Moving to a Mac: Working with Finder… Apple’s My Computer
Following the popularity of my first article on moving to a mac, I have decided to continue the series by introducing Finder to Windows users and talking about some of the pluses and minuses of what is generally a very good piece of file management software. For those users who are interested in moving to the mac from a Windows-based system, I would definitely recommend reading this quick article to understand some of the differences in working with Finder on the Mac.
All Windows users are well and truly familiar with My Computer (to be more technical, Windows Explorer, or simply explorer.exe). Explorer.exe allows you to manage the files found on your computer. For example, you can browse multiple drivers, copy files between folders, change the appearance of folders, change the extension of files and launch applications as well as open files. In a way, Explorer can be described as a visual shell to the operating system.
Finder acts in much the same way. It allows you to do close to all the things you can do in My Computer. However, it would be a grave mistake to say there are not some clear differences between Explorer and Finder. Take a look at the images below for example:
As you can see from the images above there are clear similarities and differences in the presentation of Explorer and Finder. Of course, with both, you have options as to how you wish to display your files and folders. Examples include icons, details, tree view, details and cover flow (a special view specific to the Mac which I will descibe later).
The following sections will inspect different aspects of the two file managers, comparing and contrasting their characteristics in order to better understand how a move from Windows to a Mac will affect you. Note that this comparison will attempt to be conducted from the point-of-view of a Windows user moving to the Mac (as I have recently done).
Appearance
From the point of view of a Windows user moving to the Mac, the change from the Explorer interface to the Finder interface is not a particularly difficult one. The same basic ideas are shared between the two operating system file management programs. As you can see from the images above, there is a general toolbar found on the top for changing view options, there is a bar on the left for quick shortcuts and the general view space for manipulating files and folders.
One thing that a Windows user will need to be wary of immediately is that the menubar is not located within the window space. Like with all software on a mac, to access the menubar, you will need to go to the top of the screen as you can see below:
One advantage of the new Finder interface over Explorer is the ability to quickly preview files using Cover Flow. Cover Flow view (the fourth view button) displays a black space with all the files of the current folder you are in containing previews of the files where possible. This can be very handy when you are looking for a file but aren’t exactly sure what the name of the file is.
One downside of the Finder interface over the Explorer interface is the inability to share a tree view on the left-hand side with a current folder view on the right (or at least I have not found an easy way to do this so far). Generally, however, this is not a major issue as one can working with multiple Finder windows or change to the triple depth view which is often quite handy in itself. The tree view is in fact built into the main window which does have its benefits and its minuses - having the two separate views is a nice feature of Explorer.
Another downside in the interface is the size of fonts. This does affect users who are used to larger fonts set as default in their operating system. As far as I am aware so far, there aren’t many fixes to improve font and icon sizes in Finder (or in the Operating System in general). You might be able to find some ideas on the Mac OS X Hints website, but, be prepared to do a bit of digging.
Actions
The manipulation of files and folders is generally the same between Explorer and Finder. Users can drag files between folders, create new files and folders, rename and delete as a user chooses to do. Special labels such as different colours and images can also be applied to folders in Finder just as in Explorer.
However, there are some noticable differences in the available actions for a user between Explorer and Finder. Without a doubt the most obvious of these would have to be the incapacity to cut files in Mac OS X. Just as in Windows Explorer, users are able to copy and paste files using the normal shortcuts or via the context menus. The cut action, however, is not available in Finder. It is questionable as to why Apple decided to leave this generally common action out of their operating system. This author has several hypotheses:
- Cutting is not a natural action of unix systems - for example there is no “cut” command per-se in the unix tools command line. Instead a “move” command exists which performs much the same action. This is mimicked in Finders ability to move files and folders through dragging.
- The cut command has never really existed in Mac operating systems and the non-existence is simply an artifact of Apple design.
- Cutting allows for the remote possibility of losing files altogether. For this reason the OS designers decided to disallow the ability to cut files (although this is a very far-fetched hypothesis).
In any case, the lack of a cut command is quite annoying for a user moving from Windows to the Mac. There are plugin extensions for Finder which allow the user to cut and paste files and folders, although I have found these are generally cumbersome to use and require going through 2 or 3 deep context menus simply to access the command. One could mimick the action through an AppleScript command as well, although I feel this is probably taking the issue too far and it is better to simply get acustomed to working in a different way (since using a Mac is a vastly different way of working as opposed to a Windows-based system).
Users should be wary of the difference between copying and moving when dragging files. It is important to take notice of the green plus sign that appears when copying files and the absence of this when moving files. If you need to copy files in a moving state, make use of the alt+option key. This was a bit tricky to get used to at first.
In general, actions are quite simple and easy to use as are most things on the Mac. The real question is simply getting used to the differences between the two systems as far as actions is concerned, particularly in the case of cutting/moving files.
Interaction
Personally, I find that interaction, such as shortcuts, finding tools quickly, selecting and dragging files and folders and general manipulation with the visual shell is generally easier and (if I can say such a thing) more pleasant in Finder as compared to Explorer. The use of the keyboard to browse through folders quickly in Finder is a god send and the nature of dragging and dropping similar to that in Explorer makes file management relatively easy.
There are, however, a few catches that a Windows user needs to be aware of very early when managing files and folders which can be often annoying and tedious:
Selecting files using the keyboard behaves slightly differently in Finder. If you use the “shift” key to select multiple folders pressing the down or up arrow, be aware that if you use the opposite arrow to deselect a folder as is the case in Explorer, this is not the behaviour that occurs in Finder.
For example, if I select a picture, then hold shift and press the down arrow to select two more pictures but accidentally select a third, then I press the up arrow to attempt to deselect the third picture, what actually happens is Finder selects the picture above your first one - this is not the behaviour displayed in Explorer and does sometimes get a little annoying. In fact selection can often be quite problematic in Finder and I think Apple needs to do a bit more work on this.
Secondly, when attempting to drag a folder in the detailed file view, be aware that dragging will only work if you attempt to drag the name or image of the file and not simply any part of the line on which the file is located. Finder is extremely fussy about this and I was tripped up on several occasions for not doing this correctly. Be aware, if you want to drag files, you need to be right on top of the name of the file or the image!
And of course, thirdly, be aware that Ctrl+X does not work (that is, you can’t Cut). In fact, do not use the Ctrl key at all unless you have changed your mappings! Macs run on a different system of shortcuts using the Command, Alt+Option key but hardly ever Control.
Conclusion
The change from Windows to the Mac as far as file management is concerned isn’t a big leap. But as a user changing between the two systems, you do need to make some adjustments which might take a while to get used to. With that in mind, don’t expect you will be up and running in seconds like Apple and Mac enthusiasts generally claim (and as I did originally).
Switching to a new system takes time. For some it is very little, for others it is very large. But, I do guarentee in the long run, you will come to enjoy the Finder interface and possibly like it more than Explorer.
