One of the big things I do here in OS X tips is take screenshots. A quick Command-Shift-3 will get me a picture of my entire screen, while a Command-Shift-4 will get me a crosshair which I can use to click and drag around any area of my screen to get a more specific area of my Mac’s screen to demonstrate a point.
Sometimes, though, I miss. When I don’t get the right area of the screen, I typically hit the Escape key and then Command-Shift-4 to try again. If however, I need to just move the selection area around to another part of the screen, I always assumed I was out of luck.
Do you use icon view in the Finder? Do you often find yourself double clicking folders and using Get Info commands to find out more about the files in your Finder windows? Well, it turns out there’s a View Option which will add a little bit of information to any item in a Finder window, provided you’re in icon view.
With the new-ish integrated search function in OS X, I spend a lot of time clicking over from “This Mac” to “Documents” or “Dropbox,” since I typically start out in the folder I’m searching for anyway. I usually want to just search the folder I’m in, rather than the entire Mac, since that can be a lot of files to search through, especially if the search term I’m using is fairly generic (“I think it was something about kittens…”).
Yesterday, we dove into the Finder preferences to help you tell your Mac what folder to open new Finder windows with. Today, then, we’re gonna rush headlong back to those very same preferences to tell your Mac what to do when you’re searching for a file.
Ever since OS X 10.7 Lion, the Finder has a new sidebar section, called All My Files. It’s a list of, predictably, all the files on your Mac and it can be customized to show them in any style you like, sorting by Name, Date Created, Kind, Date Modified, and more. The trouble is, though, that all new Finder windows open to this All My Files section by default. Some folks might not like this, though, and wish for the long-ago days of, say, Snow Leopard, when Finder windows opened to the Desktop or some such.
Luckily, to make this happen takes just a quick trip into the Finder preferences to sort out. Thanks, Apple!
Terminal app can be daunting at first, but it’s really the best way to hack into your Mac’s configurations and preferences to customize things to work for you rather than against you. With the right Terminal commands, you can tweak the Finder, mess with the user interface, build a more private and secure Mac, and even enable features that aren’t officially supported on older Macs.
The Terminal app is like a window into the inner workings of your Mac. It accesses the Unix core of your Apple computer directly and without any muss or fuss. It can feel pretty daunting at times, but it’s really the way to dig in and make your Mac work the way you want it to. The Finder can be hacked a bit using the Terminal, of course, so we figured we could show you a few tricks, too.
Here’s how to hack up the Finder a bit to make it work better for you.
The Option key is a powerful ally in the transition from new, beginner user of OS X to the power user that you want to be. There are a ton of hidden features in the Finder alone that are hidden behind the underrated and unassuming Option key.
The OS X Finder keeps getting cooler and cooler, with animated window minimizing and live media previews. When you’re in icon view, the Finder updates all the image and video thumbnail previews in real time, making stuff easier to identify. This does take a toll on performance, however, which is important if you’re rocking an older Mac, like many of us.
One solution to help the Finder feel snappier is to turn off the image and video preview feature, and here’s how to do just that.
It’s not very often you can find a series of apps that has 16 utilities in one bundle, but this soon-to-end Cult of Mac Deals offer has 16 utilities all in one application! MacKeeper has got you covered in more ways than one – and you can get it for just $24 – and you’ll have the use of it for two of your Macs to boot!
The feature set that MacKeeper offers is almost limitless!
You’ve used Quick Look a lot, right? I know I have. I’ve use it a ton to browse through bunches of images on my Desktop when trying to decide which Screenshot I want to put at the top of these OS X tips.
But there’s much more you can do with multiple files and Quick Look, including a sweet index view that I just found out about myself. Follow along at home, and I’ll show you how.
![Ending Soon! Cover Your Bases With MacKeeper [Deals]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/CoM-MacKeeper.jpg)
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