Windows Power-User makes the Big Switch (questions enclosed)

[Willxiv]

I'm satisfied with my move to buy a Mac. I'm an avid power-user who's operating at about 70% speed when making a comparison between my skill with the Windows applications I use and their OSX counterparts. Below I list several Leopard issues that are annoying me, with hopes that either my questions can be answered or that I can find a support group with which to grumble.

1 - When 1 of more items are selected, why does the small bar at the bottom of Finder's window display the available storage left on my disk (which can't possibly be considered useful) instead of displaying the total size of said selected items?

2 - While changing the View Options for Finder sidebar items (the bar at the top of the editing window actually displays the name of the specific sidebar item you are toying with), why does clicking Use as Defaults change the settings on some of the other sidebar items? There doesn't even seem to be a logical way of figuring out why or how the operating system decides which ones get changed all together when this button is clicked. It would be much more useful to have each sidebar selection carrying its own default preferences (and saving the window size/dimensions of each would be nice, too).

3 - When switcing the view of Finder (such as switcing from Thumbnails to List), why do the navigation steps I've already taken get erased - sending me back to the root folder of the selected sidebar item?

4 - In Finder, why is there no way to clear (either some or all) the items displayed in the "Search For Today/Yesterday/Past Week" selections?

5- How can I get the home and end buttons on the keyboard to actually behave like home and end buttons (in relation to text input) of Windows?

There's a few more, but I can't quite remember - amid my Friday night drunkenness - what they might be. All my other questions are application-specific, and I'm taking those issues to their proper forums.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

-Will

[icemanjc]

I don't have an answer to all your questions.

1. Because most people want to see how much space is left, if you click the view option with 4 lines on it, it will show how big the files are.

3. I havent had that problem, when I switch it stays in the same folder I was viewing.

4. You can either drag them off, click the arrow next to "search for" or you can click on finder, then click "Finder" in the menu bar and go to preferences in the drop down menu, and then click the tab "Sidebar" then below it will give you options to edit the sidebar and you can uncheck the search for stuff.

[nixgeek]

Welcome to the Mac! One tip: if you hold down the Command key (the key with the cloverleaf on it) and then click the title of the window, you'll be presented with a hierarchical path back to where you started in your navigation. This works on everything from Tiger on down to versions of the Mac OS before OS X.

Leopard goes one step further and gives you the "breadcrumb" path within the Finder window itself.

[Willxiv]

Thanks for your replies, gentlemen.

icemanjc:
Do most people really need to be reminded about how much memory they have left on their hard disk? I can imagine if it's a small disk in a macbook - but in a 300+ GB disk, it seems a little silly to have Finder telling me I have 180GB of memory left instead of the total size of my selected files. I can see, of course, how large each individual file is easily in List view, but how about a simple thing like selecting 20 files to move to an almost-full thumbdrive and wanting to know the total size before moving it?

nixgeek:
The breadcrumb path is a great idea, but what I'm talking about is different. If I'm in List view and navigate throught several folders to find 30 pictures I'm editting, changing the view to Thumbnails or Quicklook brings me all the way back to the original folder I began with. If others are not having this trouble, it would be great if someone knew how to fix this as I suppose it's possible I messed it up somehow.

Thanks again.

-Will

[icemanjc]

For seeing how much certain files are all together, you can select the files, then go to "File" in the menubar and select "Get Info" or you can just press Apple-I.

[Curiosity]

5. If you are using a laptop, try holding the fn key when you press home or end. That will take you to the beginning or end of a document. You have to remember to place the cursor there, though, because that does not move when you do that.

[Mikuro]

Originally Posted by Willxiv

1 - When 1 of more items are selected, why does the small bar at the bottom of Finder's window display the available storage left on my disk (which can't possibly be considered useful) instead of displaying the total size of said selected items?

Why? Well, not knowing the inner workings of the designer who decided that, I don't know. I do know that you can get the size of a collection of items by opening the Inspector. To open it, hold down the Option key and select "Show Inspector" from the File menu. You can also get it from the "Summary" window, which you can get by holding down Control and going to the File menu.

There are three kinds of file info windows in the Finder. The plain Get Info window, which shows stats on one item, the Summary window, which shows stats on a group of items, and the Inspector, which is just like the summary only it floats on top and automatically changes its contents to reflect selected files as you move around.

2 - While changing the View Options for Finder sidebar items (the bar at the top of the editing window actually displays the name of the specific sidebar item you are toying with), why does clicking Use as Defaults change the settings on some of the other sidebar items?

"Use as defaults" sets the default for all folders with that view that do not have their own specific settings (i.e., using the defaults), not just for that folder. If you want to change only that folder, check the "Always open in ____ view" box. Just changing the settings and doing nothing else (neither clicking Use as Defaults or Always Open in ____ View) will set the settings for that folder only, BUT it might open in icon, list or column view next time, depending on what you've been doing. It's a little quirky.

Personally I never use the sidebar window mode because I just don't like it.

3 - When switcing the view of Finder (such as switcing from Thumbnails to List), why do the navigation steps I've already taken get erased - sending me back to the root folder of the selected sidebar item?

I have never seen this problem. What navigation steps are you taking? If you're only expanding the little triangles, then this is expected behavior, because that does not change the root directory of the window. (The window will effectively be showing the contents of MANY directories, so obviously it needs to pick one to use when you switch to another view.) You may want to double-click the folders instead to make them the new root.

Or do I misunderstand the problem?

4 - In Finder, why is there no way to clear (either some or all) the items displayed in the "Search For Today/Yesterday/Past Week" selections?

Go to Finder menu > Preferences > Sidebar.

5- How can I get the home and end buttons on the keyboard to actually behave like home and end buttons (in relation to text input) of Windows?

I don't know how they behave in Windows, so can you elaborate on what you want?

[Willxiv]

Mikuro:

Thanks for the response.

You helped me learn that pressing option-command-i while multiple files are selected in Finder will bring up the summary window. This answers that issue.

You gave me a few more things to think about when it comes to Set as Default, so I'm sure a little more toying around with these thoughts in mind will help me figure it all out.

The last thing - the home and end button: in Windows (during text input/editting), the home button moves the cursor to the very beginning (left) of the line on which the cursor is residing. The end button, as you might have figured out after reading the last sentence, moves the cursor to the end (right) of the line on which the cursor is residing. I use the home and end buttons all the time during coding, so this particular nuisance bothers me more than it should.

Out of curiosity, what file-management application do you use instead of Finder, if any?