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Useful Mac Stuff

Entry 890, on 2008-11-16 at 20:13:31 (Rating 1, Computers)

For several years now I have tried to wean myself off Apple's Finder and use a more powerful substitute file manger for the Mac called Path Finder. In every case in the past I have had to revert back to the Finder because Path Finder just wasn't reliable or fast enough, or just didn't do some essential function correctly.

About two weeks ago Path Finder's developer, Cocoatech, released version 5 and I have successfully used it ever since. Yes, they have finally created something which is better than the Finder: not just more powerful, but more functional and almost as easy to use as well.

So what are the advantages Path Finder gives me? A tabbed interface is one of the best. This allows me to browse the Mac's file system just like I can browse the Internet in a tabbed browser. Files can be dragged and dropped between tabs and different tabs can display in different ways with different backgrounds, etc.

And a single menu command or keystroke hides or displays invisible files. This is a brilliant tool for technical people like me. I don't like having invisible files shown all the time because they clutter the file system too much, but I need to see them some times. The Finder has a hidden preference to hide or show invisible files but it needs to be relaunched for the change to take effect.

Path Finder's preview capabilities are quite impressive. Most text files (including word processing files) can be displayed in a built-in scrolling window and text can be copied from it. Graphics files can be opened in Path Finder itself and simple manipulations can be done. And there is a built-in terminal which opens in the program itself at the current location.

The core function of Path Finder is browsing the file system and working with files, and it does this very well. As well as having all the functionality of the Finder it also provides useful functions like a dual browser interface, display of extra attributes, file contents as hex, launch as root, send by email, and many others.

I use OmniWeb as my web browser and I often refer to it as "Safari on steroids". I think Path Finder is the Finder on steroids. If you're a Mac power user I recommend giving it a try.

Comment 1 (1805) by NJS on 2008-11-17 at 08:51:27:

Heh, been using it since it was called SNAX ☺. Fantastic piece of software, never looked back after about version 3 or so.

Comment 2 (1806) by OJB on 2008-11-17 at 19:22:33:

Well I tried earlier versions but it just didn't quite work for me then. The latest version seems to be just a little bit better than the earlier ones. It will be interesting to see if Apple finally gives us a Cocoa browser with tabs and a few other features with 10.6, but by then Path Finder will probably be even better!

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