Finder: Folders on Top

K

kentor

macrumors newbie

Original poster

Sep 7, 2008

2

0

• Sep 7, 2008

• #1

How do I make my folders appear first on top of everything in finder? I am using icons view.

And yes, I do have always arrange my kind ticked on. But pdfs are still on top of folders.

Please help! Thank you.

 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor

Staff member

Jan 20, 2005

18,653

3,228

• Sep 7, 2008

• #2

You can't really do this. OS X treats folders just like any other item when sorting, so it won't automatically move them to the top. Keeping your window arranged by "Kind" will keep the folders together, but it may not have them at the top if you have other documents in the folder whose "Kind" comes before "Folder" alphabetically.

 

H

HJames

macrumors newbie

Sep 6, 2008

10

0

• Sep 8, 2008

• #3

I rename my folders with space before a name.

For Example:

1.HOUSE
2._HOUSE
3.__HOUSE (This one will be on the top even before #2)

_ is SPACE

 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor

Staff member

Jan 20, 2005

18,653

3,228

• Sep 8, 2008

• #4

That works in some cases, but it can wreak havoc when an app needs to find a folder that has had its name changed. Things in your Documents folder are generally okay, but anything where an app is trying to reference a file that is supposed to be located in a specific directory can be trouble.

 

H

HJames

macrumors newbie

Sep 6, 2008

10

0

• Sep 8, 2008

• #5

Yeah you right, I don't do this all the time, only when I need it.

Movies and TV Shows are listed like this, and some of my documents.

 

K

kentor

macrumors newbie

Original poster

Sep 7, 2008

2

0

• Sep 8, 2008

• #6

Ok I got an answer from mactalk forums and this thing works great!

geektechnu said:

Sorting by kind with folders at the top can be done in Leopard with a little hacking:

OBLIGATORY WARNING:
If you're not comfortable with this, don't do it!

With that out of the way:
- navigate to: /System/Library/CoreServices/
- right-click Finder.app and select Show package contents...
- navigate to: Contents>Resources>English.lproj
- backup InfoPlist.strings
- open the original InfoPlist.strings in a text editor
- locate the line that says:

Code:

"Folder" = "Folder";

- add a space at the start of the second "Folder":

Code:

"Folder" = " Folder";

- save the file
- reboot or relaunch Finder

The space in front of "Folder" forces folders to the top of the list when sorting alphabetically by kind.

Click to expand...

Thanks for replying guys.

 

J

justinae

macrumors newbie

Sep 24, 2008

4

0

• Oct 1, 2008

• #7

I'm trying these steps but it won't let me save the english.lproj file. It says I don't have "access privildeges". I changed the permissions to be read/write for all users but it still won't let me save.

Can I log on as "system" or is there some other way to get the access?

thanks.

 

TwoBytes

macrumors 68040

Jun 2, 2008

3,341

2,433

• Sep 6, 2009

• #8

dzemmo said:

I rename my folders with space before a name.

For Example:

1.HOUSE
2._HOUSE
3.__HOUSE (This one will be on the top even before #2)

_ is SPACE

Click to expand...

this doesn't work for list view. Would love a way without 'hacking' the mac and have finder do this nativity..