Expose is just one example. One of my favorite features, though, is the Smart Folders features that is integrated into the Finder. Infact, the way Apple has integrated and designed Smart Folders is so brilliant that it’s almost too easy to miss it.

For those who are not aware, a Smart Folder is a folder that contains a dynamically generated list of files.

Create Your Own Smart Folder

So, now that we know what exactly a Smart Folder is, let’s try and create one of our own.

Open the Finder and click on “File -> New Smart Folder“. Finder will open a new Window with the title of the Window set to “New Smart Folder”. Now, type in a search term in the Spotlight text box. All the files that match your search term will now be displayed. When you’re satisfied with your search term, click the Save button and give your new smart folder a name. You can even choose to add the folder to the sidebar if you want. That way it is always just a couple of clicks away.

The next time you want to see all the files related to “Canon 500d” on your computer. Just open this smart folder and you’ll have the latest list of files, without ever having to manually change anything in this folder. Now, tell me if this isn’t magical?

Create Complex Rules With Smart Folders

The above example was a pretty simple rule but smart folders can do much more. Let’s create a slightly more complex rule and you’ll understand what I mean.

Click on the “+” sign next to the save button and a new row of options will pop-up. Click the “+” sign again and you get another row of options for even more fine grained control. In the image above, I’ve set my smart folder to only show me JPEG images that have been opened in the last 5 days. Imagine a folder that gives you a list of all the documents that you’ve worked on over the last, say, 3 days. Isn’t that Magical ?

I know I’m overdoing the magical part here but the truth is that Smart Folders are a very powerful and, often, underused feature of Mac OS X.

Do you guys use Smart Folders in your regular workflow ?

TotalFinder is a free application that adds tabs to your native Finder. It is still in alpha mode only works in Snow Leopard.

After the installation, you will immediately see your Finder in a Google Chrome like interface. You will also notice a new icon for the Finder app. Yes, a sunglass wearing Finder. Look cool, isn’t it?

Add and manage tabs like Google Chrome

TotalFinder was coded using the Chromium codebase, so it is no surprise that it looks and functions like Google Chrome. You can open a tab (by clicking the +) and move your tabs around by clicking and dragging it. You can also drag the tab out of the Finder window to open it in a new Finder window. Similarly, drag the tab from one window to another to combine them into one window.

Keyboard shortcut such as Ctrl + Tab to cycle through the tab is also available.

One thing that is still lacking is the availability of a “Open in new tab” option in the context menu. In addition, middle-clicking of the mouse to open in new tab does not work as well.

Support for Visor

With the support for Visor, you can now assign a custom shortcut key and call TotalFinder up whenever you want. There are also several animations effects that you can play with.

.DS_Store support

Ever been frustrated that Finder create a .DS_Store file in almost all the folders in your Finder? Now you can have more control over this and send a redirect to the cache folder instead of getting it to create a .DS_Store file. You can also prevent it for creating a .DS_Store file in all remote network drive.

Tweaks - Toggling hidden files

Of all the tweaks, “Show Hidden Files” is my favorite. In the original Finder, there is no way for you to view hidden files. The only way is to go to the terminal and type in command line to edit the plist. With TotalFinder, you can now get it to show hidden files quickly and easily. One thing though, you have to restart your Finder to activate the “Show Hidden Files” function.

Uninstaller

This software also comes with an uninstaller that allows you to remove it easily.

Conclusion

For a product still in alpha mode, I would say it is pretty impressive. Of course it is not bug free, but I am sure that can be iron out when it reach the final release. One thing though, TotalFinder is currently free for its alpha mode. According to the developer, it will not be free anymore once it reaches beta (and final release). There is no mention of the costing at the moment. Meanwhile you can use and enjoy it while you can.

1. Control + F3

Press Control + F3 (If you are on a laptop you’ll need to hold the Fn key as well) to highlight the Dock. You can then use the arrow keys to navigate to the Window you want to un-minimize and press Enter. This is the best free and native solution, but it is a little clumsy (especially on laptops) and potentially involves a lot of keystrokes if you have a large Dock.

2. Spotlight

Press Command + Space to bring up Spotlight. Type the name of the Application you want to bring back from the dock and highlight the name of the app under the “Applications” header and press Enter (often it will also be the “Top Hit”). Note that this only seems to work consistently with Apple Apps (iTunes, Mail, etc.). Third-party app support for this method is inconsistent- for example with Firefox it will only un-minimize the last window you minimized.

3.Command + Tab

Press Command + Tab to bring up the application-switch box. Command-Tab to the application you want, and before you release the Command button, hold Option. Release both keys. This method will only open the last window you minimized, and support for third-party apps is inconsistent.

4. Quicksilver

Download Quicksilver (free) from Blacktree Software.

The default for entering a command is Control + Space, after which you type in the name of the Application you want to un-minimize. Again this has its limitations- there is no option to choose which window you want to open and it only un-minimizes the last window you minimized.

5. Witch

The best solution is unfortunately not freeware, but if you really want to put this issue to rest, Witch from ManyTricks (the same developers that brought you Name Mangler) is by far the best solution. Witch is like Command-Tab but for windows instead of applications, and can cycle between all the windows you might have minimized at a given time regardless of what Application they belong to. While we don’t usually recommend non-freeware programs, the $16 cost is well worth it if you use a lot of windows and don’t like to leave your keyboard.

Do you have any other ways of un-minimizing a window once it’s trapped in the Dock? Leave a comment!

I find Leopard’s sidebar to be a very handy place to store my most frequently used folders and as a way to access any external or USB drives I have plugged in at the moment.  What I can’t stand, however, are the obnoxious capitalized categories (DEVICES, PLACES, etc.) that Apple forces upon us. Let’s change those to normal capitalization.

Before going any further, I must warn you that while this particular example is very easy, in general you should not change files in the System Folder.  While working through this tutorial, pay attention to what you can and cannot change.  Keep backups of the original files before editing them.  Do not add carriage returns (pressing the “enter” key in the middle of a line), delete or add any type of special character (any of the following: % ^ ; / = * ), or change spacing. MakeTechEasier is not responsible for any damage you do to your system.

To begin, log in to the administrator account on your Mac and navigate to

/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj

either by clicking through the hierarchy** or pressing Command + Shift + G and copying the path from above. If you navigate manually, once you find the Finder in /System/Library/CoreServices you’ll need to right click and “Show Package Contents.”

Locate the file called LocalizableCore.strings, and make a copy of this file before you do any editing.  Store it in a place you can remember (like the Desktop).

Open LocalizableCore.strings in your favorite text editor. I use BBEdit, but TextEdit (included with OS X) or TextWrangler (BBEdit’s little brother, free) will work just fine.

You’re presented with a list in which each line has two entries in quotes separated by an equals sign. On the left are the variable names used by the system.  DO NOT TOUCH THESE. On the right are the strings that those variables pass to the user interface.  These are what we’ll be editing.

Find the line

"SD5" = "DEVICES";

(It’s line 50)

You can change “DEVICES” to whatever you want.  I chose “Devices.”  You can do the same thing to SD6-SD8, but remember not to change any values on the left-hand side of the equal sign.

Save your changes and enter your administrator password when prompted. You need to Relaunch Finder for the changes to take effect; Hold down Option and right-click on Finder in Dock and choose “Relaunch” or launch Terminal.app and type in

killall Finder

followed by the enter key.

¡Viola! You now have unobtrusive sidebar categories in Finder.

Now let’s change the sidebar categories in iTunes.

Navigate to

/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj

(Note: if you have moved iTunes to a different directory besides /Applications/ you’ll need to put in the correct path.)

Make a copy of Localizable.strings before doing anything.

Open Localizable.strings in a text editor.

The sidebar category strings are located in the lines with variable names 135.011-135.014 (file lines 189-192).  Again I changed mine so they looked less obnoxious, but you’re free to put in whatever you want.

Save your changes and relaunch iTunes for the changes to take effect.

I could not figure out how to change the sidebar capitalization in Apple Mail.  If anyone knows how, let me know and I’ll update the tutorial (as well as be eternally grateful).