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Can you have folders appear first, then files (ala XP)?

G

GodsHand

macrumors newbie
Original poster
This is one thing I don't like about Finder is that Folders and Files sorted by name aren't separated. Is there a way to do this, aside from adding a • to the front of the folder name?
 
Not that I know of. In my opinion, I'd rather have everything completely A-Z, but I've been using Macs for awhile now.

There are plenty of smart cookies on here, so I'm sure you'll get some sort of trick soon.

Daniel.
 
You can just add a space in front of the folder name.

Or you can use a third-party Finder like PathFinder...I'm 99% it has that functionality built in. I haven't used it, but it usually gets rave reviews.

Those are the only options I know of.
 
Put the window you want sorted into list view, then click the "kind" column. Everything will be sorted by kind in alphabetical groups - e.g, all applications alphabetically then all folders alphabetically. I have my Applications folder set up this way.
 
VanNess said:
Put the window you want sorted into list view, then click the "kind" column. Everything will be sorted by kind in alphabetical groups - e.g, all applications alphabetically then all folders alphabetically. I have my Applications folder set up this way.
Click to expand...

That's a help, but it still doesn't put them at the top if you have items with a "Kind" label that comes before "Folder," like "Alias" or "Document."

Something to consider though...
 
WildCowboy said:
That's a help, but it still doesn't put them at the top if you have items with a "Kind" label that comes before "Folder," like "Alias" or "Document."

Something to consider though...
Click to expand...

If you hit the "kind" column again (to reverse the arrow) it will reverse sort so folders would be at the top (if that's what you want) provided there isn't another "kind" in the folder whose description starts with a letter after "f" (just off the top of my head, not many I can think of - plist is one so it wouldn't work for that type of sort in the preferences folder).
 
VanNess said:
If you hit the "kind" column again (to reverse the arrow) it will reverse sort so folders would be at the top (if that's what you want) provided there isn't another "kind" in the folder whose description starts with a letter after "f" (just off the top of my head, not many I can think of - plist is one so it wouldn't work for that type of sort in the preferences folder).
Click to expand...

Or a TextEdit file, or a log file, or a Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint document, or a PDF, etc... 😉
 
There's a way, I think it was in MacWorld or MacAddict magazine, so it has to be on the net somewhere. All I know is, it involves editing Finder .plist files to change something about the alphabetical order of folders... or something 😛
 
GodsHand said:
This is one thing I don't like about Finder is that Folders and Files sorted by name aren't separated.
Click to expand...

They are sorted by name, a simple one-item criteria. This is logical and predictable. Windows Explorer is using a special two-item criteria even though it claims to be one-item. Not truly logical and possibly confusing to the casual user. I don't think Finder should ever use this approach. I wouldn't mind if Finder had a multi-criteria sort, just make it obvious.
 
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