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New Path Finder Beats Leopard With New Features.
The upcoming OS X Leopard improves the Finder and adds more features, but still isn’t as feature rich as Path Finder, which is available now. The Finder is the file browser on your Mac and sits on top of the desktop. It’s that handy utility that lets you find what you need on your Mac. Files. Any kind of files. Granted, the Mac’s Finder is easier to use and more intuitive than anything in the Linux world, and more so that Explorer in Windows Vista. Still, the shortcomings of the venerable Finder persist. Is it any wonder that the Mac’s Finder has spawned so many utilities that help it do the job it should do in the first place? John Siracusa of ArsTechnica called it the “most widely used piece of abandonware on the Mac.” Drag a large number of Mac files from one place to another, then grab the towel and suntan lotion because the beach ball hits the screen marking the beginning of summer. Mister Robinson’s neighborhood could do a whole episode on the Finder’s speed. Or, lack of.
Grid spacing. View options. All windows settings. Oh, yes. Window settings. How come the Finder can’t remember anything? See? It’s a healthy list. Fortunately, there are alternatives. OS X Leopard promises a few extra goodies, but it’s still the same old Finder. Enter CocoaTech’s latest Path Finder, ready for OS X Leopard, and sporting more features than any Finder, file browser, anywhere. Programmers are often proud of their code, and the CocoaTech folks talk about all the code they use in Path Finder. Forget about that. It’s geek talking. Mac users care about functionality, ease-of-use, unobtrusive features, and speed, speed, speed. Did I mention dependability? See? I’m not talking about the Mac’s Finder, I’m talking about Path Finder. The Path Finder interface is Leopard ready. Think of UNO on your Mac, and that’s what you get in the Path Finder look and feel. And tabs. How could I forget tabs. If you like the tabs in Safari you’ll like the tabs in Path Finder. Tabs in a Finder-like application means you have more ways to get to files, faster, easier. One complaint I have with the Mac’s Finder is icon sizing. Except for the desktop, what Finder gives you is what you get. Path Finder has an icon sizing slider to make what is small, big. Does your Mac’s browser have bookmarks? Of course. Safari, Firefox, Camino, Netscape, or whatever. Bookmarks are handy and universal. Path Finder has bookmarks for various folders, locations on your Mac’s file structure. And, there’s a View Options feature that actually works, remembers settings, and has a bunch of ways to view this or that. Spotlight? Yes, I use Spotlight. But not in the Finder. Spotlight works just as well in Path Finder except there are extra filter tools to find files in different ways.
I truly hope Apple is paying attention to Mac developers, because the geeks at CocoaTech listen to users and implement those features most requested. For example, taking file selection. How do you select a file in the Finder. Click. Or, click and drag. That’s it, folks. In Path Finder you’re given options for file selection-- all graphic files, all Word documents, or select by file modification date, and so on. One thing I don’t like but I suppose is handy for some Mac users is the integration of Allume’s Stuffit engine. Stuffit no longer ships with Mac OS X, even though it’s a free download for the expander from Allume. I don’t care for Stuffit and use the built-in Archive feature in OS X instead. It’s not that one is better than the other. I seldom see a Stuffit file these days, so why have two applications that do the same thing? Another issue with the Mac’s Finder is speed. Or lack of. Sometimes you’ll make a change to a file, such as renaming, and it takes the Finder awhile to figure out what you did, then make the change (especially true in sorting files alphabetically). Path Finder is faster. And faster at copying files, too. YMMV depending on your Mac. Other little touches are handy and thoughtful, showing how much negligence Apple has placed into the Mac’s Finder in recent years. Path Finder’s progress window is better, and has more detail. There’s a built-in Console window. Even create Disk Images right from Path Finder. We love the Mac. I have a degree of Fondness for the Finder™ but get so frustrated by the shortcomings, lack of features, bugs, of Apple’s prized orphanware, that I’ve collected a dozen utilities to enhance the Finder. Path Finder makes using a finder fun again. As always, download and try it out for free from CocoaTech. Got a beef with the Finder? Got a beef with my beef of the Finder? Talk Back to Mac360 in the Comments section below. • Article by Wil Gomez • Published on Tuesday, October 2, 2007
• Category: Reviews • 3 Reader comment(s) • Email This • Digg This • Shop Now
« Previously How Many Apps Are Open On Your Mac Right Now?
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Talk Back to Kate, Ron & the Mac360 staff MacNewBie says:
Hi, Mac, Pathfinder is better, I agree. I’ve been using Windows PCs heavily for the last 10 years, and a mac pro for about 8 months. I find the comments about windows explorer rather strange. The mac finder is about as brain-dead as possible, it’s not “intuitive”, not “easy to use” (unless you do only what it can do, which is very little), not “elegant”, or any other positive attribute. It’s just flat-out stupid. I can do things with windows explorer that the finder can’t even dream about, and do them ten times faster than the finder can ever hope to. Path Finder was one of my first purchases after the mac, I tried a few others but they are limited. Path finder is a hundred times better than finder, but it’s still not explorer. Copying, moving, renaming, organizing, ordering files and folders are all so much faster and more accurate (i.e., you are less likely to make mistakes in explorer, and when you do, you can usually recover with a click or 2) in windows explorer. Windows has it’s problems, it is a very sad state of affairs that this 2-bit piece of virus-bait crap was allowed to gain an almost monopoly in a critical market (stupid judges), so I’m not against bashing windows. I do, however, think the bashers should at least know what they are talking about. Anyone who really knows how to use windows explorer would know that explorer beats path finder by a mile, and beats finder by about a thousand miles. It’s about like a race from New York to LA, between a jet plane and a 1935 Ford Model T. To even call it a contest is laughable. Ya, the Model T is “elegant”, maybe even “intuitive.” But it aint going to win the race............... — Posted on Tue Nov 20 at 10:58 pm by MacNewBie
Ditto says:
Same here. I’d tried it in the past but found I would float back to the Finder after a few days. This new version is the best yet. Goodbye Finder, hello fun. I even set it up so that it quits the Finder right after launch. The Finder is gone and I don’t miss it at all. Tabs and Column View is wonderful. — Posted on Sat Oct 06 at 12:45 pm by Ditto
MrSin says:
Wil, great article and thank you for it. The only downside to your article is it cost me money ($34.95) :(. I had looked at Path Finder in the past and thought it showed promise. This latest release (4.8.0) is, in a word, sweet! So much so, that after a day of “testing,” I bought a license! If only Apple’s Finder were more Path Finder like, and while I’m on the subject, if only Apple’s Mail were more “IncrediMail” like. I know, patience grasshopper — Posted on Sat Oct 06 at 9:26 am by MrSin
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