Alternative to OSX's Preview?

[Flipz]

Hi,

I used to be on Windows over 10 years and I switched to iMac last year. Love the whole software and hardware but there are a few things like Finder and Preview that are driving me nuts sometimes.

For Finder I found Total Finder which partially upgrades the Finder to what it should really be with Cut, tabs etc..Anyway, I still haven't found an alternative to Preview. For the basic previewing it does the job BUT I hate it when it comes to previewing sets of images. For example:

I shoot 100 images with my Nikon DSLR and put the SD card in the iMac, open the folder and click on an image, ok, but I want to go to the next image and preview it, I have to close the current one and open the next one. When I press the spacebar for quick preview it partially does the job but then I lose the zooming capabilities.

Is there an addon/plugin or a program that has these very basic things all in one through Finder or Preview - viewing sets of images with the arrows on the keyboard, zooming in and out with keyboard or scroll of the mouse preferably? Windows preview works so much better, it even has a built in slideshow.

[simsaladimbamba]

QuickLook is the way to preview files without opening the associated application by just selecting the file(s) in Finder and pressing the SPACEBAR.
Make the Most of Quick Look

[Macman45]

As far as photos go, it sounds to me like you'd be better of using IPhoto, or considering the purchase of Aperture from the Mac App Store. Both will allow you to view/ edit multiple images on screen..I can't think of any plugin that would enhance Preview in any way. It's basically designed to be. Viewer, format changing and scanner, image shot, PDF reader.

[Stetrain]

Originally Posted by Flipz

I shoot 100 images with my Nikon DSLR and put the SD card in the iMac, open the folder and click on an image, ok, but I want to go to the next image and preview it, I have to close the current one and open the next one.

Have you tried selecting all of the files in the folder and then opening with preview?

Select one image in the folder, press Command-A to select all, and then right click -> open (or press Commmand-O).

Then you have all of your images in one preview window and you can scroll through them. You can even go full screen and scroll through images with the trackpad or arrow keys.

[Siderz]

Originally Posted by Stetrain

Select one image in the folder, press Command-A to select all, and then right click -> open (or press Commmand-O).

No need to right click, can just select them all and double click on one of them.

[elberggreno]

I swear by Xee, it's free and works almost like the one in win (at least back in the xp days

The only thing you need to change is some keyboard shortcuts (I prefer using the arrow keys like in Win) and some settings to preference (zoom-functionality etc.)

http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/xee

Most of the time I just use quicklook though..

[Flipz]

This is exactly what I wanted! Xee really does everything for the preview and zoom of sets of images.

[sportsnapper]

@simsaladimbamba Great link - I learnt a few useful things there