“Apple has significantly updated the Finder for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, introducing some things old, some things new, some things borrowed, and, well, the icon is still blue,” Prince McLean reports for AppleInsider.
McLean covers:
• The history of the Finder — all the way back to its origins
• Mac OS X FInder — 10.0-10.4
• “Fixing the Finder”
• The Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Finder
• Leopard Toolbar: Cover Flow and Quick Look
• Finder Spotlight Search
“Despite being ‘all new,’ the Finder is really a clean refinement of what we already have in Tiger,” McLean writes. “There are lots of subtle, useful updates and new technologies.”
Full article with screenshots here.
More about Leopard’s Finder – including demo movies – via Apple here.
Maybe they could fix whatever it is that makes applications want to jump in front of others when they want attention. It’s ridiculous.
Whatever happened to just bouncing the icon in the dock?
Also, the switching back and forth between view modes in a single Finder window has got to go.
You have some option or preference set Moo, it doesn’t happen with me…
Maybe they could make it more like Windows Vista. I’m rockin’ Vista right here at work. It’s cool. The MAC ‘Finder’ or whatever you lemmings call it is a mishmash of windows and icons. I have no idea what I’m doing when I use a MAC.
I hate to use multi-syllable words on this forum but Vista uses a desktop metaphor. Looks like Apple is trying to re-interpret the hard work done in Redmond but something when horribly wrong in Cupertino. Vista is so easy to use, but robust and powerful at the same time and the effects are gorgeous. Nice job, Microsoft!
Your potential. Our passion.
Hey Zune Tang!
Can you send me a copy of the Vista OS you are running? Seems the copy of Vista we have here at the office SUCKS!
Here’s something I just noticed:
On Apple’s “Finder” preview site, there’s two screenshots of the desktop. If you look at the dock, and look at Mail.app, you’ll notice that the red notification starburst telling you how many unread emails you have is on a different side for each picture.
In the front picture it’s on the left, while the one in the back it’s on the right.
Small detail, I know…
@ Zune Tang
You are a brainwashed Microsoft patsy, Zune.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Zune Tang – “I have no idea what I’m doing…”
Zune Tang has no idea what he’s doing. Period.
Hey! Zune Tang is right boys, Apple stole the OS from Microsoft! If you can’t see this you are brainwashed children of Satan!
Long live Speak n Spell!!!!!
“You have some option or preference set Moo, it doesn’t happen with me…”
Try saving a big Photoshop file. While it’s saving switch to iChat….
start typing in the iChat window.. when Photoshop is done saving it switches to Photoshop and you are usually left typing into your PS doc… lots of apps do that. iTunes does for sure… there is no pref.
Hey you guys, cool it on the Zune Tang man, he lives right next door to me. He’s a good neighbor, keeps his lawn mowed and the yard picked up. Just because he doesn’t have a single flower, tree or shrub in the yard, and never says anything but “good morning” (even when it’s afternoon or evening), never paints his house anything but dark gray and has only one window in the front of his house, does not make him weird or bad – maybe a little lacking in imagination, but that’s all.
Zune Tang used to be funny, but now the humor is as old, stale, and unimaginative as Microsoft software.
Hey all you irony-impaired mouthbreathers: Are you really so literal-minded as to take “Zune Tang” at face value? If so, then you belong on PCs. GTFO the Mac and go back to your Dells and Gateways. Sheesh.
Yo Tang,
You forgot to add the ™!
“I have no idea what I’m doing when I use a MAC.”
That’s because you’re not a qualified network admin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
Moo is right. This happens to me… often enought to be irritating, not often enough to try to fix it. BAD feature.
Wherever you are working should STAY the active application until you DECIDE to switch to another app.
Keep at it Zuney. Whatever you write is usually enough good for a chuckle or two. You literal minded drones should go back to your creationist fantasy world.
I read this yesterday. This seems to be occuring more and more often the last few months…
What’s wrong MDN? Not getting enough revenues from the 302,000 ads per page, so you had to get a real job?
Maybe it’s time MDN change it’s tag line to “Yesterday’s Apple News… Today”
“Maybe it’s time MDN change it’s tag line to ‘Yesterday’s Apple News… Today'”
I think it’s a simple mistake. They’ve been using a beta of Time Machine and accidentally had it set on yesterday instead of tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is just today, then.
Assholes who lamely attempt to defend Zune Tang for his pathetic, stale, and uninspired attempts to be funny are even more pathetic than he is, (or else it’s Zune Tang trying real hard to explain to us that he’s being witty and cool.
Zune Tang is not funny. He used to be, once or twice several months ago, but not now, he’s just pathetic.
piggy… who’s the asshole now?
That would be Mr. Reeee
It makes me cringe when I read these comments and come across a post by ZuneTang. Not because of the drivel he writes but because of all the posts that will follow in response to it. Can’t you folks just ignore the hell out of him?
LZ –
Deep breath, friend. MDN is primarily a news/feature aggregator. If you have time to read all the individual sites for their content, then you really don’t need MDN. This site’s for the rest of us.
CoverFlow in Finder is a total gimmick. It’s very pretty, but useless. CoverFlow in iTunes is also pretty but useless. A graphical resource hog that is hopelessly inefficient at finding anything unless you’re only flipping through 5 items. Shame Apple didn’t focus their design on some more useful paradigms and less on pointless eye candy.
I think I remember it mentioned some time ago that MDN was based in Canada (I could be wrong). As it was a holiday (Thanksgiving) for us yesterday it may have been a turkey dinner that caused the “delay”.
Wingsy… agreed!
It’s the fools who complain about it that’s most annoying.
Reality Ck….
Who cares if it’s useful… CoverFlow is fun!
Whether or not it has much use in the Finder won’t be answered until we actually get to use it.
It actually inspired me to scan all the CDs I rip into iTunes. I gave up trying to find artwork on Amazon or through widgets and such. It’s quicker just to pull connect the scanner and fire up Photoshop.
defending MDN: MDN is a <u>BLOG</u>, not a pro news organization. Some stuff is minutes ‘old’, some is days ‘old’, only the Opinions are first-run. If this isn’t what you want to participate in, maybe you are in the wrong place.
defending ZT: Zune Tang wasn’t particularly “on” today. So maybe, maybe, some derision is deserved. However, Freddy the Pig‘s comment – “Assholes who lamely attempt to defend Zune Tang for his pathetic, stale, and uninspired attempts to be funny are even more pathetic than he is” – is unacceptable. Only childish, unimaginative assholes make such statements. Particularly when several of the comments “defending” ZT were more along the lines of “explaining” ZT. Freddy, a little maturity would make you just a bit less pathetic your own self.
PS: yes, I realize I’m occasionally childish and unimaginative. DUH!
Dave
Sorry … I forgot to include:
On Topic – yes, CoverFlow is essentially a resource hog of little real value to most users. But, it IS very pretty and does do the job – if you are working with short ‘lists’.
The use of three, rather than two, breakouts in the directory window is a plus, even if they are trending towards iTunes-like icons – fugly, IMHO.
Brushed Metal, Aluminum, Other, why can’t we choose from a list of basic styles? We get optional desktop pictures and screensavers, why not motifs?
DLMeyer – the Voice of G.L.Horton’s Stage Page Pod-Cast – now discussing Susanna Centlivre
Reality Check. I don’t know what you do for a living but I build websites and the ability to flick through many pages that all have similar names to find one that has my specific data instead of opening them all up in either a browser or editor is a godsend. One that will save me countless minutes.
If you don’t need it then don’t use it.
You seem to moan about stuff a lot Reality. Are you a glass half empty person?
Cover Flow useless in iTunes? Fuck you, pal. There is nothing cooler than flipping through album covers and movie posters in all their bright, beautiful glory. And on the iPhone/iPod touch it’s also a very, very nice enhancement. In fact I wish Cover Flow was more extensive on the iPhone and worked with movies like in iTunes.
>There is nothing cooler than flipping through album covers and movie posters in all their bright, beautiful glory
Hmm. I prefer Finder to be useful rather than cool. But never mind.
Bravo freddy the pig for calling it as it is.
You guys do realize that this “Zune Tang” is not the same guy who was around months ago defending the Zune. That guy was truly witty and funny. He made people mad because they thought he was being serious. That was his talent. This new guy is just trying to get attention by stealing someone else’s handle. He’s a loser and I’m going to keep saying it until he stops posing and starts being himself. You people who talk back to him just encourage his lame attempt at humor. He sucks, he’s not the original ZT, stop feeding his ego.
He really is a Mac enthusists with a twist of MS undertones.
I think he/she is funny – lighten up folks.
Ok “mm” if you are sure he is a fake ZT.
I just care NOT.
Freedom of Speech.
It proves to be useful on iPhone.
Give it a chance.
I think it will prevail as a useful method for searching.
Oh – and what software isn’t a bloated pig of code these days.
“>There is nothing cooler than flipping through album covers and movie posters in all their bright, beautiful glory
Hmm. I prefer Finder to be useful rather than cool. But never mind.”
How is being able to skim through documents, seeing previews and even knocking through pages in that document BEFORE opening them, not useful?
I guess GUI’s are pretty much eye candy and ‘useless’ too.
@Reality Check,
Finder Cover Flow and Quick Look will be very useful in my work, shuffling through many revisions of many graphics and graphics-related files that have been touched by (in my opinion) too many users and not named sensibly.
Remember, the Finder is for “finding” things. This will help tremendously.
“Perhaps most striking about the Leopard Finder is that it continues to use the old Amelio-era, two tone blue grinning heads logo… it left the old Mac OS face at the end of the Dock. Surely Steve Jobs can’t like that goofy icon, but it appears to be stuck there.”
The Finder Face is part of the Soul of the Mac
“Perhaps most striking about the Leopard Finder is that it continues to use the old Amelio-era, two tone blue grinning heads logo… it left the old Mac OS face at the end of the Dock. Surely Steve Jobs can’t like that goofy icon, but it appears to be stuck there.”
That would be called Branding.
“The Finder Face is part of the Soul of the Mac”
And a tribute to the brilliance of Picasso.
Macview,
MDN is located in Massachusetts, I believe. I remember MDN going down when there was a big storm up there and it was stated at that time that Mass was where they were.
I just hope MDN isn’t a Mass-hole like a lot of people in that state.
Moo – here’s how to set the Finder default view. Close all Finder windows. Select the Finder icon in the dock to open a new window. Without changing the default item that is highlighted, set preferred position and size. I recommend a snug fit from upper-left screen corner to an inch from lower-right screen corner. In other words, big. Set preferred view mode – I recommend Column View. Make sure the Sidebar is visible (if not, click the white ‘Pill’ at upper right of window’s title bar). Close the window. Another click on the Finder icon in Dock should prove your settings are now saved (some installers and disk images will still open finder windows with their own defaults).
Next, in Finder’s ‘Finder’ menu > Preferences > General, select the default selection for each new window to highlight. I suggest your Desktop because the window might cover most of it. First click ‘Other’ and then ‘Desktop’ in the dialog boxes’ own sidebar.
Finally, click the ‘Sidebar’ tab. For a clean sidebar for most users I suggest un-checking the following: Computer, Network, and Home. Don’t leave files out in the open in your Home folder – they should be in Documents or Pictures or Desktop, etc.. The Home folder is redundant in the Sidebar. Except for Library and Sites (which you may ignore), other folders in Home are ALREADY IN THE SIDEBAR.
Your done! Remember you may drag ANY folder, file or program into the Finder window’s Sidebar, say, for a specific project. Position the item BETWEEN Sidebar items – you’ll see a Pin in-between items – THEN drop a new item onto the Sidebar, otherwise the item may be moved into a folder there. Your new item is then accessible in program’s open and save dialog boxes (In some dialogs you need to click the blue ‘Down Arrow’ to reveal the Sidebar).
You may drag Sidebar items up and down to re-order them.
Later you may ‘poof’ items off the Sidebar by dragging them to the right and dropping them elsewhere.
You may also drag ANY folder, file or program into the Finder window’s Toolbar (also revealed using the Pill). Later these may be reordered or poofed away via Finder’s ‘View’ menu > Customize Toolbar.
Hope this helps.
Bike Mike, thanks for the lengthy reply.
I’ve been a Mac user, power user, since 1988… taught classes at an Apple store for years.
I’m very familair with setting defaults on a Mac. Very.
What you are describing isn’t what the issue is but I appreciate your efforts nonetheless.