Finder ? from potential switcher

[jettoblack]

Sorry if this is a dumb question as I don't own a Mac yet, I'm only thinking of switching for various reasons. Anyway, I tried playing around with Finder on some store demo Macs. Obviously I didn't spend a long time there and I was just playing around without having read any manuals, but I was a little frustrated trying to accomplish some simple tasks in Finder. Could somebody let me know if there is (or isn't) an easy way to do the following things:

1) How do you check how much space is being used by all the files in the current folder? In Windows this is shown in the status bar, but the Finder status bar seems to only show how much space is free on the disk.

2) How do you check the total space used by the currently selected group of files and folders (and their sub-folders)? I tried doing a multiple select and then "Get info," but instead of one info box showing the cumulative size, it brought up a huge number of info boxes for each individual file/folder.

3) Is there any way to have the folder list sorted with directories appearing at the beginning (sorted by whatever criteria, name size date etc.) followed by all the files sorted the same way, instead of the files and folders being mixed together?

Thanks!

 

[jeremy.king]

1) Its a finder preference setting called "Calculate all sizes"

3) Not really. You may find Path Finder to be more what you want.

 

[todd2000]

1. Highlight the actual folder who's size you want to figure out, and Get Info on it, and it will tell you. You could also select all the files and choose Get Info, but as you mentioned in question 2, it may just show you multiple windows.

2. This is kind of annoying, if you select 10 or less files it will bring up individual Get Info dialogs for each file. If you select more then 10 files it will bring up one Get Info dialog for all of the files with the total combined size.

3. If you arrange the files by kind they will be arranged alphabetically by type. I.E. All your folders listed alphabetically, followed by all your images listed alphabetically, etc... not necessarily in that order.

 

[mkrishnan]

1) How do you check how much space is being used by all the files in the current folder? [...]

If you do what kingjr3 recommended, then when you're in the uplevel folder, the folder will be listed with its total size in the size field.

2) How do you check the total space used by the currently selected group of files and folders (and their sub-folders)?

Hold the option key while selecting get info (so either option-click on the menu item or option-apple-i). If you select enough files (memory tells me enough = 6), this should also happen automatically, but you can use option to force one summary window to come up even for 2-5 files.

3) Is there any way to have the folder list sorted with directories appearing at the beginning

Agreed with kingjr3, there was a trick for this in Panther, but it messes with Spotlight in Tiger. PathFinder gets pretty rave reviews from people not happy with Finder, however.

One thing you may find yourself doing over time is that you'll use spotlight a lot more than you think for these things. I think about 70% of the time now, when I want a document file or even a rarely used application, I spotlight for it rather than navigate to it. I do still wish the folders were at the top of the sort by kind list, though.

Good luck!

 

[todd2000]

1) Its a finder preference setting called "Calculate all sizes"

Where is this preference, because I can't find it?

 

[jeremy.king]

Where is this preference, because I can't find it?

Off the top of my head (not at my mac)...Go into List view, hit Cmd+J (i think), then check the box.

 

[mkrishnan]

Where is this preference, because I can't find it?

It's actually technically not a preference in the sense that it's not in the preferences area. View -> Show View Options or right click in the main part of any finder window. You must be in the "as List" view mode to see this option, however.

 

[Osarkon]

2) If when you right click, when the menu is up, hold down Ctrl, 'Get info' will change to 'Get Summary Info' . That'll give you the file size of what you have selected.

Hope that helps

 

[coach z]

1) select a folder you want to know the size of and hit "command +I"
2) for multiple folders hit "command+control+I"
3 i dont think so but im sure there is a way to do it. most easy way to navigate finder, in my opinion, is to use the keyboard. so you are in your applications folder, hit i to go to all the i applications and then arrow to your application and then you can double click to open or hit command+O

good luck
-chris

 

[whaleboy]

3. If you arrange the files by kind they will be arranged alphabetically by type. I.E. All your folders listed alphabetically, followed by all your images listed alphabetically, etc... not necessarily in that order.

This works for List view, is there a way to get the folders together in the Column view?

-David