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Rate Everything
Adding Comments to a Folder
The Favorites Sidebar
Keyboarding Tips
The Titlebar Icon

Rate Everything

If you like and use the ratings feature of iTunes, here is a crude way to do the same thing with any type of file, so long as you're not already using the Comments feature of finder...

Let's say you want to rate the files in your Applications folder. If you select a file and then press Command I you can add comments about the file; now, if you type Option-Shift-k in the comments field you produce a nice Apple logo. Add more logos depending on how much you like the app.

If you display the finder window in List View (Command-2) and have the view options set to include Comments then a Comments column will be shown, displaying the Apple logos—click on the column heading to list the files according to your ratings.

Below is a script to help you add the same comment to many files. To use it you copy the text below and open Script Editor and paste it into the new window. Then you compile and save the script as an executable file. Drop the file into the dock. Now you can select several files at once and drop them on the script in the dock to apply the same comment to all of them.

on open (itemList)
display dialog "Set this comment for all selected files:" default answer ""
set the comment_string to the text returned of the result
repeat with eachOne in itemList
tell application "Finder"
set the comment of eachOne to comment_string
end tell
end repeat
end open

Apologies for the lack of attribution to the original author of this script. I have a hazy recollection of copying it from a David Pogue Panther Tips article...

Adding Comments to a Folder

In a folder you may have files that are related to an ongoing project. To remind yourself of where you are in the project you can set up the folder to show you a message every time you open it.

To activate this feature you Control-Click (or right-click) on a folder and choose Attach a Folder Action from the menu. From the resulting choices shown, choose the "open-show comments in dialog" script.

Now, when you open the folder's Info Box (Command-I) and enter some text into the Comments field...

A message containing that text will pop up whenever you open the folder...

While this message is open you can choose to open the comments for editing, or clear the comments. If you clear the comments the pop up won't appear again until you add some new comments.

The Favorites Sidebar

The left hand column, or Sidebar, in the Finder is where your favorite folders are shown. This sidebar is always visible when you're looking at a Finder window with the toolbar showing. If you find you're constantly looking at a particular folder, drag its icon into that area for an alias to the folder to appear there.

To remove an alias, just drag the icon out of the sidebar and let go. Now you can switch between folders by clicking on the favorites, and move or copy files by simply dropping them on the favorites.

You can also make applications into favorites. This is handy when you're opening a file in an app that's not the default association. Applications can also be dropped onto the toolbar area to become new buttons (thanks to Lutsen Jansen for this tip).

Another handy feature of the favorites sidebar: If you have spring-loaded folders turned on via the Finder Preferences and you drag a file from the desktop and hold it over the hard drive icon then the Finder window opens for you to drop the file. If you drop it on any of the folders in the right-hand panel then the Finder window remains open; if you drop it on a favorite folder in the sidebar then the Finder window immediately snaps shut.

Keyboarding Tips

The first thing you want to do in order to stay on the keyboard when navigating around windows and dialogs:
Open the Keyboard & Mouse preferences pane and turn on full keyboard access. The most obvious effect that this has, is to highlight more than one option in dialog boxes.

In the example below, Save is fully lit so hitting Enter will cause the save. Don't Save is lit around its edge so hitting Space will not save. The Cancel option is always available by hitting Escape.

If the full keyboard access was turned off then only the Save button would be lit.

When using a dialog such as Open or Save, Tab or Shift-Tab steps forward or backward through the options; to toggle between lists (such as between the favorites sidebar and the file pane) first Tab to one of them and then hit Control-F7, then Tab between the two.

To step through Headers in a dialog (as seen below) first Tab to the lit Header and then use the left and right arrow keys.

Getting back to the Keyboard & Mouse preferences pane:

You'll see a list of really handy shortcuts that are pretty self-explanatory. If you find you're using an app that has a menu-bar item with no keyboard shortcut, and you'd like to add one, you can do so by clicking the Plus sign below the shortcuts window; be sure to enter the exact Menu Title.

You will need to re-boot for the new shortcut to take effect.

The Titlebar Icon

That's the icon you see in the titlebar of a document that has been saved. If you grab a hold of that icon you can drag off a copy of it and drop it on other locations. If you drop it on the Desktop then a copy of that file will appear on the Desktop.

Sometimes an alias of the file (indicated by an arrow) will be dropped instead, as in the case of an HTML file; this is so that the original file is still properly linked to any other files.

To force an alias you need to hold down the Shift key while dragging. To force a copy, hold down the Control key.

Getting back to the icon, if you hold the Command key while clicking on it, you'll see a list showing the location of the file; releasing on any of the folders on that list will open a new Finder window showing that folder.

You can also drop the icon on apps in the Dock. If you hover over an app, and it's name pops up, that means it will accept the file and process it in some way; in the case of Mail: It will open a new message with the file attached, ready for sending.