When a desktop window displays its icons in a list view, a convenient new strip of column headings appears Figure 1-17.. Click Name for alphabetical order, Date Modified to view newest f
Trang 11.5 List View
In windows that contain a lot of icons, the list view is a powerful weapon in the battle against chaos It shows you a tidy table of your files' names, dates, sizes, and so on In Leopard, alternating blue and white background stripes help you read across the columns
in a list-view window
You have a great deal of control over your columns, in that you get to decide how wide they should be, which of them should appear, and in what order (except that Name is always the first column) Here's how to master these columns:
1.5.1 Sorting the List
Most of the world's list-view fans like their files listed alphabetically It's occasionally useful, however, to view the newest files first, largest first, or whatever
When a desktop window displays its icons in a list view, a convenient new strip of
column headings appears (Figure 1-17) These column headings aren't just signposts; they're buttons, too Click Name for alphabetical order, Date Modified to view newest first, Size to view largest files at the top, and so on
It's especially important to note the tiny,dark gray triangle that appears in the column you've most recently clicked It shows you which way the list is being sorted
When the triangle point supward, the oldest files, smallest files, or files beginning with numbers (or the letter A) appear at the top of the list, depending on which sorting
criterion you have selected
Tip: It may help you to remember that when the smallest portion of the triangle is at the
top ( ), the smallest files are listed first when viewed in size order
To reverse the sorting order, click the column heading a second time Now the newest files, largest files, or files beginning with the letter Z appear at the top the list The tiny triangle turns upside-down
1.5.2 Flippy Triangles
One of the Mac's most attractive features is the tiny triangle that appears to the left of a folder's name in a list view In its official documents, Apple calls these buttons disclosure triangles; internally, the programmers call them flippy triangles
Trang 2Either way, these triangles are very useful: When you click one, the list view turns into an outline, which displays the contents of the folder in an indented list, as shown in Figure 1-18 Click the triangle again to collapse the folder listing You're saved the trouble and clutter of opening a new window just to view the folder's contents
Figure 1-17 You control the sorting order of a list view by clicking the column headings (top) Click a second time to reverse the sorting order (bottom) You'll find the identical or triangle—indicating the identical information —
in email programs, in iTunes, and anywhere else where reversing the sorting order
of the list can be useful
By selectively clicking flippy triangles, you can, ineffect, peer inside two or morefolders simultaneously, all within a single list view window You can move files around by
dragging them onto the tiny folder icons
Tip: Once you've expanded a folder by clicking its flippy triangle, you can even drag a
file icon out of its folder so that it's loose in the list view window To do so, drag it
directly upward onto the column headings area (where it says Name, for example) When you release the mouse, you see that the file is no longer inside the expanded folder
1.5.3 Your Choice of Columns
Choose View Show View Options In the dialog box that appears, you're offered on/off checkboxes for the different columns of information Mac OS X can show you, as illustrated in Figure 1-19
Figure 1-18 Click a "flippy triangle" (left) to see the list of the folders and files inside that folder (right) Or press the equivalent keystrokes: -> (to open) and
-< (to close)
Trang 3UP TO SPEED Flippy Triangle Keystrokes
The keystrokes that let you open and close flippy triangles in a list view are worth committing to memory
First, pressing the Option key when you click a flippy triangle lets you view a folder's contents and the contents of any folders inside it The result, in other words, is a longer list that may involve several levels of indentation
If you prefer to use the keyboard, substitute the right arrow key (to expand a selected folder's flippy triangle) or left arrow key (to collapse the folder listing again) Here again, adding the Option key expands or collapses all levels of folders within the selected one
Suppose, for example, that you want to find out how many files are in your Pictures folder The trouble is, you've organized your graphics files within that folder in several category folders And you realize that the "how many items" statistic in the status bar shows you how many icons are visible in the window
In other words, you won't know your total photo count until you've expanded all the folders within the Pictures folder
You could perform the entire routine from the keyboard like this: Get to your Home folder by pressing Shift- -H Select the Pictures folder by typing the letter P Open it by pressing -O (the shortcut for File Open) or -down arrow Switch to list view, if necessary, with a quick -2 Highlight the entire contents by pressing -A (short for Edit Select All)
Now that all folders are highlighted, press Option-right arrow You may have to wait a moment for the Mac to open every subfolder of every subfolder But eventually, the massive list appears, complete with many levels of indentation
At last, the "items" statistic in the status bar gives you a complete, updated tally
of how many files and folders, combined, are in the window up to speed
• Date Modified This date-and-time stamp indicates when a document was last
saved Its accuracy, of course, depends on the accuracy of your Mac's built-in clock
Trang 4Note: Many an up-to-date file has been lost because someone spotted a very old
date on a folder and assumed that the files inside were equally old That's because the modification date shown for a folder doesn't reflect the age of its contents Instead, the date on a folder indicates only when items were last moved into or out
of that folder The actual files inside may be much older, or much more recent
Figure 1-19 The checkboxes you turn on in the View Options dialog box determine which columns of information appear in a list view window Most people live full and satisfying lives with only the three default columns—Date Modified, Kind, and Size—turned on But the other columns can be helpful in special circumstances; the trick is knowing what
information appears there