few keystrokes. Right out of the box, Quicksilver lets you search files, folders, documents of all types, contacts, bookmarks, and more. It can chain commands, so it can search for a file, then give you options of how to open it, or find a file and then move it to a file location for you. It also has a wealth of independently created plugins that can extend its search and scripting features, which let you really play with what the app can do under the hood. The latest versions of Quicksilver are really sharp, and it's completely and totally free (although the team behind it definitely appreciate donations to keep the project running.)
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Launchy (Windows/OS X/Linux)
Launchy is our favorite application launcher for Windows, and as we pointed out when we explained why you should be using an app launcher, it can do much more than just find and launch the apps you want to use when you want to use them. Launchy is super-fast, cross-platform, and makes finding files, launching applications, and chaining activities (finding files and then opening them in a specific application, or searching for a term and then opening it in Google in your favorite browser) really simple. It needs a little time to index before it's really effective, but you won't notice it working in the background. Launchy stays lean and trim by cutting out the bloat and other added features that other app launches include, but for the purposes of desktop search, it works like a charm and is super-simple to use. It's completely free, and works just as well on OS X and Linux as it does in Windows.
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Mac Osx Tool To Search For Files With Extended Attributes
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Windows Search (Windows)
Windows Search is pretty terrible on its own, and it's not really as useful as some of the other contenders in the roundup. It leaves out tons of search locations and file types from its index and indexing is slow and often incomplete. Thankfully, we've shown you how to make Windows Search much more powerful, and many of you noted that once you amp it up a little bit and tweak it so it works better, it's just as good as having a third-party utility on your system. Some of you noted that you'd rather just use what you have than install something new, or that Windows Search is 'okay,' and combined with just being organized, you didn't need a special search tool. Windows ubuntu usb creator tool for mac. Whichever camp you're in, enough of you noted Windows' built-in search that it's a contender. Still, if you are going to stick with Windows Search, at least tweak it so it's more useful.
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Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to a vote to determine the all-out winner.
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What's The Best Desktop Search Application?Tool To Search For Wireless Networks
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Honorable mentions this week go out to Google Desktop Search, which was discontinued in 2011, but many of you still use and love even though Google doesn't officially make it available for download, and isn't offering security fixes, patches, or updates for it. Cutting tool for mac os. There are various installers floating about the web if you're still interested in trying it (or still have it installed), and it really is a great desktop search tool, but getting it to work with current OSes can be challenging. Still, if you have it and it works for you, enjoy it!
Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below.
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The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!