CONTROLLING WHAT SHOWS UP IN YOUR SIDEBAR

CONTROLLING WHAT SHOWS UP IN YOUR SIDEBAR

By default, a whole bunch of “stuff” shows up in your Sidebar, like your hard disks (including any partitions), your iDisk, network volumes, CDs, DVDs, FireWire drives, etc.; plus in the lower section, your Desktop, Home folder, and Applications folders are all there. In fact, there’s so much of “their” stuff, there’s not much room for “your” stuff. Luckily, you can decide what appears in the Sidebar and what doesn’t. just go under the Finder menu and choose Preferences. When the dialog appears, click on the Sidebar icon (up top) and a list of the default Sidebar items appears. Uncheck any items you don’t want cluttering up your Sidebar.

QUICKLY HIDING THE SIDEBAR

If you want to hide the Sidebar (but leave the toolbar still visible) just double-click anywhere within the gray vertical divider bar that separates the Sidebar from the folder’s contents. If you’re charging by the hour, instead of double-clicking, you can click on the bar, and drag to the left until the Sidebar snaps shut. To bring the Sidebar back, just double-click on the left side of your Finder window and it springs back open.

USING “FAVORITES” IN PANTHER

If you’re used to how previous version of Mac OS X handled Favorites, you’ll have to get used to a whole new flavor in Panther. First, Apple hid the Favorites folder. But if you want the Favorites folder back, look inside your Home folder, inside your Library folder, where you’ll find a Favorites folder. Drag this folder to the Sidebar of any open Finder window. When you do this, the Favorites folder icon changes to the Familiar “red heart” icon, and you can put aliases of your most used folders and files within this Favorites folder. Then you’re only one click away, even in Open/Save dialogs.

SPEED TIP:  FASTER FULL NAME VIEWING IN LIST VIEW

When you’re looking for files in either List view or Column view, it’s almost certain that some of your files with long names will have some of their letters (or even full words)cut off from view. There is a tip that saves you from having to resize your List or Column view columns – just hold your cursor over the file’s truncated name for a few seconds and, eventually, its full name pops up. Or hold the Option key, then put your cursor over the file’s name, and its full name appears instantly.

SPEED TIP: DELETING FILES VIA THE TOOLBAR

Want to delete (trash) a file with extreme prejudice? You can use the old Mac OS 9 shortcut of clicking on the file and pressing Command-Delete, which puts it on the express lane to the Trash, but another thing you can do is add the Delete icon right to your toolbar. Then you can click on a file, and click the Delete icon for a one-way ticket to the Trash. You do that by going under the View menu and choosing Customize Toolbar. When the dialog appears, you’ll see the Delete icon (the red circle with a diagonal line through it). Drag that up to the toolbar and click Done, and now it’s right there, ready for clicking. (Just remember to click on the file you want to delete first before you click the Delete icon).