Read Online OS X Mountain Lion Pocket Guide by Chris Seibold - Free Book Online

on
     your desktop. Your options are hard disks; external disks; CDs,
     DVDs, and iPods; and connected servers. You can also specify
     what directory a new Finder window opens to. The default is All
     My Files, but you can change that to any folder by choosing it
     from the “New Finder windows show” menu. You also get a checkbox
     (that’s unchecked by default) where you can choose to open
     folders in a new window. Finally, you can fine-tune (or turn
     off) spring-loaded folders, which automatically pop open if you
     drag an item over them, allowing you to quickly access nested
     folders.
Labels
If you’re big on organization, you can label
     folders with colors. By default, the labels’ names match their
     colors—for example, if you label something with the color red,
     the text label is Red. That isn’t very descriptive, so if you
     want to have the red label read “En Fuego” instead, this is
     where you can change the label’s name. (Note that changing a
     label’s name won’t affect how labeled folders are displayed.) To
     add a label to a folder, right-click or Control-click the folder
     and then choose the label you want to use from the menu that
     pops up.
Sidebar
This tab lets you specify which items are
     displayed in the sidebar. If you’ve deleted a built-in item from
     the sidebar, a trip to this tab can restore it. If you uncheck
     all the items in a category, that category will no longer appear
     in the sidebar. (If you’ve added any items to a section of the
     sidebar, that category won’t vanish until you also remove those
     items by dragging them out of the sidebar.)
Advanced
The Advanced tab gives you checkboxes to control
     whether filename extensions are displayed (if you check this
     box, Safari will be displayed as Safari.app, for example),
     whether the Finder should warn you before changing an extension,
     whether you should be warned before emptying the Trash, and
     whether the Trash should be emptied securely (see Trash for more info).
    Finder views
    You can change how items are displayed in the Finder by
     clicking the toolbar buttons (see Figure 3-9 ) or using the keyboard shortcuts
     listed below. Here are your options:
    Icon View (⌘-1)
This is the default view. Items are displayed as
     file icons, application icons, or folder icons ( Figure 3-11 ).
     Single-clicking an item in Icon View selects it; double-clicking
     launches the application, opens the file (inside its associated
     application), or opens the folder. You can use the arrow keys to
     move from item to item. Holding the Shift key while using the
     arrow keys selects multiple items.
    Figure 3-11. Icon View of the Applications folder
List View (⌘-2)
This view presents the contents of a folder as a
     list. You can open subfolders by clicking their disclosure
     triangles (see Figure 3-12 ). List
     View offers more information than Icon View but feels more
     cluttered. As with Icon View, you can navigate through List View
     using the arrow keys: ↑ and ↓ change what’s selected; → and ← open and close (respectively) a subfolder’s disclosure triangle.
     To open all subfolders under the one that’s selected, press
     Option- → ; to close all
     subfolders after you’ve opened them, use Option- ← . To sort files, click a row heading;
     the triangle in the heading indicates the sort order.
    Figure 3-12. The useful List View
Column View (⌘-3)
Column View ( Figure 3-13 ) is the
     favorite of a lot of users. While it looks a little like List
     View, it doesn’t include any disclosure triangles. Clicking a
     folder in this view reveals the contents of that folder. If you
     continue all the way to a file, the last column will show a
     Quick Look preview of the file and some key information about
     it. For example, if you drill down to a movie, the film’s
     preview will appear in the last column, and you can even play it
     right there. If you select an application, the last column will
     display a