Videos by Category: Finder

You can choose almost any image to be your desktop background. Apple provides a variety of images to use, or you can select one of your own photos or any image you obtain. You can also choose a solid color. You can set the desktop background to change at regular intervals, selecting from a folder of images. Advanced users can even access and change the default backgrounds.

Before Yosemite, the preview pane was only a part of the Finder's column view. But now you can use it in icon and list view as well. This makes it easy to move through a collection of photos or other documents to select the one you want. You can even watch videos or listen to audio with the preview pane. You can also look inside folders and select an item with the keyboard.

Learn how to create disk images using the Disk Utility app. Disk images can be used to archive old projects or combine sets of files to send to others. You can also encrypt disk images to keep the files inside them secure.

Files saved to iCloud Drive interact with Time Machine differently than files saved on other parts of your hard drive. In case of catastrophe, you don't need Time Machine to save your files, as they would be waiting for you on the iCloud Drive servers. Time Machine doesn't save older versions of files for most apps, but modern apps will save versions of files that you can revert to. In case you delete a file by accident, Mac users can quickly and easily recover them from the Trash. Some iCloud Drive files can also be recovered using Time Machine.

A new feature in Yosemite is a handy context menu function that lets you quickly rename multiple files. You can add some text to the beginning or end of a file name, replace text in a file name, or completely rename a set of files using text and a number. You can also easily undo changes.

Spotlight Search has been completely redesigned in Yosemite from the old Spotlight Menu function. You can still search for files, but in addition you'll get information from the Internet such as movie times, Wikipedia, maps and recommended web pages. You can also do unit and currency conversions and math. File searches can be filtered by kind and date. You can also use logical functions like OR and - (not) to get better results. Find out all you can do with Spotlight Search in Yosemite.

With OS X Yosemite you can use iCloud Drive as a place to store your files. iCloud Drive syncs between Macs and the files can also be accessed by the appropriate apps in iOS 8 on the iPhone and iPad. You can also create your own folders in iCloud Drive on Yosemite and access files on iOS 8 from outside of the normal app folder for that type of document. iCloud Drive can also be used to store other types of files, even if the app does not support iCloud Drive. On iOS 8, you can import media from iCloud Drive and export files to it as well.

One of the types of file views you have in the Finder is the List View. This displays more information about each file than either the Column or Icon view. You can sort files by any attribute, and change which attributes are displayed. You can also group files by date, size and other things. You can dig down into subfolders using the reveal triangles next to the folder icons.

Most documents have a default application that will launch if you open that document. You can also specify an application if you wish to open a document with something else. You can do this with drag and drop, or by using the context menu. You can permanently change which application is used to open a specific document. You can also change which app is used to open all of the documents of the same file type. If you want to find other apps that can work with a document, it is easy to search for them in the Mac App Store.

There are many things you can do in the title bar of a document window. You can rename and even move a file without ever having to switch to the Finder. You can also view the folder path to see the location of the file. With the proxy icon you can attach the file to an email or open a copy in another application.

The menu bar is the most basic part of any app's user interface. But new Mac users may not look for commands there. More advanced users can use the Help menu to find menu items, and keyboard commands to navigate the menus without using the mouse or trackpad.

OS X lets you use multiple desktops to make it feel like you have more than one display. With Mission Control, you can move apps and windows between desktops and easily navigate around. You can also make some apps full-screen, giving them their own virtual display. Learning how to use Mission Control can make working on a smaller MacBook screen much easier.

The LaunchPad app is a quick way to launch applications on your Mac. You can use keyboard shortcuts and the search function to launch any app in seconds. You can also use LaunchPad to arrange your apps, group them, and even uninstall some apps. Learn for unusual tips and tricks for using LaunchPad.

You can use the Finder's search function to find files by content or name. You can further narrow the field by adding more search criteria, like file type and date. You can also save searches as Smart Folders that will automatically update to show you the latest results for specific criteria as the files on your drive change.

Sometimes an app will stop working properly and you need to force it to quit. You can do this one of many ways in Mac OS X. If one of the standard methods does not work, you can always resort to using the Activity Monitor. And if all else fails, you can use the Terminal to force an app to quit.

You can use the Spotlight Menu to quickly perform searches for files. But search results also turn up applications, messages, your web history and other useful items. You can also access dictionary definitions and perform new web searches using the Spotlight Menu. You can customize what shows up in the list. You can also use the Spotlight Menu to perform simple or complex mathematical calculations.

Learn how to switch between apps on your Mac. You can use the Dock to launch and switch between running apps. You can also click on windows to bring a document window from an app to the front. There are keyboard shortcuts for switching between apps as well. You can also use Mission Control to view which apps are running and choose one to bring to the front.

The Mac OS X Dock is a handy device for launching applications and accessing important folders and files. You can customize the look and location of the Dock. You can add apps to the Dock, and also files and folders. Folders in the Dock are called Stacks and you can customize those to easily access the content in them.

Finder tabs allow you to have more than one file view in a single Finder window. Each tab can contain the view of a different folder or location. Each tab can also use a different view mode. You can drag and drop files between tabs. You can also move tabs between windows and combine windows full of tabs. Full screen mode for Finder windows allows you to focus on your files in a single screen.

You can use Finder tags to help you organize your files. You can create as many tags as you need, and then assign multiple tags to the same file. You can use them on local files as well as iCloud files. Searches for tags will reveal files across all locations and iCloud apps.

It can sometimes be difficult to use a file open dialog box to choose the right photo. But by using the different modes of the Finder, and also Quick Look preview, you can enlarge the preview of each photo to make it easier.

http:.//macmost.com/e-899 You can decide what types of files appear in the Spotlight menu when you search. You can remove types, and also re-arrange them so the ones important to you appear first. You can also hide folders from Spotlight searches to reduce your results. You can also search for a specific type of file on a case-by-case basis.

You can get and modify information about a file or folder with the Info window. You can also use the Inspector as a way to quickly look at information about any file or folder you select.

The quick Command+Option+Esc keyboard shortcut gives you access to a list of running apps and lets you force-quit the if necessary. You can force-quit several apps as well, or use this as a quick app switcher. There are also other ways to force-quit apps, though in normal use you should always try to quit an app normally.

The special All My Views view in the Finder gives you access to all of your user files in one list. You can arrange these to group them by application, size or date. You can also sort inside the groups and search to narrow down the list.

The OS X Finder offers simple options to compress video and audio files. You can use this to quickly re-compress these files before archiving them or sending them to others. These simple functions only work with some file types and offer limited options.

The Recent Places list appears in save dialog boxes across all of your applications. You can use it to quickly save documents to the same folder, even if you are using a variety of apps for the same project.

Learn how to properly eject an external hard drive or USB flash drive. You can also remount an ejected drive without needing to unplug the drive and plug it back in using Disk Utility.

The secondary click is also known as a right click or control click. It is commonly used to access context menus and special software functions. You can determine how you create a secondary click by looking at the TrackPad and Mouse sections of System Preferences. But you can always use the Control key to change a primary click into a secondary one.

The Finder's Column View may be the most versatile and useful. It allows you to see the current folder, and ones above it. It also gives you a preview of the file selected. You can quickly move between folders with arrow keys and it is easy to move files from one folder to another.