Finder Tips

Represented by the blue icon with the smiling face, the Finder is the home base for your Mac. You use it to organize and access almost everything on your Mac, including documents, images, movies, and any other files you have.

To open a Finder window, click the Finder icon in the Dock. To go to the Finder without opening a window, click the desktop.

Finder preferences

Use Finder preferences to set options for Finder windows, file extensions, and the Trash.

To view Finder preferences, click the Finder icon in the Dock, then choose Finder > Preferences.

General

Show these items on the desktop	Select any items you want to see on the desktop.
New Finder windows show	Choose which folder is displayed when you open a new Finder window.
Open folders in tabs instead of new windows	Select what happens when you hold down the Command (⌘) key and double-click a folder. When selected: Folders open in tabs. When deselected: Folders open in windows.
Spring-loaded folders and windows	Select to have folders open when you drag items over them. Use the slider to specify how long an item has to be over a folder before the folder opens.

Tags

Show these tags in the sidebar	Customize the tags you see in the Finder sidebar. See a tag in the sidebar: Select the checkbox to the right of the tag. Change a tag color: Click the color next to the tag , then choose a new color. Change a tag name: Click the tag, click the tag’s name, then enter a new name. Create a new tag: Click Add . Delete a tag: Select the tag, then click Remove .
Favorite Tags	Customize the tags you see in the shortcut menu that appears when you Control-click a file. Add a tag: Select it in the list above the Favorite Tags section, then drag it over the tag you want to replace. You can have up to seven tags in the shortcut menu. Remove a tag: Drag it out of the Favorite Tags section until you see a puff of smoke.

For more information about tags, see Use tags to organize files.

Sidebar

Show these items in the sidebar

Select the items you want to see in the Finder sidebar. These items also appear in Open and Save dialogs.

Advanced

Show all filename extensions	A filename extension—the period followed by a few letters or words that you see at the end of some filenames (for example, .jpg)—identifies the type of file. This option affects most, but not all, filenames. You can show or hide extensions for individual files in their Info windows.
Show warning before changing an extension	Display a warning if you accidentally try to change an extension. As a rule, you shouldn’t change filename extensions.
Show warning before emptying the Trash	Display a warning so you don’t accidentally delete items in the Trash.
Empty Trash securely	Make sure that items you delete when you empty the Trash can’t easily be recovered using data recovery tools. When this option is selected, the deleted files are overwritten with meaningless data.
When performing a search	Choose what you want to search by default when you use the search field in Finder windows. You can search your entire Mac, the folder that’s currently open, or the scope you specified the last time you searched in a Finder window.

For even more ways to customize Finder windows, see Customize the Finder toolbar and sidebar.

Rename files, folders, and disks

You can change the name of most files, folders, and disks, including the internal hard disk (named Macintosh HD by default). If you change the name of your hard disk, it still appears with its original name on a network.

Rename one item

1. Select the item you want to rename, then press Return.

2. Enter a new name.

   You can use numbers and most symbols. You can’t include a colon (:) or start the name with a period (.). Some apps may not allow you to use a slash (/) in a filename.

3. Press Return.

Rename multiple items

1. Select the items, then Control-click one of them.

2. In the shortcut menu, select Rename Items.

3. In the pop-up menu below Rename Folder Items, choose to replace text in the names, add text to the names, or change the name format.

   • Replace text: Enter the text you want to remove in the Find field, then enter the text you want to add in the “Replace with” field.

   • Add text: Enter the text to you want to add in the field, then choose to add the text before or after the current name.

   • Format: Choose a name format for the files, then choose to put the index, counter, or date before or after the name. Enter a name in the Custom Format field, then enter the number you want to start with.

4. Click Rename.

These are some items you should not rename:

• App folders and any items that came with your system, such as the Library folder. (If you change the name of an item and experience problems, change the name back. If this doesn’t help, you may need to reinstall the software.)

• Filename extensions—the period followed by a few letters or words that you see at the end of some filenames (for example, .jpg). If you change an extension, you may no longer be able to open the file with the app that was used to create it.

• Your home folder—the one with your name on it.

Ways to view items in Finder windows

There are four ways to view items in a Finder window: as icons, as a list, in columns, or in Cover Flow. To choose a view, use the View buttons at the top of the Finder window:

In the four views, there are additional ways to customize how your items are displayed.

Sort items, arrange icons, and resize columns

Your sort and icon arrangement settings for a folder apply until you change them. For example, if you sort your Documents folder by Date Added, the next time you view your Documents folder, it’s sorted by Date Added.

Sort items: In any view, click the Item Arrangement button , then choose an option, such as Date Created or Size.

Arrange icons neatly: In Icon view, choose View > Clean Up.

Resize columns: In List view, Column view, and Cover Flow, drag the line that’s between the column headings.

To expand a column to show all filenames in their entirety, double-click the column divider.

Further customize Icon, List, Column, or Cover Flow view

You can customize each view to accommodate your preferences. For example, you can change the text size of file names and, in some views, change the size of file icons.

1. Select a folder in the Finder, then click a View button: Icon, List, Column, or Cover Flow.

2. Choose View > Show View Options, then set the options you want.

   • To have the folder always open in the view, select the “Always open in” checkbox.

   • To have subfolders also open in the view, select the “Browse in” checkbox.

     If a subfolder opens in a different view, select the subfolder, choose View > Show View Options, then deselect the “Always open in” and “Browse in” checkboxes. The checkboxes must be selected for the main folder and deselected for the subfolder.

3. To use these settings for all Finder folders that are in this view, click Use as Defaults.

   For example, if you set options for Icon view, then click Use as Defaults, all folders in Icon view appear with the same options. Use as Defaults isn’t available for Column view because the settings apply automatically to all folders in Column view.

Customize the Finder toolbar and sidebar

There are several ways to customize the Finder toolbar and Finder sidebar.

Before you start, open a Finder window by clicking the Finder icon at the left end of the Dock.

Customize the toolbar

Hide or show the toolbar: Choose View > Hide Toolbar, or View > Show Toolbar.

Hiding the toolbar also hides the sidebar, and moves the status bar from the bottom to the top of the window.

Resize the toolbar: If you see angle brackets  at the right end of the toolbar, it means the window is too small to show all of the toolbar items. Enlarge the window or click the brackets to see the rest of the items.

Change what’s in the toolbar: Choose View > Customize Toolbar. You can drag items into and out of the toolbar, add a space between items, and choose whether to show text with the icons.

Rearrange the items in the toolbar: Hold down the Command (⌘) key, then drag an item to a new location.

Add a file or app: Hold down the Command (⌘) key, then drag the item to the Finder toolbar until a green plus sign (+) appears.

Remove an item: Drag the item out of the toolbar until you see a puff of smoke.

Customize the sidebar

Hide or show the sidebar: Choose View > Hide Sidebar or View > Show Sidebar. (If Show Sidebar is dimmed, choose View > Show Toolbar.)

Resize the sidebar: Drag the right side of the divider bar to the right or left.

Change what’s in the sidebar: Choose Finder > Preferences, click Sidebar, then select or deselect items.

Rearrange items in the sidebar: Drag an item to a new location. You can’t rearrange items in the Shared section.

Add a file, folder, or disk: Drag the item to the Favorites section.

If you don’t see the Favorites section, go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar, then select at least one item in the section.

Add an app: Hold down the Command (⌘) key, then drag its icon to the Favorites section.

Remove an item: Drag the item icon out of the sidebar until you see a puff of smoke.

The sidebar link disappears, but the original item is still on your Mac. You can’t remove items from the Shared section.

To change other Finder preferences, choose Finder > Preferences. For more information, see Finder preferences.

To set the scrolling behavior for Finder (and other) windows, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click General.

Open General preferences for me

Open folders in new Finder tabs or windows

When you open a folder in the Finder, the folder’s contents usually replace the current contents of the window. If you prefer, you can open a folder in a new tab or window.

Set folders to open in tabs or windows

1. In the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click General.

2. Select or deselect “Open folders in tabs instead of new windows.”

Open folders in tabs or windows

Press the Command (⌘) key while you double-click the folder.

The folder opens in a new tab or window, depending on your Finder preferences.

Tip:   If the Finder toolbar and sidebar are hidden, double-clicking a folder without pressing the Command key opens the folder in a new window.

To open a new Finder window without opening a specific folder, choose File > New Finder Window or press Command (⌘)–N.

Work with tabs

If all of your tabs aren’t visible, scroll through them.

When two or more tabs are open, click Add  to open a new tab.

To close a tab, place the pointer over the tab, then click Delete .

Show or hide filename extensions

Filename extensions—the period followed by a few letters or words that you see at the end of some filenames (for example, .jpg)—indicate which app can open a file.

Filename extensions are usually hidden in OS X, but if you find them useful, you can show them. If extensions are hidden, OS X still opens files with the proper apps.

For one file

1. Select a file, then choose File > Get Info, or press Command (⌘)–I.

2. Click the triangle next to Name & Extension to expand the section.

3. To show or hide the filename extension, select or deselect “Hide extension.”

For all files

If you select “Show all filename extensions,” all extensions are shown, even for files that have “Hide extension” selected. If you deselect “Show all filename extensions,” then file extensions are shown or hidden based on their individual “Hide extension” settings.

1. Choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced.

2. Select or deselect “Show all filename extensions.”

When you rename a file or folder, don’t change its filename extension. Or, you may no longer be able to open the file with the app that was used to create it. To be warned before you change an extension, select “Show warning before changing an extension” in the Advanced pane of Finder preferences.

If you want to change a file’s format, use the app you used to create the file. For example, TextEdit can convert a document from plain text format (.txt) to a rich text format (.rtf), and Preview can convert many types of graphics files.

Delete files and folders

At any time, you can get rid of files, folders, and other items that you no longer need. You start by dragging items to the Trash, but the items aren’t deleted until you empty the Trash.

Note:   If you turned off Time Machine or haven’t backed up your files recently, you may want to store a backup copy on a storage device, just in case you change your mind and want the item later.

Delete an item from your Mac

1. Drag the item to the Trash. Or select the item, then press Command (⌘)–Delete.

2. Click the Trash, then click Empty. You can also choose Finder > Empty Trash.

   When you see a warning message, click OK.

   Note:   If you see Empty Securely or Finder > Secure Empty Trash instead of Empty or Empty Trash, see If the Empty Trash command isn’t in the Finder menu.

Delete a locked item from your Mac

You must unlock the item before putting it in the Trash.

1. Select the item, then choose File > Get Info or press Command (⌘)-I.

   If you are not logged in as an administrator, you may need to click the lock icon , then enter an administrator name and password.

2. Drag the item to the Trash, click the Trash, then click Empty. You can also choose Finder > Empty Trash.

   When you see a warning message, click OK.

Securely empty the Trash

Even after you empty the Trash, deleted files can be recovered using data-recovery software. For extra security, you can delete files so they can’t easily be recovered.

1. Drag the item to the Trash.

2. Click the Finder icon in the Dock, then choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash. When you see a warning message, click OK.

   To always empty the Trash securely, choose Finder > Preferences, click Advanced, then select “Empty Trash securely.”

Files deleted in this way are completely overwritten by meaningless data. This may take some time, depending on the size of the files.

Prevent the Trash warning message from appearing

Once: Press the Option key when you click Empty or choose Empty Trash.

Always: Turn off the warning in the Advanced pane of Finder preferences. Choose Finder > Preferences, click Advanced, then deselect “Show warning before emptying the Trash.”

If you change your mind before emptying the Trash

Click the Trash to open it, then drag the item out of the Trash, or select the item and choose File > Put Back.

 

See your files in the Finder

Represented by the blue icon with the smiling face, the Finder is the home base for your Mac. You use it to organize and access almost everything on your Mac.

See your stuff

Click items in the Finder sidebar to see your files, apps, downloads, and more. To make the sidebar even more useful, customize it.

Use folders … or don’t

If you like working in a folder structure, you can do that. It’s easy to create new folders in your Documents folder, on the desktop, or in iCloud Drive. For more information about iCloud Drive, see Store documents with iCloud Drive.

If you’d rather avoid folders, use All My Files. All of the files on your Mac and in iCloud are there. You can also use tags to organize your files.

Choose your view

You can choose how you view the items in Finder windows. For example, you don’t have to view your items in a list—Cover Flow lets you flip through your files and folders visually.

AirDrop it

You can send a file to a nearby iOS device or Mac right from the Finder. Click AirDrop in the sidebar to get started. For more information, see Use AirDrop to send files to devices near you.

You can also select a file in the Finder, then click the Share button  to share it using Mail, Messages, Twitter, Facebook, and more.

Onscreen help in OS X

The Finder and most other Mac apps have a Help menu in the menu bar. Use the Help menu and Help Window to get information about OS X, your Mac, and your apps.

Help menu

In the Help menu, you can search for menu items and help topics.

See how the Help menu works: Click the Finder icon in the Dock, open the Help menu, then enter “clipboard.” The results include the Show Clipboard menu item and help topics about the Clipboard.

See a menu item: Open the Help menu, enter the menu item you’re looking for, then place the pointer over the menu item result.

For example, in the Finder, enter “clipboard” in the Help menu, then place the pointer over Show Clipboard. The Edit menu opens with an arrow pointing to the command.

Get help: Open the Help menu, enter a search term, then choose one of the help topics, or choose Show All Help Topics to see more topics.

Help window

If you choose a help topic from the search results in the Help menu, or if you choose Mac Help or an app’s help (such as Mail Help or iTunes Help), the Help window opens.

Search: Enter a word or two in the search field, then choose a suggestion or press Return.

See more topics for the help you’re viewing: Click the Table of Contents button  in the Help window.

See previous topics: Click the Back  and Forward  buttons.

See a list of recently viewed topics: Click and hold the Back or Forward button until a list appears, then choose the topic you want.

Make text bigger or smaller: Press Command (⌘)-Plus (+) or Command (⌘)-Minus (–).

Find words within the current topic: Press Command (⌘)-F.

Print or share a topic: Click the Share button  in the Help window, then choose an option.

If help doesn’t answer your question

Enter different words in the search field.

If you searched for one word, search for two or three words. If you searched for many words, search for fewer words.

Open the specific app you want help for, then choose Help > [App name] Help.

Make sure you’re connected to the Internet. If you’re not connected, most of the help topics are unavailable.

Share on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more

You’ll find the Share button  in the Finder as well as in many OS X apps, including Safari, Notes, Reminders, Photo Booth, and iPhoto. The Share button gives you an easy way to share links, photos, videos, and more—instantly.

Share items from a Finder window

1. In a Finder window, select one or more items, then click the Share button  in the toolbar.

   If the item is on the desktop, Control-click it, then choose Share from the shortcut menu.

   

2. Choose how you want to share from the options listed in the Share menu.

   The options listed—including Email, Messages, Facebook, Twitter, and others—depend on the type of item you’re sharing and how you set up Extensions preferences, as described below.

3. Provide any additional information needed for the sharing method you chose. For example, if you share a photo using Twitter, you can type some text describing the photo.

Customize the Share menu

You can choose which items appear in the Share menu by using Extensions preferences. Your choices also affect what appears in the Social widget in Today view in Notification Center. For more information.

1. Click the Share button , then choose More from the Share menu to open Extensions preferences.

   You can also choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Extensions.

   Open Extensions preferences for me

2. Click Share Menu on the left, then select the items you want in the Share menu and deselect the items you don’t want.

   If an item is selected in Extensions preferences, but you don’t see it in an app’s Share menu, then you can’t use that item to share in that particular app. For example you can’t use AirDrop in Mail or Safari.

You’ll find the Share button in many places on your Mac. You can tweet your favorite webpage links from Safari, share notes via Mail and Messages, and post photos and videos to Flickr or Vimeo. Or select a photo in your Pictures folder and use AirDrop to share it with others near you.

Use AirDrop to send files to devices near you

 

OS X Yosemite Quick Tips

PDF signature

No need for a paper and pen. You can now sign PDF forms using your Mac’s trackpad. Simply click the Sign button in Preview’s annotation toolbar and trace your signature on the pad with your finger.

Spotlight

Activating Spotlight with Command-Space now brings up a search box in the centre of your desktop. It no longer just searches your Mac for files either. It also retrieves news headlines, maps, Bing web search results, iTunes store media, and it can even convert currencies on the natch.

Green button goes fullscreen

In Mavericks, the green button at the top left of windows is better known as the zoom button. But in OS X Yosemite, it takes windows full-screen. You can still access the traditional functionality however by holding the Alt/Option key when clicking the traffic light.

Record output from an iOS device

Want to record a live screencast of apps or games running on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad? With iOS 8 and Yosemite, you can. Simply attach the device to your Mac using a Lightning cable and it shows up as a video input source in QuickTime. You can then capture anything you’re doing on-screen and store it as a video file.

Check compressed memory

OS X utilises memory compression features when resources are tight, making the system more efficient at passing data from place to place. Activity Monitor’s Memory tab now displays how much your Mac relies on compressed memory, which can be a good indicator of how much you’d benefit from a RAM upgrade.

Safari Tabs

The way Safari organises your browser tabs has changed. You can still switch between tabs in the horizontal strip above the main window, but click the new Tab View button in the top right corner of the toolbar and you get thumbnail previews of all open tabs. Multiple open pages from a single site are stacked on top of each other, while below these are iCloud tabs open on your other devices in a layout reminiscent iOS 7.

Duck Duck Safari

In addition to the typical search engines Safari has traditionally aligned with, you now have the option to choose DuckDuckGo as your default search service. For those late to the private party, DuckDuckGo is a slick search engine that doesn’t track your search activity or share personal information with advertisers or security agencies.

Safari Private Browsing window

Continuing the theme, Safari now allows you to create a separate window of tabs exclusively for private browsing (meaning your actions are not saved or tracked), while enabling you to also maintain separate windows that aren’t set to be private.

Markup in Mail

Apple Mail has aped Preview’s annotation tools. Now, whenever you add an image to an email you’re composing, a down-facing chevron appears in its top-right corner. Clicking this reveals the option to mark up the image with shapes, text and arrows to make your point clearer to your recipient.

Dashboard off by default

Some old-school OS X users may be rankled at the apparent disappearance of the Dashboard in Yosemite. Actually, it hasn’t been removed; it’s just disabled by default – you can switch it back on in Mission Control’s System Preference pane if you still find it useful.

Notification Center overhaul

Notification Center in Yosemite doesn’t just import iOS 7’s Today view. Apple has also opened it up to third-party widgets with what it’s calling ‘Today Extensions’. This will allow developers to feed bespoke information into Notification Center – think your favourite football team’s next fixture or eBay auctions you’re watching, for example.

AirDrop advanced

AirDrop has seen significant improvement in Yosemite. It now works between Macs and iOS devices that don’t share the same local network or have an internet connection. It also now works on older Macs that missed out in previous versions of OS X. Not only that, you don’t need Finder to be open on the recipient’s Mac to initiate a Drop (although it still needs to be authorised at the receiver’s end).

Mail Drop

Everyone’s experienced the frustration of an email not arriving at its intended destination because of an attachment the server deemed too big to handle. In Yosemite, Mail gets round this with Mail Drop, in which large attachments are now uploaded to your iCloud account. If the recipient is also using Mail they see the file just as if it was attached to the email; if they aren’t using Mail, they get a link to download it instead. Note that the size of an attachment will be limited to the free space on your iCloud account.

Soundbites in Messages

You can now send quick voice memos to your Messages contacts with the new Soundbites feature. These disappear shortly after the recipient has read them, but you can choose to save them if you wish. You can also now send short video clips or multiple images directly from within Messages.

Message/iPhone tones

One new feature Apple is rightly proud of is Yosemite’s ability to make and receive iPhone calls. Tied to that is Messages’ ability to send and receive SMS and MMS messages linked to your iPhone number. As a result of this extended phone service, Messages has also inherited all the ringtones of iOS, allowing you to match or differ the sound your Mac and your iPhone make when a message or call is incoming.

Batch rename

Batch renaming files in OS X used to require installing a third-party app or a trip to Automator. No more. In Yosemite, you simply click-drag a selection box over the files in Finder you wish to rename, right-click and select the Rename XX items… option in the dialog.

Screensharing in Messages

Previously screen sharing was only possible in Messages using a third-party service such as AIM. However now Apple has implemented a built-in screen sharing feature that operates automatically over iMessage accounts, meaning you don’t have to set up anything in order to help or receive Mac assistance from a friend or colleague remotely. Simply initiate a Message conversation and click on the Details button in the top right-hand corner of the screen and select the ‘Invite / Ask to share my screen’ button indicated by two overlapping rectangles.

Group messages

Not only can you initiate group chats in iMessage, you can also add and remove participants in your ongoing chat, as well as change the chat thread name (which will subsequently appear on all devices). Using the new Details button, you can also enable Do Not Disturb on individual chats to opt out of the conversation without terminating it.

Dark mode

Dark Mode was demoed on stage at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference as an option to benefit those who prefer to save their eyesight from glare at night as well as photographers and video editors who manipulate colour. You can turn it on via the ‘Use dark menu bar and dock’ toggle in the General pane of System Preferences.

Safari bookmarks

Just like iOS, your website bookmarks and bookmark folders can now be quickly accessed simply by left-clicking Safari’s address bar. Below your bookmarks you’ll also see links to those sites you’ve most frequently visited.

Double-click to zoom

For those who miss the instant action of the green maximise traffic light, try double-clicking an empty part of a window’s toolbar – it should automatically resize the window to fit its content. Note that this functionality may not work on third-party apps and later versions of iTunes.

Finder preview pane

Previously Finder’s file preview pane was restricted to Column view, but in Yosemite you can make it visible in any view mode you like. From the menu bar, choose View > Show Preview to turn it on.

Accessibility improvements

Not everyone gets on with transparency. Happily you can reduce its effect significantly in the Accessibility pane of System Preferences. What’s more, you can change the contrast level of windows and borders as well as increase the overall contrast of your display if you find Yosemite’s new look not so easy on the eye.

Calendar suggestions

Calendar in Yosemite is a little more intelligent than previous iterations and now learns from previous events in order to auto-complete event details as you input them – this includes likely attendees and even suggested dates to schedule the event. The more you use Calendar, the more accurate it becomes at predicting your schedule.

RSS feeds in Safari

RSS feed subscriptions are back in Safari. Simply click on the RSS feed icon in a web page and Safari will prompt you to OK the subscription, whereafter it will appear in the Shared Links sidebar alongside your other shared links piped in from Twitter and so on.

 

View slideshows within Finder

Open Finder and select any group of files or images that you have. Say you have 100 photos in your pictures folder. Go ahead and go to the finder menu and click edit > select all or you can just drag your mouse cursor to select all files.

From there you have a couple options to bring up the slideshow feature.

You can press spacebar for quick look and it will bring up this:

You can now use the arrows to scroll through the images or click the thumbnails to bring up thumbnail previews.

Now at this point you can press the fullscreen arrows on the right side. Doing this is the same as selecting all the images and going to finder menu and while holding down option select File > Slideshow. So if you want to bypass the quick look then you can just go right to the finder menu instead.

After clicking on full screen you will your first image in full screen mode and this toolbar at the bottom.

You can scroll left or right through images or press play for slideshow. You can click the thumbnail view or click import to iPhoto.

This is a very nifty feature especially if you have thousands of images on your hard drive and need to locate one.

Applications, Files, and Folders

An application is a computer program that gives you the tools to accomplish specific tasks. For example, you’re probably using the application Safari right now to read this webpage. Other applications include Mail, iTunes, Pages, TextEdit, and many more.

Accessing an application
To open an application, click the Launchpad icon in Dock or click the application’s icon in Dock (if it’s there). Depending on the application, it may display an interface window, palettes, tool bar, or other interface components, or it could display nothing at all until you open a file or create a new one.

Your Mac’s applications can be accessed from the Launchpad icon in the Dock

To quit an application, choose Quit from the application menu or press Command-Q. Keep in mind that closing a window (by clicking the round, red button) will typically not quit the application.

Getting more applications
You can purchase and install applications for your Mac from App Store, which is included with OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6.6 and later. To start browsing software from App Store, click the App Store icon in the Dock. You can use the search field in the upper-right corner of the App Store window to search for applications.

 
You can use App Store to find, install, update, and view purchased applications

1. Featured – Click to browse new and noteworthy applications.
2. Top Charts – Click to browse the most popular applications.
3. Categories – Click to browse applications in specific categories, such as Photography. You can browse applications in a particular category by choosing an item from the All Categories pop-up menu in the Quick Links section. The Quick Links sections is located in the upper-right part of the window displayed when you click Categories.
4. Purchases – Click to browse applications you have purchased.
5. Updates – Click to browse updates to applications you have installed on your Mac.
6. Search Field – Enter a name or type of application your looking for and press Return.

To use App Store, you need to sign up for an Apple ID. If you already have an iTunes Store account or other Apple account, you can use that Apple ID.

Accessing files
To access your files on your Mac, you use Finder. Finder allows you to see all files and folders on your Mac and search for them using the search field in the top-right corner of the Finder window. Once you find a file you want to open, simply double-click the file, it will open in the application that supports its file format.

To close a file, just click the round, red button in the upper-left corner of its window. Keep in mind that closing a file will not necessarily quit the application too. To quit an application, choose Quit from the application menu or press Command-Q.

Folders
Folders on your Mac are used to organize your file and applications.

 
 File appearances may differ a little from each other depending on what type of file they are and what they contain

Your Documents folder (in the Finder sidebar under Favorites) will contain all documents that you create. The Finder sidebar includes several other folders, such as Movies, Music, and Pictures, to help keep all your files organized by type. The Applications folder contains all your applications and the Desktop folder contains all the stuff that’s currently on your desktop.

Organizing files and folders
If you want to add more folders to set up an organizational scheme, here’s how to create a new folder:

1. Make the Finder active (click the desktop, click inside any Finder window, or click the Finder icon in the Dock).
2. From the File menu, choose New Folder; a new “untitled folder” icon appears in the active Finder window.
3. Name your folder by simply typing a name in the highlighted text box next to the folder icon.

Or, you can simply press the Shift-Command-N key combination.

To organize your files and folders, drag any file, folder, or application that you want into your new folder, or drag the folder into any other folder to establish an organized hierarchy.

ScreenCast Online

 

Learn all about the new features introduced with Mountain Lion and iCloud as well as regular up to date tutorials all about the Mac and OSX.

In addition, we have tutorials on some of Apple’s leading applications including iLife, iWork, Aperture, iBooks Author and more…ScreenCastsOnline

Finder

A Immaculate Desktop:

Are you the sort of neat-freak who abhors Desktop clutter?
Who keeps all apps and docs in carefully organized folders? Consider diving deeper into onscreen clean by making your mounted drives and discs disappear from the Desktop and accessing them instead via Finder windows.

Here’s how to try it: From the Finder, pull down the Finder menu and select Preferences — or just press Command-comma [⌘ ,] from within the Finder.
Click the General tab and uncheck Hard disks; CDs, DVDs, and iPods; and Connected servers.

Next, click the Sidebar tab and check the boxes next to all the items you unchecked under the General tab.

When you want to access a drive, disk, or server, just open a Finder window by pressing Command-n [⌘ n] from within the Finder.
And when you close the Finder windows, your desktop will be spotless.
(Remember, Command-w [⌘ w] closes a Finder window, and Command-Option-w [⌘ ⌥ w] closes all Finder windows at once.

Don’t Want To Open A File?

The idea behind Spotlight is that it will find the file you want, and then open that file for you, so you can start working on it immediately.
But what if you just want to know where the file is, and not necessarily open it? (For example, what if you just want to know where it is, so you can burn a backup copy to a CD?)
To do that, once the results appear in the spotlight menu, just hold the Command key and then click on the file. This will close Spotlight and open the Finder window where your file is.
Or if you want Spotlight open, just click on the file and press Command-R, which will open a Finder window with the file selected, leaving the spotlight dialog open.

See Your File’s Hidden Info:

Want more info on your files than the standard icon view provides (after all, it just gives you the file’s name in icon view)?
Then turn on Show Item info. This adds an extra line of information below many files and folders that can be very useful.
For example, now not only do you get a folder’s name, but just below the name (in unobtrusive light-blue, 9-point type), you’ll see how many items are in that folder.

If the file is an image, the Item Info shows you how big it is. MP3 files show how long the song is, etc. To turn on Item Info for your current Finder window, press Command-J to bring up its View Options. Then turn on the checkbox for Show Item Info. If you want to show the item info for every window (globally), then choose the All Windows button at the top of the dialog.

Ultimate Menu:

Want to really speed things up?
How about jumping right to the Apple menu without even clicking the mouse? Just press Control-F2, press Return, and the Apple menu pops down (if you’re using a MacBook, press Function-Control-F2).
Oh, but there’s more! Now that you’re in the Apple menu, press the Right Arrow key on your keyboard to move to the other menus (Finder, File, Edit, View, etc.) and the Left Arrow to move back.

Once you get to the menu you want, press Return, then type the first letter of the command you want in the menu and it jumps right there.
Now press Return again to choose that command (and you did it all without ever touching the mouse).

Opening Moves:

In most cases, double-clicking a file on your Mac automatically opens it in the appropriate application. But sometimes you may want to overrule your Mac and open a file in something other than the default.

For example, say you’ve edited a series of images in Photoshop, and now you want to take a quick look at them. You might prefer to view them in Preview, a Mac OS X program that opens in an instant, rather than the larger, slower-to-load Photoshop application.

To quickly specify your app, Control-click the item you want to open, then choose Open With from the pop-up menu that appears. This takes you to a list of every application your Mac considers capable of reading the file. Choose the name of the application you want, and the file opens in that program.

If you think you’ll be opening the file repeatedly in that program, you may want to specify an ongoing Open With preference. To do so, select the file and press Command-I to see the file’s Info window. Click the Open With tab and choose your program. Now the file will always open with your preferred application.
And if you click the Change All… button, every file of the same type will open with this application.

Control-click any file to specify the application in which it opens.

One-Click Long-File-Name Fix:

If you’re working in a window set to Column view, you’re going to run into this all the time — files with long names have the end of their names cut off from view, because the column isn’t wide enough.
That doesn’t sound like that big of a problem, until you start working with more descriptive file names, and you can’t see which file is “European Front End Silver Car” and which is “European Back End Silver Car” because everything from “European” to “Silver Car” is cut off.

Luckily, there’s a quick fix — just double-click on the little tab at the bottom of the vertical column divider bar, and the column will expand just enough so you can see even the longest file name of any file in that column.
Option-double-click on the tab, and every column expands to show the longest name in each column. Pretty darn sweet!

The Burn Folder Isn’t Burning Aliases:

When you create a burn folder in Tiger (which you do by either choosing New Burn Folder from the File menu or from the Action menu [that’s the button with a gear icon on it in Finder windows]), if you look inside that folder, you won’t see your original files.
Instead, you’ll see aliases to the originals (you can tell they’re aliases because they have a little curved arrow on them).
But don’t let that throw you — when you do finally click the burn button (in the upper right-hand corner of the burn Folder’s window), it actually gets the original files and burns those to disk, so you don’t have to worry about having a CD full of aliases pointing to files you no longer have.

So why all the aliases in the first place? Because it points to your files (rather than copying them into the folder), which makes burning discs much faster than in previous versions of Mac OS X.

Look Inside Multiple Folders Automatically:

Need to see what’s inside more than one folder while in List view?

Do it the fast way—Command-click on all the folders you want to expand, then press Command-Right Arrow.

All the folders will expand at once.

If the file you’re looking for isn’t there, just press Command-Left Arrow (you can do that, because your folders are still highlighted) to quickly collapse them all again.

Know Your Status:

The status bar (the thin little bar that shows how many items are in your window and how much drive space you still have available) was at the top of every Finder window back in Mac OS 9.
In earlier versions of Mac OS X (including Jaguar), the status bar was off by default, so you had to turn it on, and then it appeared at the top of your Finder windows.
In Tiger you’ll find the status bar info displayed at the bottom center of every Finder window by default (well, that’s true as long as your toolbar is visible).
If that’s the case, why is there still a menu command called Show Status Bar?
That’s because, if you hide the toolbar, it hides the status info at the bottom of the window, so you need the old status bar back.
It’s still off by default, so to turn on the status bar, first open a window, hide the toolbar (see previous tip), then go under the View menu and choose Show Status Bar.
(Note: If you don’t hide the toolbar first, Show Status Bar will appear “grayed out.”)

Making ZIP Files:

One of my favorite Mac OS X features is the ability to create ZIP compressed files from within the OS (basically, this shrinks the file size, ideal for files you’re going to email — smaller file sizes mean faster file transfers).
To create a compressed file, either Control-click on the file and choose Create Archive (which is Apple-speak for “make a compressed ZIP file”).
Or you can click on a file, then go to the Action menu (the button that looks like a gear up in the Finder window’s toolbar), and choose Create Archive from there.
Either way, it quickly creates a new file, with the file extension “.zip.” This is the compressed file.
You can also compress several different files (like three, for example) into one single archive file — just Command-click (or Shift-click contiguous files) on all the files you want included, then choose Create Archive of X Items from the Action menu.
A file will be created named “Archive.zip” (that’s it!). By the way, if someone sends you a ZIP file, don’t sweat it — just double-click it and Tiger will automatically decompress it.

Make the Sidebar Work Like the Dock:

You can customize the sidebar of the Finder window by adding other icons that make it even more powerful. For example, if you use Photoshop a lot, just open the window where your Photoshop application resides, drag the Photoshop icon right over to the sidebar, and the other icons in the sidebar will slide out of the way.

Now you can use this window kind of like you would the dock — to launch Photoshop, just click on its icon in the sidebar, plus like the dock, you can even drag-and-drop images you want to open right onto the sidebar’s Photoshop icon.

Show or Hide Hidden Files:

Show Hidden Files:

1. Open a new Terminal window by double clicking its icon in Applications > Utilities > Terminal
2. Enter the following commands in the terminal window. (Press enter after each line).

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE killall Finder

3. Your Finder will restart and you will be able to see hidden files!

Hide Hidden Files:

1. Open a new Terminal window by double clicking its icon in Applications: Utilities.

2. Enter the following commands in the terminal window. (Press enter after each line).

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE killall Finder

3. Your Finder will restart and you will NOT be able to see hidden files !

Change Directories Using the Titlebar:

This is a really useful shortcut to change directories. To quickly change your current directory using the titlebar follow these steps:

1. Open a new Finder window by selecting its icon in the dock.

2. Hold down the Command key and click the Titlebar. A popup will appear displaying the directory tree leading up to the current directory. Click the directory you would like to change to.

Rename a File:

To rename files in Mac OS X is incredibly simple. There are two basic methods.

1. Select the file you would like to rename and then click on the filename. The filename will highlight in blue and then you can change it.

2. Select the file you would like to rename and then press Enter. The filename will highlight in blue and then you can change it.

Using “Stationery Pad”:

• Opening the “Get Info” window !
  

You can select any file and type command+i to bring up its “Get Info” window.

For more details on working with this and the related commands, see It’s about getting the right info.

Creating a template out of any file:

To turn a file into a template, just select the “Stationery Pad” option in the Get Info window. Unfortunately, there is no visual sign on the file icon telling you that a file has been turn into a “Stationery Pad”.

The next time you double click to open a file marked as “Stationery Pad”, the program responsible for this file will actually open a new untitled file but with all the content in “Stationery Pad” file.
If you do a “Save” command, you will save a new file while leaving the original file untouched.