Apple introduced a host of new features with iOS 9. One of the most controversial is the APIs that allow third-party developers to create Content Blocking Extensions. These extensions can be used in Safari on iOS devices to block specific sites from loading content.
Although most of the press coverage has focussed on Content Blockers being used to block ads, they can also block any other content such as comments, or even entire sites.
Content Blockers only work on recent iDevices running iOS 9. Any iPhone newer than an iPhone 5s, iPad newer than the iPad Air or Mini 2, and iPod Touch newer than the sixth generation can run them.
Content Blockers Explained
Content Blockers, or rather Content Blocking Extensions, are apps that block Safarion iOS from loading blacklisted content.
Before considering how they work, it’s important to understand the state of modern webpages.
As computers have become more powerful—and broadband more prevalent—web content has become a lot more complex. Fifteen years ago, when you loaded a site, very few resources were called that weren’t from the site’s server. It was just too demanding on computers and bandwidth to make multiple calls to different servers. That’s not the case now.
iMore with and without Purify running.
Most websites call multiple resources from other servers. These can be innocuous things like Google Analytics which keeps track of how many views each page is getting or JavaScript libraries that power the interactive effects on the site.
On the other hand, they can also be malicious ad networks that install cookies—or even malware—that track your every move.
When Safari loads a webpage, content is likely called from multiple servers. If any is called from blocked sites, it isn’t loaded alongside everything else.
Depending on what Content Blocker you are using, the JavaScript necessary to power a lightbox may get loaded while the scripts that install tracking cookies or display ads aren’t.
The Pros and Cons of Content Blockers
The bloat that’s occurred with webpages isn’t that noticeable on most computers; they’re normally fast enough and connected to a decent Internet connection so no matter how many resources from different servers are being called, they can just power through.
The problem is when you’re using a relatively underpowered smartphone in an area with patchy 3G signal. Many of the additional resources websites load are quite large. Some webpages can have more than 15 MB of additional content. Loading this content can seriously slow down a smartphone, uses lots of mobile data and wastes battery life.
When Apple announced that they were allowing Content Blockers, this was the point they emphasised. With a Content Blocker installed, webpages can load significantly quicker, use less mobile data and preserve battery life. Leading Content Blockers, Crystal and Purify both claim that they can load websites four times faster using around half as much data compared to when they’re not enabled. Their claims seem to hold up when put to the test.
The load speeds of webpages with Purify, Crystal and No Content Blocker as claimed by Purify.
Another, more controversial, benefit is that by blocking ads and tracking cookies, you protect your privacy. For the past few years ad networks have been doing everything they can to keep tabs on what you do online so they can build a profile to serve more relevant ads.
People, however, are now a lot more privacy conscious online so there is a lot of backlash to this.
The problem though, is that many websites make money by serving ads. They are able to offer their content for free because of them.
If users block ads and then access the site, they are still costing them money—servers and writers aren’t free—without giving anything in return. This creates a bit of a moral quandary where Content Blockers are concerned.
Available Content Blockers
Although iOS 9 has only been out for a few weeks, as I write this, there are already a good few Content Blockers available in the App Store. Here are some of the most popular or interesting ones you can get.
Crystal
Crystal is currently the top ad blocker in the app store. It blocks ads, user tracking and “general website annoyances”. Crystal is extremely simple to use, it’s either on or it’s off. There’s currently no way to fine tune what’s blocked or whitelist sites.
Purify is the other top ad blocker in the app store. Purify offers a lot more control over exactly what is blocked than Crystal. For example, you can whitelist websites or choose to block all images from loading.
Discontent doesn’t just block ads and tracking scripts. It blocks everything. It’s tagline is, “Stop distracting yourself with marginally informative blog posts and start living.”
While it at first might seem like a joke, Discontent can actually serve a serious purpose. If you constantly procrastinate using an iPhone, it can make it that little bit harder making Safari useless.
Internet comments are the worst. You can watch a wonderful YouTube video and then scroll down and enter a world of hate and typos. Shut Up is a Content Blocker that solves that problem by hiding comments everywhere. You can even whitelist sites, like Tuts+, that has great commenters.
Content Blockers fade into the background once you’re using them. If they’re doing their job, you shouldn’t notice them. They’re not something you have to actively use each time.
The process for installing all Content Blockers is the same.
First, navigate to the App Store and download the Content Blocker you want to install. When it’s downloaded, head to the Settings app. Tap on the Safari button and then on Content Blockers.
Turn on any Content Blockers you want active. With that done, Safari will start using your chosen Content Blockers whenever you load a website.
The Settings screens required to turn on Content Blockers.
Content Blockers with additional features, like Purify, can be configured from their respective app. You can also control most Content Blockers from Safari’sExtensions menu.
To reload a site without Content Blockers, hold down on the Refresh icon in Safari. You will be presented with the option to Reload Without Content Blockers.
Conclusion
Content Blockers are new in iOS 9. They selectively block Safari from loading resources from specific sites. While ad blockers are the most popular, there are other content blockers available.
Blocking unnecessary content can significantly speed up your browsing while using less mobile data. Unfortunately, unnecessary content normally includes ads which introduces a moral dimension to the decision.
This tutorial has featured a small handful of the Content Blockers available. If you use one that I haven’t mentioned, please let me know what it is and why you use it in the comments.
Apple Notes application comes pre-installed on Apple's Mac and iOS devices.
On Mac, it has been bundled with OS X since 10.8 Mountain Lion. It functions as a service for making short text notes which can be synchronised, between devices, using iCloud service. Until 2013, both OS X and iOS applications shared a commonskeuomorphic interface.
The skeuomorphic design was completely stripped from the interface in OS X 10.9 Mavericks. With the launch of OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Apple completely re-designed the interface to make it look more modern.
In spite of this visual makeover, the feature set of the Notes application was quite limited. Things changed with the launch of OS X El Capitan.
The new version lands somewhere in between a heavier note-taking suite likeOneNote or Evernote and the spartan simplicity of the old version. It uses iCloud Drive for storage and syncing, which is faster and more reliable than the IMAP-based method of syncing notes.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Notes application to
Keep travel related information organised
Keep recipe related information organised
Search notes, photos, videos, links, and more easily
Plan Travel With Notes
With so many places to go and things to do, tracking everything can be overwhelming unless you organise and plan your holiday in advance. Notes application can help you do the research and create comparison notes to help you decide where you want to go.
You can clip pages that tell you the opening times for theme parks, hotels, restaurants, or anywhere else you might want to go.
You can add all your travel plans for airplanes, trains, and automobiles, with tickets of reservations and restaurant reviews for good measure.
Click the New Folder button on the lower left of the folders list, or use Shift-Command-N and enter a name for the folder. Then create a new note for each segment of your trip. To create a new note, click the New Note button on the toolbar or press Command-N.
When you create a new note, it will go into the folder you’ve selected, if any, otherwise it will go in the default Notes section. As of now you can only create a flat list of folders, with no option for creating sub-folders.
You can create any number of folders in Notes application but as of now you cannot create sub-folders within main folders
If you don’t choose to create new folders anymore, click View > Hide Folders from the toolbar to hide the folders column. After you create a new note, a blank page appears on the notepad. In the middle of the page is the time and date. What you type into the very first line at the top of the notepad becomes that note’s name.
The new Notes application can now start with a proper Title section. Click the Format menu and choose New notes start with to set the default option. You can also select any text and change it quickly to either a
Title—Press Command-Shift-T to create a title
Heading—Press Command-Shift-H to create a heading
Body—Press Command-Shift-B to create a body text
This is a new feature in notes application. Whenever you start a new note it will always begin with a Title
Choreographing all you want to get done in a single trip, can be a massive challenge. You can make it easier by creating a checklist of everything you want to see or do, and arrange them according to the priority. The new Notes lets you easily make a checklist.
Click the Format menu and select Checklist option, or alternatively choose the Checklist button from the Notes toolbar.
If you are making multiple checklist, then select Command-Shift-L to make a new checklist anywhere within a note, or by highlighting existing text which converts that into a checklist. Press the circle to mark, or unmark, the item as checked.
This is also a new feature in Notes application. A relatively simple feature can let you accomplish many things. Use checklist wisely
While a checklist can certainly help you in setting up the priorities, you may have to create extra notes for things such as—how long an activity will take, how long it will take to get the destination, festival events, opening and closing hours, and more.
Select text style button, shown as Aa, from the Notes toolbar and choose any one from the old style bulleted, numbered, or dashed list.
All the old formatting options are still available and work as expected, such as Command-B to make bold text, or Command-I to switch to italics. There’s still a font browser, Command-T, that lets you choose various fonts and set their type and size.
When it comes to making hotel reservations, there are certain things you need to know in order to make the whole process run more smoothly. After all, you want your reservation to be done correctly, and you don’t want to spend more money than you need to.
Before you go to make a hotel reservation, do your research ahead of the time—compare hotels online, make a checklist of hotel and their room rates, make a note of check-in and check-out times, make a note of location, attach necessary documents, phone number and distance from the airport or railway station. A link to blog posts and guidebook at the end of notes will be also helpful.
Notes in OS X El Capitan is integrated into the system-wide share sheet menu. You can send a link to URL to a note straight from Safari, or a location from within AppleMaps.
Choose Notes from the Share menu within Maps. In the popover menu that appears, add some additional text and choose whether you want to create a new note or add to an existing one.
The item you insert shows up as an outlined box containing some information and a thumbnail image. Double-click the link from your note, and you’ll be redirected toMaps. You can also use Spacebar to preview the map directly within notes.
Now you can directly embed maps into notes application. Don't forget to hit the save button
The process to add a link is exactly the same as adding a map from Apple Maps.
Choose Notes from the Share menu within Safari. In the popover menu that appears, add some additional text and choose whether you want to create a new note or add to an existing one.
The item you insert shows up as an outlined box containing some information and a thumbnail image. Double-click the link from your note, and you’ll be redirected to Safari. You can also use Spacebar to preview the map directly within notes.
Now you can embed links directly into notes application. Simple to use and retrieve
It is also possible just to drag any item from the Finder into the note, where it will appear inline. In the screenshot below, I’ve added a PDF file just by dragging in. Add a note to the document and allow it to sync with your iOS device.
If your tickets are stored in the Mail Application then right-click the attachment, choose Share and select Notes. In the popover menu that appears, add some additional text and choose whether you want to create a new note or add to an existing one.
You can actually see the live preview of document in notes application. This was a major feature improvement
Collecting Recipes With Notes
Anyone who likes to cook will have a drawer full of recipes scribbled down on scraps of paper. Notes application can help you to manage scribbled notes, cooking tips, and their methods easily. It can collate your most precious recipes into your own recipe book, just print your notes as a PDF document and bind them into a book.
Your recipe require three main important things—photos, checklist of ingredients, and detailed instructions. A link to blog posts at the end of notes might be helpful too.
To insert a photo, click the Photos Browser from the Window menu. The button opens a small window from which you can drag an image or a video directly into a note. Video and audio files play right from where they are embedded in your note.
Adding photos and videos to notes application is really easy. The best part os you can play the video and audio file.
To add a checklist, click the Format menu and select Checklist option, or alternatively choose checklist button from the Notes toolbar. If you are making multiple checklist, then select Command-Shift-L to make a new checklist anywhere within a note, or by highlighting existing text which converts that into a checklist.
Write the detail instructions and format them as bulleted or numbered list. Choose the numbered list if the order of the recipe needs to follow a specific sequence.
At the last you can embed link to blog posts for additional tips and methods for that recipe. Choose Notes from the Share menu within Safari. In the popover menu that appears, add some additional text and choose whether you want to create a new note or add to an existing one.
Search Notes Easily
Notes lets you perform a simple full-text search easily though there are no filters available. It will return all notes that matches your search term. There is a problem with this kind of search.
It might happen that you don’t remember its name, this might prevent you from finding it in search. There’s a great way to view all these various types of documents in a simple tabular list—Photos and Videos, Sketches, Map Locations, Websites, Audio, and Documents.
Click the Browse Attachments button, and as you choose different tabs it switches to a separate view with sections for each of the document type. If you right-click any item in the list, there are several more options presented. For example, you can open the attachment, quick look, copy it, save, share, or just go to the note.
This is a new feature in notes application. It lets you browse your attachment from single place. Huge time saver if you have many notes
Conclusion
With the latest version of OS X, Apple has thankfully brought Notes up-to-date and added features that were sorely needed. While it’s not perhaps quite as full-featured as some of the third party applications such as Evernote and OneNote, they are quite complicated to use and you may have to give extra time to learn the application to get your work done.
In this tutorial, I have shown you how you can use Notes to plan your holiday, keep your recipe information organised, and locate information when in need.
The tutorial demonstrated the capabilities of this application, through some case examples. I hope you’ve found the tutorial useful. If you have any problems with the step or tutorial, be sure to let me know in the comments below.
MacBooks have some of the best battery life of all laptops: the 13“ MacBook Air is meant to last up to 12 hours but often lasts longer, while even the 15” MacBook Pro should stay running for at least nine hours as long as you aren’t doing anything too strenuous.
Still, there are times—such as when you’re travelling—when you want to ensure a MacBook stays running for as long as possible.
Conserving battery doesn’t mean not using the Mac or not doing what you want with it, it’s just about making sure that no battery life is wasted. In this tutorial I’ll show you some of the ways you can do that.
Put the Mac to Sleep When It’s Not in Use
One of the simplest ways to conserve a Mac’s battery life is to have it go to sleep when it’s not doing anything. All modern MacBooks have an SSD so they wake up extremely fast; putting the computer to sleep no longer involves waiting ages for it to come back to life whilst it reads data from a slow hard drive.
You can do it just by closing the lid on the MacBook; however, it’s better to configure things to happen automatically.
In the Energy Saver Preference Pane you can configure how long before a Mac’s display, and the computer itself, go to sleep. The shorter the interval, the faster the Mac will go to sleep once you stop using it, and thus the more battery life you’ll save.
The Energy Saver preference pane.
The problem with relying on OS X’s built in energy saving options is that they are essentially a dumb tool; if you step away from the Mac for the allotted time, it goes to sleep regardless of what else is going on. Files downloading from the Internet? Watching a movie? Final Cut Pro Project exporting? It doesn’t care.
To get more control over when a Mac sleeps you need to turn to third party apps.
You can set a short interval in the Energy Saver options and then, when you need the Mac to stay on for longer, activate Caffeine to keep it awake.
Caffeine, however, is only a partial solution. Once the app’s activated, the Mac will stay on until its battery dies. Once the Mac’s done whatever you needed it to do, you want it to go to sleep.
Should I Sleep
Should I Sleep is basically Caffeine on steroids. Rather than being a binary on-off app, Should I Sleep uses a number of sensors to determine when the Mac should go to sleep.
It costs $1.99 for the Face Detection sensor and additional sensors are $0.99 in-app purchases, although they can all be bought for $2.99.
Should I Sleep has six sensors:
The Face Detection sensor uses the Mac’s front-facing camera to check whether or not someone is sitting in front of the Mac; if they are, it prevents it from going to sleep
The Camera Motion sensor uses the same camera and checks for motion, if there’s any the Mac won’t sleep
The Download Monitor keeps an eye on the Mac’s network usage, if it’s doing something it keeps it running
The Processor Usage monitor does the same thing, except for the Mac’s CPU
The External Display Sensor keeps the Mac running if it’s connected to an external display
Finally, the Sound Activity Sensor monitors the background noise and if it’s above a certain level keep the Mac awake
Combinations of Should I Sleep sensors give you almost total control over when the Mac sleeps and when it doesn’t. If you want a file to download before the Mac goes to sleep, you use the Download Monitor. If you’re watching a movie, you use a combination of Face Detection, Motion Detection and possibly the External Display Sensor.
Whatever reason you have for keeping the Mac running for a short while after you stop using it, some group of Should I Sleep sensors should be able to handle it.
More control over when the Mac sleeps means you have more control over its battery life.
Switch to Safari
Every time a comparison is run comparing a Mac’s battery life when it’s running Google Chrome with when it’s running Safari, the result is the same; it lasts hourslonger with Safari. Take this recent article from the Verge.
Switching to Safari can have a surprisingly large impact.
In a battery test using the 13" MacBook Pro with Retina they got 13 hours and 18 minutes of web browsing with Safari compared to 9 hours and 45 minutes with Chrome.
Most of the time, you probably won’t be using the Mac long enough between charges to notice the difference—ten hours is still an extraordinarily long time for a laptop to last—but it is there.
If you do a lot of browsing with the Mac, consider switching to Safari. You’ll instantly get a few hours of extra time online.
Watch Active Applications
As well as switching the web browser, examine which apps are running in the background.
The Energy tab in OS X’s Activity Monitor provides an overview of what apps are having the most impact on the Mac’s battery life. Here you might find some surprising culprits.
For example, apps that sync in the background, like Dropbox, can have a large effect. If you want to conserve battery power ,and don’t need the files Dropbox is trying to sync, quitting the application can greatly increase how long you can keep the Mac running.
There are plenty of other background apps, like this, that may be draining the Mac’s battery life without your being aware.
The Energy tab in Activity Monitor let's you know what apps are draining the battery.
You should also think about what work you do while the Mac is running off its battery.
Powerful apps, such as Adobe Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, use a lot more juice than simpler programs.
If you’re going to spend some portion of your workday with the Mac running on battery power and another portion with it charging, it’s best to save the energy hogging tasks until you’re connected to the power.
Dim the Display
One of the biggest power draws on a Mac is the display. If you’re only doing simple, low energy tasks, it’s probably what’s draining the battery the most.
When you're working on battery power, dim the screen on the Mac as much as you are comfortable. You should never dim it to the point where you need to strain your eyes to see, just to lowest value where you can easily use the Mac.
Similarly, if the Mac has a backlit keyboard you should dim it fully. While it might only save a tiny bit of power, when it comes down to it, that might be the difference between finishing your work and running out of battery.
Unless you’re working in the dark and need to see the keyboard, the backlight is just a waste of power.
Conclusion
In this tutorial I’ve looked at some ways to conserve battery on a Mac. Conserving battery isn’t about barely using it to eke out the longest possible runtime, it’s about managing the Mac so that you use it how you want without wasting battery life.
Apps like Caffeine and Should I Sleep give you more control over when it goes to sleep. A simple change in web browser can gain you hours of battery life. Watching which apps are running means the programs you don’t need, won’t use all the power.
Finally, simple tweaks to the brightness of the display and keyboard backlight can have a dramatic effect.
If you’ve any tips for conserving a Mac’s battery life, please let me know in the comments.
There are some reasons that you may feel the need to look for an alternative toFinder.
If you use a PC at work
If you use both Mac and PC either at work or home
If you frequently move or copy files to keep things organized
If you want to work efficiently to become productive with frequently performed tasks
There are a number of Finder alternatives. Each of these takes one of the two approaches:
replacement, or
augmentation
Replacement
PathFinder follows the first approach. It provides a full replacement file browser with many additional features and functionality.
The problem with the first approach is you lose access to all those Finder features that did work.
More importantly, you lose the tight integration with the operating system.
Augmentation
TotalFinder and XtraFinder follow the second approach. They augment Finder with a range of new features that either blend with the current feature, to improve it, or provide an entirely new feature.
They're tightly integrated with the operating system to make the file management experience seamless.
Move and Copy Files Faster
Suppose, for a moment, that you need to manage files between two different folders, moving them around or even comparing files between the two locations.
If you use Finder, then you would have to open two Finder windows and adjust them accordingly. If you perform this task frequently then it's probable that you have to mess with dozens of open windows and tabs.
The dual-pane view saves you the trouble from bloating your desktop with connection windows and file listings, enabling the most effective workflow. It takes tabs and stitches them in a single Finder window.
This makes it possible to view the contents of two separate folders in one window, each folder having its own navigation buttons and sidebar. You can create as many of these twin tabs as you want and mix them with regular tabs.
When exiting dual-pane mode it reverts the tabs to a single Finder window.
To access the dual-pane window in XtraFinder, go to View > Toggle Dual Mode. Select all the files, then drag and drop to the folder on other pane. This way you can move large number of files between folders easily and much faster.
PathFinder has some few commands to take advantage of the dual-pane layout. Click Commands and beneath the Dual Browser you will find options (with handy shortcuts) for moving and copying files between panes. Dragging and dropping while holding a modifier key can perform different operations:
Copy
Within the same volume: Option key then Drag and drop
Between different volumes: Drag and drop
Move
Within the same volume: Drag and drop
Between different volumes: Command key then Drag and drop
In PathFinder moving files from one folder to another is single hotkey away. 1. Left Pane 2. Right Pane
Dual-pane layout also lets you move or copy files to a PC. Whilst you can easily sync files and folders with Dropbox and Bittorrent Sync, it is not necessary to use these applications in every use-case. You can move files between computers using just your local area network connection connection.
In XtraFinder select View >Toggle Dual Mode and in other pane open your shared PC connection.
Select the Disk Drive and folder where you want to move the file.
Drag and drop the file(s) from Mac Downloads folder to the download folder of PC.
With dual pane I can copy files from Mac to PC easily without using Dropbox and other similar applications. 1. Left Pane 2. Right Pane
Feature Compatibility With File Explorer for PC
The core difference in workflow, whilst working with two different operating systems, is the file manager.
Finder does things a little differently to Windows Explorer on a PC, even though their purpose is to manage files and folders.
If you work with both Mac and PC, the initial experience of adjustment with file management may take time. All the Finder alternatives provide some useful features.
Cut and Paste
In the Windows operating system, Cut is a normal option in right click context menu. Mac has the Cut and Paste feature but can be a little tricky to understand.
Select the item you wish to move, then press Command-C to copy the file. Navigate to the destination window and press Command-Option-V to move the item. If you use PC then this shortcut may feel tedious to learn and adjust.
With XtraFinder you can activate Cut command in right click menu. Go to XtraFinder > Preferences, click the Features tab and check Cut and Paste. The best part of this feature is that it works with every Finder windows and has a standard Command-X shortcut.
Add Go Up Button in Finder
In the Windows operating system, Go Up button lets you open the parent folder of the current folder you are working with.
This simple and straightforward button works well for novice users. Finder does not have this feature, but it is possible to add Up button in toolbar with XtraFinder.
Go to XtraFinder > Preferences, click the Features tab and check Show Go Up button in the toolbar.
Change the Behaviour of Return Key
In the Windows operating system, if you press the Enter key in Windows Explorer, it will either open a selected folder/file, or run a highlighted program. On Mac the Return key lets you rename the selected file/folder instead of opening them.
If you want to change the behaviour of Return key, go to XtraFinder > Preferences, click the Features tab and check Press Enter to open selection and under theRename field specify the shortcut key.
Sort Folders on Top of Files
With XtraFinder you can sort all folders on top of files. Go to XtraFinder > Preferences, click the Features tab and check Arrange Folders on Top.
This is especially helpful when you want to move a number of files which normally would be spread throughout a directory, forcing you to shift-click out the folders you don’t want to move.
File Template
In the Windows operating system the right-click context-sensitive menu provides added functionality by offering actions you can perform with particular item. The New option lets you create new documents, spreadsheet, presentation, folder, shortcut quickly and under the same folder you’re in.
XtraFinder gives you an option to add a New File entry to the contextual menu inFinder. Go to XtraFinder > Preferences, click the Add items to Finder menus and check New File.
In this entry you’ll find options to create plain text document, script, rich text document and more. You can customize them and add your own file template.
Click Manage File Template in the same preference window and add an emptyPages or Numbers file in that directory.
Now you can quickly create any document and rename them with single click.
Efficiency Performing Tasks
It makes sense to be efficient with tasks, but sometimes you may either lack technical knowledge or, perhaps, the application itself is slowing you down due to bugs or small subset of features.
All the Finder alternatives have some features to increase efficiency.
Folder and File Size
On Mac if you want to find details about the file size, you can right click and select Get Info. There are times when you may want to get information together as a single selection, such as the combined file/folder size.
With XtraFinder it is possible to get total sizes for file/folder selection.
Go to XtraFinder > Preferences, click the Features tab, check Show total size of selected items in Status Bar and Automatically calculate size.
Now select files one-by-one and you’ll notice the size information in the status bar.
XtraFinder makes it possible to get the combined file/folder size selection
Size Browser
By default, the Finder’s list view only shows you the size of individual files—not of folders.
If you wish to get the complete information about the size of folder then click View > as List, right click on an empty space and open up Show View Options and check Calculate all sizes.
This feature works well but if you want to get an overview about the size information then repeated clicks and checking the options will significantly impact efficiency.
PathFinder lets you browse items based on their size much quicker. Go to Windows > Size Browser and browse file/folders with their size information.
Size browser option in PathFinder tabulate and display results with a greater efficiency
Extra Window Functions
PathFinder has some additional window manipulation features not available in the regular Finder, all accessible from Window menu:
The Clone option duplicates the current file browser window with one click
The Float option allows you to set the focused window/module always on top
The Hides on Deactivate option sets the focused window/module to hide when switching from PathFinder to another application
View Hidden Files
On Mac, files with names that start with dot are hidden. But if you need them for reasons—to browse UNIX filesystem, to access .htaccess file for web development, for example, then you can do so with XtraFinder.
It lets you toggle the visibility of hidden files and folders with a single click.
Go to View > Show Hidden Items. Similarly in PathFinder go to View > Show Invisible Files.
The same can be done when you need to browse packages as folders—an application or iPhoto library—by toggling View > Show Package Contents.
Collect Files in Drop Stack
Finder is quite basic when it comes to organizational capabilities. You can either put all the files in a folder or tag them with a label, but as time passes you dump all the files to the desktop.
The desktop becomes a complete mess.
PathFinder has a useful feature called as Drop Stack. It is a circular, target icon located on the top-left section of PathFinder window. Within this stack, you can dump pile of files and folders which you wish to eventually copy or move to a new location.
Click on the Drop Stack and you’ll notice a drop-down menu with many functions. You can choose to compress the contents of the Drop Stack, email them to a friend, or burn them to a CD.
Drop Stack is a great way of collecting stuff that needs to go into one place without having to jump between folders and applications all the time.
Drop Stack is a temporary basket for temporary files and folders. 1. Drop Stack icon 2. Drop Stack drop-down menu
Bookmarks and Favorites
Having your favorites files and folders single click away is probably the best and simple way to become effective. PathFinder calls this bringing the web browser workflow to the desktop.
The bookmarks feature in PathFinder behaves like a file browser, letting you navigate the file or folder that you need to get access to quickly. To add your folder in bookmarks, drag the folder to the bookmarks bar.
Favorites behave very much like Finder’s Places feature but it also allows you to change the name of the label to any name you want.
In the screenshot below I’ve favourited my OneDrive folder and renamed the label to OneDrive Personal. Notice that the real OneDrive folder name remains unchanged.
If you’ve ever tried to do same with Finder, then it would affect the actual folder or files. This is extremely useful when you have folders or files with same name but stored in different locations.
With PathFinder you can use web browser type workflow feature to Finder. Notice the custom name of OneDrive folder in favorite section
Folder Compare and Sync
Assume that you have a huge collection of music on the Mac. It would be wonderful if you can replicate that same structure of music collection on the PC. But there are two problems:
You don’t know which album you should copy to the PC because there are hundreds of folders
Copying every single album over the network is slow and time consuming
PathFinder includes Folder Sync, a folder comparison and syncing engine to solve this type of tedious problem.
Go to View and select Dual Browser with any layout option of your choice. Once you are in Dual Pane mode, select one folder in each pane (note that the FolderSync menu item will not appear if you’ve selected more than two folders). The left pane will be the music collection folder on the Mac whilst the right pane will be the music collection folder on the PC.
From the main menu select Commands > FolderSync. A new window appears, where all folder comparison and synchronisation takes place. By default the operation starts in Compare mode, wherein it compares two folders and mark their differences.
Depending on folder size and structure this step can take a while. When showing folder differences, PathFinder uses different colors to mark items which are different. You can see what these colors mean if you click Colors… button. Here you can change default colors to your liking.
To start the synchronisation process, PathFinder already includes some predefined presets: Compare, Update Left, Update Right, Mirror to Left, Mirror to Right. Other than these presets, you’ll see an information on how may items will be updated, added or deleted.
Once you are satisfied with the preset selection click the Sync button.
Folder compare and Sync feature in PathFinder 1. Preset Options 2. Detailed information on comparison results 3. Left pane is the music collection folder on Mac 4. Right pane is the music collection folder on PC 5. Analysis results
Conclusion
Finder is the core part of a Mac and depending upon your usage it may or may not fit your needs. Indeed if certain aspects of Finder is bothering you, there are alternatives and in this tutorial I have covered the reasons for using third party applications and different benefits they may provide to you.
Finder is a vast application, there are many hidden and advanced features. It has not been possible to cover every aspect of Finder application in this tutorial. If you have any questions let me know in the comments below.
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