Macintosh Tip #2a
The Finder—The Titlebar and Toolbar
I had originally wanted a single tip to discuss the entire Finder. I found more to explain than I thought. So I have split the topic into multiple parts (at this point I think it will be three). So this first entry will cover the Finder in general, and the first two parts of the Finder window.
In this tip we will explore the parts of the Finder. First we must discuss what the Finder is. Technically the Finder is the application that allows you to save, and retrieve files on your Macintosh. These files include documents that you create or acquire, applications that you use, and system files that allow everything to work correctly. Another way to think of it, is that the Finder is what you are using when you aren’t using anything else. The quickest way to access the Finder is to Click on its icon in the Dock. It will alway appear on the far left side of the Dock. Many of the things you will learn about the Finder window is applicable to all other windows on a Macintosh.
The most basic part of the Finder is a Finder window. The Finder window shows you the contents of the folder that you opened.
There are 4 parts to a Finder window. Across the top are the titlebar and the toolbar. Down the left side is the aptly named Sidebar. Finally there is the largest portion of the window, where the contents of the folder are listed. Let’s take these one at a time.
Titlebar and Toolbar
The first thing that you will do with the titlebar/toolbar is move the window. Click any open space on the titlebar/toolbar and drag the window to a new location on your screen. The titlebar and toolbar look like they are one thing but they are actually two distinct items. In fact you can hide the toolbar and use just the titlebar. By clicking the transparent “jelly bean” at the upper right of the window, you will hide the toolbar and see just the titlebar.
On the left side of the titlebar are three buttons, sometimes referred to as “traffic lights.” The red button will close the window and the yellow button will minimize the window to the Dock. The green button is referred to as a zoom button. This button will usually enlarge the window. You might expect it to cause the window to fill the screen, but this is not usually the case. What the zoom does is to enlarge the window enough that you can see all of the items in the window, if possible. In fact it might actually cause a window to shrink if there is a small quantity of items in it. A second click of the green button will bring the window back to its original size. It would appear that the center of the titlebar is nothing more than the title of the current folder. This is not quite true. It has a hidden function. If you hold down the command key (or the control key in more recent versions of OS X) while you click the title, you will see a menu drop down. This menu shows you the “path” to the current folder that you are viewing. You can even choose a folder from the menu to open that “parent” folder.
Toolbar
The toolbar is the lower half of the titlebar/toolbar. This is called the toolbar, well, because you will find tools here. On the left are arrows that let you navigate to a previously viewed folder. Next are icons that allow you to change the view of the window; Icon, List, Column, Cover Flow. These also have command key shortcuts of command-1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively (see Tip #1 for more information about command key shortcuts). The next icon is a stylized eye. This is Quick Look. Quick Look is one of the best features of OS X version 10.5 (Leopard) and above. Simply select any file in the window and click this icon. You will see an instant view of the document. Even easier, select the file and press the spacebar. This is a second way to launch Quick Look. The final item on the toolbar is the Task menu. Select a file of folder, then click this menu. You will see a list of actions that you can perform on the selected item. The available choices will actually change depending on what type of item you have selected. Some examples are; New Folder, Move item to the trash, give the item a “Label” (which adds a color to the item). Many of these items are also in the standard menus but are provided here as a convenience. The final item in the toolbar is the search field. Click in this field and start typing. The Finder uses a program called Spotlight to look not only at your file and folder names, but also inside the files to find the text that you are typing. This is a dynamic search, so as you type a list of files will appear and then as you continue to type the list will get shorter as files are eliminated. When you think you have found the right file you can double-click it right in the list to open it. Here is a good place for Quick Look, if you’re not sure whether you have found the correct file, select it and press the space bar. Now you can verify if it is the one you want, without opening it.
Quick hint for Snow Leopard Mail
In Snow Leopard (10.6) you can now arrange folders in any order. In previous version of Mail, the were forced into an alphabetic order.
