I can't stand Finder - user for around 5 months

[ls1dreams]

Ok,

I've tried my best to get used to Finder, but it's still driving me absolutely crazy compared to Explorer.

I'm open to handling files in an entirely new fashion, but it needs to be fast.

Major complaints:

1. Moving files - with not cut/paste, I find it really obnoxious to quickly move files between folders. For example, I regularly move files from my Downloads folder to a Music folder. This involves me opening my downloads folder, opening a new window in finder, and then dragging everything over. Brutally painful.

2. Loss of path when changing views - Here's a common example: I will be moving around files, and navigating in the normal list/details view. I may be several levels deep: root > images > category 1 > subcategory > list of images. Now, I want to quickly switch to view these all as thumbails, so I go to press the 4th preview style button for finder at the top, but it pulls me all the way back to the root. UGH. Is there a way to force that directory?

3. Enqueuing Music - I really, really miss Right click -> Enqueue on a file in explorer. I haven't been able to find anything similar for iTunes or VLC.

4. General hierarchy - I hate that you can't easily collapse/expand all folders. One solution I've found is to do ctrl-A / left arrow to quickly collapse all, but this only works at the parent level. A common PITA is when switching to my music folder, all of the subdirectories will be expanded showing the music files, but I just want to quickly navigate through the artist folder names.

Any help?

 

[gauchogolfer]

Finder could use some serious help. Until Apple does so, I recommend Path Finder. Great app.

 

[stomer]

I rarely use Finder except for the most basic of operations. For daily tasks, I use a combination of Spotlight and Launchbar. For extremely complex tasks I'll drop into Terminal.

Managing/navigating hierarchical file structures is a chore, so I no longer both since I have the tools to help me avoid it.

 

[Mr.Texor]

1. Moving files - with not cut/paste, I find it really obnoxious to quickly move files between folders. For example, I regularly move files from my Downloads folder to a Music folder. This involves me opening my downloads folder, opening a new window in finder, and then dragging everything over. Brutally painful.

You don't have to open your music folder before doing the drag and drop. Just select the music, then drag it. If the music folder is nowhere to be seen, you can hover over any folder that is a parent (grandparent, etc) to the music folder,. This will open said folder, and then you keep dragging till you are in the correct folder..... err.. I hope that made sense.

The other way to do it is thru the terminal. And if it's only audio files, you could let itunes keep them in order for your (Artist->album).

2. Loss of path when changing views - Here's a common example: I will be moving around files, and navigating in the normal list/details view. I may be several levels deep: root > images > category 1 > subcategory > list of images. Now, I want to quickly switch to view these all as thumbails, so I go to press the 4th preview style button for finder at the top, but it pulls me all the way back to the root. UGH. Is there a way to force that directory?

two ways I can think of:
1. Double click on the directory. This will open only the directory you want, then you can change views. After you are done, just click on the back button and you'll be on the root directory as it was before the double click.
2. select said directory files and press space. This will put you in quickview mode. The following controls are going to be on the bottom:

you can see them kinda like in a slideshow and view thumbnails of all. You can also go fullscreen if you want.

3. Enqueuing Music - I really, really miss Right click -> Enqueue on a file in explorer. I haven't been able to find anything similar for iTunes or VLC.

Not defending finder but, enqueueing has nothing to do with finder. It has everything to do with what the target application wants to do with what you send to it. iTunes doesn't really work with enqueueing. It was designed to work with lists that contain audio/video already in your itunes library. This has some advantages but also some disadvantages. The biggest one is when you want to watch/listen something but not put it in it's library. If you want to enqueue stuff, send it to VLC. The default VLC behavior is that anything that you send to it, it will autoplay. Sooo, open your vlc setting window and:
1. click on the "All" option on the left lower corner
2. On the new list that appears, navigate to: Interface > Main interfaces > macosx
3. Disable "Auto-playback of new items"
4. Press the Save button

Now, everything you send to vlc will be enqueued. The first thing you enqueue will not be auto-played, so you will have to click play once.
Said all that, dont be afraid to use itunes for the music you are going to keep. It's not as bad as the windows port. In fact, it's actually ok. Instead of using Finder to find music, use the itunes library and then just create lists. It's actually pretty good at that.

4. General hierarchy - I hate that you can't easily collapse/expand all folders. One solution I've found is to do ctrl-A / left arrow to quickly collapse all, but this only works at the parent level. A common PITA is when switching to my music folder, all of the subdirectories will be expanded showing the music files, but I just want to quickly navigate through the artist folder names.

Not entirely sure what you are trying to do here, soooo, I can't comment.

 

[ls1dreams]

I've done some extensive research, and am adding some of my updates below:

Ok,

I've tried my best to get used to Finder, but it's still driving me absolutely crazy compared to Explorer.

I'm open to handling files in an entirely new fashion, but it needs to be fast.

Major complaints:

1. Moving files - with not cut/paste, I find it really obnoxious to quickly move files between folders. For example, I regularly move files from my Downloads folder to a Music folder. This involves me opening my downloads folder, opening a new window in finder, and then dragging everything over. Brutally painful.

My best solution to this so far seems to be using QuickSilver. Basically now I do hot-key -> current selection -> tab -> start typing move ("mo") -> tab -> start typing name of destination folder

2. Loss of path when changing views - Here's a common example: I will be moving around files, and navigating in the normal list/details view. I may be several levels deep: root > images > category 1 > subcategory > list of images. Now, I want to quickly switch to view these all as thumbails, so I go to press the 4th preview style button for finder at the top, but it pulls me all the way back to the root. UGH. Is there a way to force that directory?

Best solution for now seems to be double-clicking into the folder and then changing views. Previously I was pressing the down-arrow

3. Enqueuing Music - I really, really miss Right click -> Enqueue on a file in explorer. I haven't been able to find anything similar for iTunes or VLC.

Still have not found a solution to this. The VLC solution below only lets you enqueue. I want to play the song on a double press and enqueue on a right click

4. General hierarchy - I hate that you can't easily collapse/expand all folders. One solution I've found is to do ctrl-A / left arrow to quickly collapse all, but this only works at the parent level. A common PITA is when switching to my music folder, all of the subdirectories will be expanded showing the music files, but I just want to quickly navigate through the artist folder names.

Similar to above, I will just double click into the folder now, and then do alt-a / left arrow

Any help?

 

[Cheule]

With the whole enqueuing thing... I can appreciate you are used to manipulating your music by interacting with it through Windows Explorer, and so you want to do the same with OS X. However, the functionality you seek is manly inside iTunes itself. You are allowed to double click a file in your iTunes library and it plays immediately, and right-click to add it to the iTuned DJ playlist.

Apple seems to prefer that we use their app front-ends rather than have at the files directly through finder/explorer.