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Mac OS X Lion Working with Finder

Author: mety Labels:: Mac OS X Lion Working with Finder

Mac OS X Lion

Working with Finder

Watch the video (2:56). Need help?

If you use a Mac, you'll use Finder any time you want to navigate to a file. You'll also be able to control how your files are displayed, making it easier to find what you need.

Watch the video to learn how to use Finder.

The Finder Window

To start navigating, you'll first need to open a Finder window. There are two main ways to do this:

Double-click any folder on the desktop.

OR
Click the Finder icon on the Dock.
Opening Finder

The Finder window is divided into three main parts: The contents of the current folder, the Sidebar, which you can use to choose a location, and the Toolbar, where you can customize the way the contents are displayed.

The Finder window

Your Home Folder

In the Finder sidebar, you will see shortcuts to folders that have names like Documents, Downloads, Music, andPictures. These folders are part of your account's home folder. To keep your files organized, you may want to use these folders instead of putting everything on the desktop. If you don't see all of these folders in the sidebar, you can open your home folder to view them.

To Open Your Home Folder:

Make sure that you are in Finder (the left side of the menu bar should say "Finder").
In the menu bar, click Go and select Home.
Opening the home folder
Your home folder will open in a Finder window.
The home folder

Changing the View, Arrangement and Sort Options

Lion allows you to change the way folder contents are displayed by changing the view, arrangement and sort options. This makes it easier to find the specific file that you're looking for.

View Options

Finder has four different view options to choose from. You may prefer to use just one all the time, or you can switch between them whenever you want.
- Icon View: This is the default view. It displays the folder contents as large icons.
  Icon View
- List View: This displays a vertical list of folder contents, along with details about each item.
  List View
- Column View: This shows the current folder in a column, with the parent folder in another column to the left. If the Finder window is large enough, it will display several levels of folders, allowing you to see the location of the current folder. If you select a file, it will display a preview of the file to the right of the columns.
  Column View
- Cover Flow: This is similar to List View, but at the top of the window there is a preview of the folder contents. Using your keyboard's arrow keys, you can easily flip through all of the files in the folder without actually opening them.
  Cover Flow
No matter which view you're in, you can preview a file by pressing the space bar on your keyboard. This is known as Quick Look. It works with most common file types, but not all.
To Change the Item Arrangement:

With Lion, you can group folder contents by file type, application, date, size, or label. This is very useful when you have a lot of files in a folder.
1. Click the Item Arrangement button and select the desired arrangement.
  Arranging by Date Created
2. The folder contents will now be arranged into groups.
  After arranging the folder
To remove the grouping, simply change the item arrangement to None.

To Sort in List View and Cover Flow:

If you are in List View or Cover Flow, you can sort the folder contents. This is similar to item arrangement, except it only puts the contents in order and doesn't group them. You can't use sorting and item arrangement at the same time, so you'll need to make sure the item arrangement is set to None.
- Click a column header to sort by that column. For example, you can click the Size column header to sort by file size.
  Sorting by file size
If you don't see the column you want, you can right-click any column header to select the columns that you want to show.