New to Mac - Finder Questions

[chomper]

Hello,

I've recently bought a Mac and I have no idea how to do the following:

1) In Windows Explorer, you can easily create, say, an empty text file (New > Text Document). When I right click in the Finder, I can create a new folder (New Folder) but there's no menu item for creating empty/blank files. How can I do that in Finder?

2) If I have only one Finder window open and attempt to close it (Close button or CMD+Q), the computer beeps and doesn't allow me to close it. Why? I have to minimize it to get rid of it.

3) When a dialog window appears - say a dialog window with "Don't save", "Cancel" and "Save" buttons - how can I quickly control/press the buttons using the keyboard? The only thing I've figured out so far is that pressing Enter is the same as clicking the button which is displayed in blue.

4) How can I set the view settings for all folders in the Finder at once? E.g. when I choose Arrange by Kind, it affects only the currently displayed folder.

Any suggestions are welcome, thanks in advance!

 

[Dalton63841]

1. No native way to do that in Finder. That is sheerly a Windows train of thought. However, you can make an applescript droplet and put it in the toolbar of the Finder window. Check this out

2. I don't know why the close button wouldn't work, but in Finder you use CMD+W to close a window. CMD+Q kills the app, but Finder is always running.

3. Use Tab to put the blue "halo" around the button you want to select, and then hit spacebar.

4. Right click and use "Show View Options" after you have the settings the way you want them, click Use as Defaults". Note that if you have seperate partitions or drives, you need to do that in a Finder window of each partition/drive.

 

[chomper]

Thanks for the quick reply. Your tips worked fine except #3 - I tried TAB, SHIFT+TAB but the blue "halo" didn't move.

 

[ergdegdeg]

3. Use Tab to put the blue "halo" around the button you want to select, and then hit spacebar.

You have to turn this functionality on first. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Full Keyboard Access

 

[MacDawg]

 

[Dalton63841]

You have to turn this functionality on first. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Full Keyboard Access

LOL That's weird...I have never touched that in my system preferences, but when I went into that preference pane just now to look it was on. That's why I didn't mention it.

 

[Baron58]

3) When a dialog window appears - say a dialog window with "Don't save", "Cancel" and "Save" buttons - how can I quickly control/press the buttons using the keyboard? The only thing I've figured out so far is that pressing Enter is the same as clicking the button which is displayed in blue.

"Cancel" is pretty much always the escape key.

For other labeled buttons, try the command key and the letter of the first word of the label:

"Don't save" = cmd-D


I think this is an application-specific feature, so it may not work all the time. It's generally supposed to, though.