Any user who has a macOS must know how to use the Finder perfectly. This is the native file explorer on Mac and it has many very interesting functions. In this article we try to discover everything you should know about this native app.
What is the Finder in macOS
If you want to organize and find all the documents that are inside your Mac’s hard drive, you can use Finder. This is the natively installed file explorer on macOS that will always remain open while you are using the computer. The name is perfect, since Finder means to search in Spanish and this is the end of this tool. It mainly consists of the menu bar that you will find at the top of the screen and the lower desktop.
You will always have direct access to the Finder in the Applications Dock itself. In addition to accommodating internal file access on your computer, it also includes content from iCloud Drive and other storage devices such as external storage drives.
Open and organize files
One of the main functions of the Finder is to open and organize internal files on the computer. As we have previously mentioned, you can access the search engine interface at any time through the Dock icon. You will be able to navigate between all the folders in the internal storage of the Mac and also among all the files. At all times you will have the possibility to open them with the application you want to use for the specific file type.
You will be able to drag the documents and organize them by folders as well as rename them from the Finder itself. When talking about the organization of files, it should be detailed that all documents can be organized by file type, date of creation or modification. This will make it much easier to find something specific within a folder full of chaos.
Finder also includes the ability to change the display of documents. At the top of the interface you will see different icons such as several squares, a list of lines, in columns or in a gallery. By clicking on these icons you can choose how to view all the files. It is recommended to choose the list view if you want to see many details of these, or in gallery if they are images. With the latter you will have a larger preview to be able to choose the specific file in a very fast way.
Preview and quick actions
In all Finder views, the Preview function is included, which allows you to view a content before manipulating it. This information displays the metadata for a file or an image. This is useful for working with photographs where key EXIF data such as aperture value or camera model can be found. At any time you can choose what information you want to see through the toolbar in View> Options. Depending on the work you do with specific multimedia files, you can choose the type of information to perform.
In the preview you can view the documents, before you can access it as mentioned above. Some quick actions can be performed without opening a specific application. Among the quick actions included are the following:
- Rotate image.
- Mark an image.
- Combine images and PDF files.
- Trim audio and video files.
All of these actions can be performed on information in a document that is previewed. You will find a series of icons to be able to do it without having to enter the application.
Favorites and tags
Within the Finder window you will find on the left a section with different accesses. At the top you will have access to favorites such as the download folder or access to the personal folder. These accesses are fully customizable and if you look down a bit you can see the external storage units or any other compatible information unit.
Finally there are the labels that will allow you to organize all your files in a comfortable way. For example, if you have work files, you can label them all in this way so that when you access the label they are fully grouped so that they are easier to work with. There is no great limit on the labels that can be put and it will all depend on the organizational capacity you have and the way you want to take advantage of the Finder.
Find and delete files
You don’t have to start digging through numerous folders to start a file. If it is well named, it can be found through the search engine called Spotlight, which you can access from the magnifying glass on the toolbar or by pressing Command + Spacebar. Here you can enter the name of the file or folder you want to search for, and it will show you the results even if it is in the internal storage of the Mac or in the cloud.
In case you want to do a little cleaning, you can delete documents or folders from the Finder itself. You simply have to drag them to the trash at one end of the Dock. Or if you don’t want to drag them, you can press Command + Delete. Once you have a very full bin, it is important to delete all of its content so that it can free up the space it takes up.