MacBook Finder what it does and how to use it

The Finder

The Finder does exactly what its name suggests: it helps you search through the contents of your computer and find what you are looking for. By using the Finder, you can navigate the contents of your hard drive or removable storage devices to find files or applications.

The easiest way to access the Finder is by clicking the jolly, smiling fellow on the left side of the Dock. If you have opened other applications since using Finder, you should click on your desktop to activate the application again. If you click the Happy Mac icon, as it is called, when a Finder window is already open, it will bring it to the front of all the other open windows.

This is an easy way to get back to the Finder when you have a lot of windows open at once. Yet another way to access the Finder is to click the File menu when Finder is activated and select New Finder Window.

In the Finder window, you'll notice red, yellow, and green buttons in the upperleft corner of the screen. The actions prompted by clicking these buttons are somewhat similar to the actions prescribed by the corresponding colors of a stoplight. Clicking the red button stops what you are doing; that is, it closes the window completely.

Clicking the yellow button minimizes the window, allowing you to slow down (pause, actually) what you were doing. You can click its icon on the Dock to reopen it. Clicking the green button gives you full access by opening the window completely. It's the green light to go back to work! You can also double-click the title bar of a window to minimize it.

Finder Elements

While the Finder is one element of the MacBook's GUI, the Finder also has multiple elements of its own. Some of these elements can be customized, but the default layout contains the following six areas:

Toolbar The toolbar runs along the top of the Finder window and is where you find options to change how you view the contents of the Finder.
Search field You can type keywords into the search field to search for files and applications on your whole computer or just in specific locations.
Sidebar The sidebar helps you navigate your computer by giving you access to your hard drive, folders, and network locations.
Results window The contents of a specific folder or the results from your search will appear in the Results window of the Finder.
Status bar You can see how many items are contained in a folder and how much space is available on your hard drive in the Status bar.
Slider Change the size of the icons in the Results window with the slider when in Icon view.

How to Change Your View

By now, you know that windows display the contents of your computer. But did you know that you can change how those contents are displayed? Well, you can. When you search or click a location in the sidebar, the results are displayed in a window as icons. This might be the way you prefer to see your results, in which case you don't need to change it.

However, if you open a folder or location that contains many files, using icons will take up a lot of desktop space, so it might not be the best way to go. Four total views are available, so you can opt for one of the other three that best suits your results. Change your view by clicking the corresponding button on the toolbar. These four views are

Icon view This is the default view for your windows. Your results will appear as a series of icons that can be rearranged or resized.
List view In List view, your results appear in the window as an ordered list. You can click the different columns to reorder your list as you see fit. The default is alphabetically ascending order, but if you click where it says Name in the column header, you can change it to descending order. You can also click the Date Modified header to sort your results by date.
Column view When using Column view, each time you click a drive or folder in the rightmost column, a new column will appear to its right to display the contents. As you move through a file tree, more columns will appear to show more results. If you click on a file instead of a location, a preview of that file will appear in the final column.
Cover Flow Cover Flow shows your results as a series of large icons that you can scroll through using a slider. Cover Flow is a good choice if you need to browse folders whose contents you are unsure of, as the contents will be easier to see. Otherwise, it's really only good for its "fun factor." It might not be the most efficient way to view results and utilize your space, but it is certainly the coolest.

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