finder

One of the more than 250 new features in Lion is an enhancement to the Finder that supposedly allows you to combine the contents of folders. In Snow Leopard and prior versions of the Mac OS X, if you placed a folder into a directory alongside another folder of the same name, then the system required you to either cancel the operation and change the folder name or replace the existing folder. Now Lion should offer an option to combine the contents of similarly named folders; however, depending on the way you perform this task the process may not always … Read more

OS X Lion contains a number of new features (over 250 of them, according to Apple), and while some of these are exciting and new features such as autosave, versions, full screen apps, and Airdrop, other changes may be a bit different and take some getting used to. Here are a few tips that may help to make the transition to the Lion interface easier or at least make it feel more familiar.

Undo reversed scroll direction

The very first new feature that might strike you when using Lion is that the default scroll direction has been reversed to behave … Read more

When managing files in OS X, common practices are to drag and drop them in various locations to move them or copy them between storage devices. Simple tasks include dragging individual items between folders, or even selecting multiple items to move at once for easy consolidation of files. Apple's file-system browser, Finder, is fairly straightforward in this respect, but in addition to these basic routines are some hidden options you can use to enhance the basic drag-and-drop features.

1. Copy files When you drag a file to a new location on the same disk, the default behavior is to … Read more

When attempting to access hidden folders in OS X, you can use a tool like TinkerTool or MacPilot to reveal hidden items in the Finder and then navigate to the desired folder, or if you know exactly where you want to go then you can use the Finder's "Go to Folder" option that is available in the "Go" menu. This option brings up a window where you can enter the full path to the desired folder which will then open in the Finder when you click "Go," but to use this, the full … Read more

Our utilities update report is a column on updates for Mac utilities that have been released in the past week. Though a utility can be any tool that helps you perform a routine task (including image manipulation and synchronization), our focus in this column is on bringing you those tools that help in troubleshooting Mac hardware and software problems. This week there were updates for a data recovery tool, a popular maintenance program, an Apple products database, and an alternate filesystem browser.

If you have tried using the OS X Finder for complex management of files and file properties, you … Read more

Generally when you're logging out of your account in OS X the system will ask for confirmation, and will wait for you to close unsaved documents before it closes your log-in session; however, on rare occasions your system may suddenly log out without you telling it to. At one moment you will be working, and the next moment the system will suddenly show either the log-in screen or the open Finder only.

MacFixIt reader "53pickup" wrote in with this exact experience:

The filesystem in OS X is relatively clean by default when viewed through the Finder. The only folders you see are the system folder, applications folder, user home directories, and a few others that might be useful when configuring the system for your needs. In reality there are a number of hidden files and folders that help govern the behavior of OS X, and occasionally when configuring software packages you have to interact with these items.

Recently in the Apple Support Communities forum user "uwes98" had difficulties after uninstalling the technical computing application Matlab and removing the hidden &… Read more

Every now and then it can be useful to track how a program or process is accessing the hard drive. There are times when troubleshooting when you may want to track what files get changed when application settings are adjusted, or which files are accessed when you load a particular feature. Apple provides the Activity Monitor utility that will show you the overall input and output rates of the hard drive, but this overview does not specify the files that are being accessed.

While there are numerous ways to monitor hard-drive activity and usage in OS X, I've found … Read more

When you mount a local hard drive in OS X it will appear in the Computer Name section of the Finder, but may also be found on the Desktop or in the Finder sidebar (unless you have disabled those options). Sometimes, however, when you attach a local hard drive, you will see that the name of the drive has a "-1" or another number appended to it. For instance, if you have a USB flash drive labeled "USB Drive," it may appear as "USB Drive-1" on your system.

In OS X, drives are accessed … Read more