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Navigating in Icon Preview Mode... and more...

M

Miss Mandy Mac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2007
21
0
Hey there :) I've had my mac a week and I'm still trying to figure out some things... :)

1. When I'm viewing files in Icon Preview mode, and I see one I want to delete, selecting it and hitting the Delete key on the keyboard doesn't delete it. It doesn't do anything from what I can tell. I have to drag the file to the trash can to delete it. Is there a way to set up my Delete key to actually um... Delete? :)

2. When I'm viewing files in Icon Preview mode, and I want to select multiple files, I can't just click on the first file, hold down shift, and click on the last file. That only selects the first and last file I click on. I want it to select all files in between. I'm not talking about selecting ALL files... I know I can do that with :apple:-a, I'm just talking about a few files in a row. Does that make sense? It works in other viewing modes, just not Icon Preview mode. :confused:

3. Resizing Windows - Yes, as a lifelong Windows user - I'm used to being able to drag any of the four corners to resize... Not just the bottom right corner. Is there anyway to change this in mac? I really like being able to resize from any corner. :)

Thanks so much for your help :)
 
1. Open Finder ->View->Customise toolbar->Add a delete button (I also have 'get info' there)

2. This may be a problem...usually First+:apple: +Last selects two individually, while Shift+First+Last selects them in a row.

3. I'm pretty certain there isn't...hopefully in October's Leopard release :)
 
1. Cmd-backspace

2. Cmd-click to choose another, and another, ... or use the mouse/trackpad to mark more objects at the time by click just off an icon and drag out a rectangle over the icons you want to choose... (and if you've already chosen some, you can hold down the cmd-button and make another rectangle, and another, ...).

3. Not really...
 
Miss Mandy Mac said:
Hey there :) I've had my mac a week and I'm still trying to figure out some things... :)

1. When I'm viewing files in Icon Preview mode, and I see one I want to delete, selecting it and hitting the Delete key on the keyboard doesn't delete it. It doesn't do anything from what I can tell. I have to drag the file to the trash can to delete it. Is there a way to set up my Delete key to actually um... Delete? :)
Click to expand...
The shortcut is Cmd+Delete. I guess you could change this in the Keyboard Shortcuts area in System Preferences (under Mouse & Keyboard I believe).

2. When I'm viewing files in Icon Preview mode, and I want to select multiple files, I can't just click on the first file, hold down shift, and click on the last file. That only selects the first and last file I click on. I want it to select all files in between. I'm not talking about selecting ALL files... I know I can do that with :apple:-a, I'm just talking about a few files in a row. Does that make sense? It works in other viewing modes, just not Icon Preview mode. :confused:
Click to expand...
Icon mode is best used via selection boxes—click and drag a selection box around files you want. I'm not sure what the justification is, I just know that's how it has always worked.

3. Resizing Windows - Yes, as a lifelong Windows user - I'm used to being able to drag any of the four corners to resize... Not just the bottom right corner. Is there anyway to change this in mac? I really like being able to resize from any corner. :)
Click to expand...
Nope, sorry. It's just one of those Mac things that is the way it is.
 
Miss Mandy Mac said:
Hey there :) I've had my mac a week and I'm still trying to figure out some things... :)

1. When I'm viewing files in Icon Preview mode, and I see one I want to delete, selecting it and hitting the Delete key on the keyboard doesn't delete it. It doesn't do anything from what I can tell. I have to drag the file to the trash can to delete it. Is there a way to set up my Delete key to actually um... Delete? :)

2. When I'm viewing files in Icon Preview mode, and I want to select multiple files, I can't just click on the first file, hold down shift, and click on the last file. That only selects the first and last file I click on. I want it to select all files in between. I'm not talking about selecting ALL files... I know I can do that with :apple:-a, I'm just talking about a few files in a row. Does that make sense? It works in other viewing modes, just not Icon Preview mode. :confused:

3. Resizing Windows - Yes, as a lifelong Windows user - I'm used to being able to drag any of the four corners to resize... Not just the bottom right corner. Is there anyway to change this in mac? I really like being able to resize from any corner. :)

Thanks so much for your help :)
Click to expand...

regading number 1): Try CMD-Delete to delete the files. (WARNING: I think this may skip the trash can altogether)

The shift click think in question 2 is weird; that should work. I can't try it now to see if it doesn't work in Icon preview mode, but you can always just draw a box around the items you want to select (and hold down the cmd key to select items in a row below.)

Can't help on 3; I'm sure there's a script/hack to do this.

Edit: Beat'd by many. Too slow typing!
 
psychofreak said:
2. This may be a problem...usually First+:apple: +Last selects two individually, while Shift+First+Last selects them in a row.
Click to expand...
Uh oh... So I have done something to screw things up?? Like I said, it works in other viewing modes... Just not icon preview mode. It just selects the two individually... Drawing a box or clicking every single file is too cumbersome for me because usually I'm selecting too many files for that!

Cameront9 said:
regading number 1): Try CMD-Delete to delete the files. (WARNING: I think this may skip the trash can altogether)
Click to expand...
CMD-delete... is that :apple:-delete? Because that isn't working for me either? It does nothing... And besides, I don't want it to skip the trash can! I added the delete button like psychofreak suggested, but I still have to move my mouse all the way up there to click it, it would probably be just as easy to drag it to the trashcan... The delete key should send the selected file to the trashcan. It's really kind of simple. :)

Also, here's one more question I thought of... When I'm using a program and opening a file, I can sort by what type of file I want to open... HTML, JPG, etc... In windows, it completely hides all the other types of files and only shows the HTML files or whatever. In Mac, it only greys out the other file types. I don't want them shown at all (which is really the whole point of filtering file types anyway, so you don't have to slough through all the unnecessary files!!) ... Is there a way to do this? :)

Thanks so much for all your help... I'm sorry if I sound a little bitter :p I'm so used to Windows, I'm beginning to wonder if I made the right decision switching to mac! :confused:

***Edited to Add*** OH!!! CMD-Backspace!!! Sorry, I missed that. :p I was hitting the delete key by the home and end keys. Okay, that works, and it *does* send it to the trashcan first, so I'm cool with that. Although really, it's another two keystroke process when it should really only be one... :p
 
Miss Mandy Mac said:
***Edited to Add*** OH!!! CMD-Backspace!!! Sorry, I missed that. :p I was hitting the delete key by the home and end keys. Okay, that works, and it *does* send it to the trashcan first, so I'm cool with that. Although really, it's another two keystroke process when it should really only be one... :p
Click to expand...

Sorry, sometimes I forget no everyone has a laptop keyboard...Apple's keyboards usually label the backspace key as delete; Thus the confusion.

In any case, it depends on your point of view. Having a modifier key before deleting things is good, in my opinion; this way, you don't inadvertently delete things by accidentally pressing the delete key.
 
Also, here's one more question I thought of... When I'm using a program and opening a file, I can sort by what type of file I want to open... HTML, JPG, etc... In windows, it completely hides all the other types of files and only shows the HTML files or whatever. In Mac, it only greys out the other file types. I don't want them shown at all (which is really the whole point of filtering file types anyway, so you don't have to slough through all the unnecessary files!!) ... Is there a way to do this?
Click to expand...
In the folder you are in, use the search bar to search for the file extension, this will filter out others :)
 
psychofreak said:
Which programs? As many do...
Click to expand...
Well, the ones I'm thinking about specifically are java programs my husband wrote for me. :D

But even when I tried it on the programs that did have the search bar up at the top... I browsed to the folder I wanted to look in, then in the search bar, I typed HTML. It started searching for HTML files ALL over my computer, not just in that folder. Did I do something wrong?

But still, I need the unnecessary files to not be shown even if I don't have the search bar option. Unless a java programmer can tell my husband how to add that to my programs. ;)

Thanks again :)
 
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