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Customising Finder Window

K

kimberleyallen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2010
25
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Is there any way that I can customise the columns in Finder. I have ticked all the options for Date Modified, Date Created, Last Opened (always greyed out), Size, Kind, Version, Comments, Label. However I would like to include the file path too but that doesn't seem possible. You have to click on each file to see the location in the Path Bar. I'm new on a Mac and used to be able to do this in Windows Explorer and it's frustrating me that I can't do it in Finder. Am I missing something?

I have video files all over the place and need to get organised. I have created a smart folder to find them all but as a lot of them are different versions of the same file (various edits) it would be useful to be able to see all the information, paths, size, last opened etc. in order to be able to compare the files and see which ones I can delete. Any ideas anyone? :confused:
 
Where would you like Finder to display the path? I'm not recalling Windows Explorer (WE) doing that for every single file. Are you referring to the folder structure, where you click to disclose things in a folder, and it shows you the "branches" in the "tree"? If so, no, you can't get Finder to display that.

The Smart Folder will show you files that are scattered all over the place. I don't think even WE can show the paths of such a collection of files all at once.
 
No it's not the Tree structure. In WE you can choose the information you want displayed in the columns, ie date, size of file etc. and also the file path. This is very useful as you can do a search, for *.mp3 for example in C drive, and when the results are returned you can click the file path column header to organise the results by folder. You can then easily see where all your music files are. This is a really useful way of organising files as for comparison purposes you can see all the information at a glance, date last opened, modified, file path etc.
 
No, I've done that, but thanks. That just shows the file path in the path bar when you select the file, rather than showing the path in the list so that you can see all the file paths in one glance and organise them by file path. I've managed to find a way around it by importing all my movies into iTunes and using one of Doug's Apple Scripts to show the filepath in the Description. It's not ideal though as iTunes doesn't support all file types but it's a start! Shame you can't do the same thing in Finder. Perhaps there is another script, does anyone know of one for Finder?
 
To display unix path in finder:

In terminal -

$ defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
$ killAll Finder

This will show the path in the title bar next to the folder icon. Very handy for me when I first started using macs :)

Hope it helps you!
 
There are a couple of shareware options you may wish to consider. Pathfinder brings a lot of what Windows Explorer has to Finder but costs money. I seem to remember it costs $20. I stopped using it after about 3 months as I started liking the Finder better than I had ever liked Windows Explorer. For instance:

Quick View.
Real Time Refresh (there's no refresh button in Finder because you don't need one)

Cut and Paste used to get on my nerves but I found a workaround in another paid add on...

Totalfinder is a Finder plug-in that offers tabbed finder windows and more and again I believe it costs $20. I bought it for the tabbed finder window but I take advantage of the "cut" feature a couple of times a week.

One caveat. With every Mac OS X update, Totalfinder has hiccups and needs updating. It doesn't bother me so much but I mention it here because it might be off-putting if you've not expecting it.
 
Thanks guys for your suggestions. @Tonsko Your solution sounds like what I'm looking for but I'm afraid it's all double dutch to me! Would you mind giving me some step by step instructions?! Thank you! :D

Tonsko said:
To display unix path in finder:

In terminal -

$ defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
$ killAll Finder

This will show the path in the title bar next to the folder icon. Very handy for me when I first started using macs :)

Hope it helps you!
Click to expand...
 
kimberleyallen said:
Thanks guys for your suggestions. @Tonsko Your solution sounds like what I'm looking for but I'm afraid it's all double dutch to me! Would you mind giving me some step by step instructions?! Thank you! :D
Click to expand...

Sure thing :)

Open Finder
Open Applications Folder
Open Utilities Folder
double click 'Terminal'
*A window will open with with a command prompt and a flashing cursor*
Type exactly (i.e. including caps) and WITHOUT quotes:
"defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES"
Press enter
Type exactly (i.e. including caps) and WITHOUT quotes:
"killAll Finder"
Press enter
*This final command will make your finder window disappear. Don't panic! If it doesn't re-open automagically, just reopen finder. You should then see the absolute path in the title bar, like so:
screenshot20120111at123.png


Or, if you change the view type to columns, then you will see the path change as you click through the folders e.g.:
screenshot20120111at123.png


I hope that is what you were after... It certainly helped me immensely to work out where things were in the file system when I first started using macs (still use it now! ) :)
 
Last edited:
Actually, reading through what you asked again, I don't think it is what you wanted after all.

I think I've worked out what you need. Again, you need to open a terminal window:
Open Finder
Open Applications Folder
Open Utilities Folder
double click 'Terminal'
*A window will open with with a command prompt and a flashing cursor*

Say you want to find a video called 'video.avi', you then need to type the following (again without quotes):

"find / | grep video > videoavi.txt"

To break this down: 'Find' is the command.
'/' is where to start the find, in this case, the root directory
'|' is the 'pipe' command, should find it situated next to the return key, above the '\' key. It 'pipes' the output of one command into another.
'grep' is a pattern match command
'video' is the pattern to match - the filename you want to find
'>' is the command to direct the output to a file
'videoavi.txt' is the name of the output file - call it something meaningful so you know what's what!

Then you just need to open the text file in text edit and it will have a list of all the locations with a full path attached to the requested filename (or 'pattern').

Then I guess you would need to write a script (efficient) or do it manually in finder by navigating to each file and moving them one by one. It's going to be tedious!

There might be a better way, but I don't know it.

Hope this helps :)
 
Thanks Tonsko. Can't quite understand why this feature is not standard on Finder, such a useful way of finding stray files, at a glance. Anyway your help is much appreciated! I'll give it a go. :)
 
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