OT: OS X making things stick

[Ed_Hannigan@adobeforums.com]

Sorry. Still not working. Seems like such a simple basic thing.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

Ed,

I'm just beginning to wade through David Pogue's book, but I remember reading somewhere in there specifically that there was a setting you had to set to "Global" . I'll post again when I find it again.

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

I think that the setting that you are looking for is in Finder/Preferences.

Click on the desktop or on the Finder icon in the Dock and choose Preferences.
In the "General" tab, UNcheck "Open New Windows in Column View".

Actually, once you get used to it, you may find "Column View" to be much more useful.

[Ed_Hannigan@adobeforums.com]

Ann,

Done it. To no avail.

I have no problem with Column View. What I hate is the Icon view. And of course the utterly useless Relative Dates which also seems to be a default.

However I will recheck Column View because I can at least live with that over Icon View If it will stick.

Thanks.

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

I find the Date Modified column quite useful: You can click on the top of any column in List View and the Finder will then list by Name, Date or Size etc.

Clicking the clear lozenge at the RHS top corner of the window opens the Toolbar and you can add the View icons to it if they are not there already -- or you can just Cmd 1, 2, or 3 to get the View that you want.

[Ed_Hannigan@adobeforums.com]

It's not the date Modified column that bothers me, it's Relative Dates. Like Today, Yesterday, etc., instead of the actual date.

I know I can easily change these things but I don't want to have to do it over and over for each time I look at a window. They claim they can be set to stick, but they can't.

[Paul_Chernoff@adobeforums.com]

Is this on the local hard drive or on a network volume.

If on a network volume, on the directory owner can make a change to a folder's default characteristics.

--Paul

[Graham_Phillips@adobeforums.com]

When you say the settings don't stick, do you mean between successive openings of the folder, or between successive log ins? Have you checked your disk recently? It would be helpful if you were to post the exact steps you took that causes the window settings to be forgotten, otherwise we're just guessing.

Each volume on your desktop remembers its own settings, and so does your Home folder when you open it by clicking on the Finder icon with no other Finder windows open. Each icon overrides the global settings. You need to set each of those "primary" icons to "All windows" AND change them to list view. Then close the windows WITHOUT opening a child folder. The next time you open the primary icons you should see your preferred view.

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

Won't it stick if in Finder/View Options:
You UNcheck "Use Relative Dates" and check "All Windows"?

I think that you can only have one window open when you do this and you may have to then re-start to make it stick.

[Graham_Phillips@adobeforums.com]

No, it works on my computer without restarting anything or logging out. You can have many windows open at once but the View options palette shows the information for the frontmost window only. In this special case, any changes you make to the "All windows" settings will not affect the other windows, even if they are set to "All windows": you have to change them too.

There seems to be some confusion about what the View Options palette does. It does not change the type of view of any window, even the frontmost window. To change from Icon to List or Column view, you must use the tool bar buttons or the View menu. The View Options palette will then be repopulated according to the new view mode. Each folder remembers which of the three modes it is in, and whether the mode-specific settings are local to that folder only ("This window only") or part of the global set ("All windows").

When you change an option in the View Options palette, you are simply changing the settings for the current window. If the current window is set to "All windows" then all other folders which are also set to "All windows" will also be updated, but only for the same view mode.

If folder A is in Icon view, and set to "All windows", and folder B is in List view, and set to "All windows", then changing an option (e.g. arrange by date created) for folder A will not be immediately visible in folder B. You have to change folder B to Icon view. Similarly, a change to folder B (e.g. don't use relative dates) will not be visible in folder A until you change folder A to List view.

[Ed_Hannigan@adobeforums.com]

Okay. It seems kind of overly complicated but I think I can deal with that. I just wish I could set it in one place as a default and have it apply to all windows, except if I want to change one temporarily for any reason. As it is now I never know what view will pop up when I open a window, whether it's one that was open before or not.

This is not on a network volume, though I can understand why server windows might be set to other than what I want (they should follow my local rules though, ideally, when I am viewing them on my machine).

I'll just keep slogging along and hope it becomes clear sooner or later. But I swear, I never ever ever have Relative Dates chosen and I kill it whenever I see it, but it keeps coming up.

[Graham_Phillips@adobeforums.com]

Perhaps "use relative dates" gets reset whenever you install an update?

[Ed_Hannigan@adobeforums.com]

Hmm. I haven't installed any updates to my knowledge (only had OSX for about a week now). Who knows what the tech folks are doing.

I'll just sit tight for now,see what happens. Sometimes these things mysteriously work themselves out.

[Sylvain_Gingras@adobeforums.com]

Ed

The trick is when you CLOSE the View options window.

With all the settings at your liking, you have to close it with "All window" check.

[Ed_Hannigan@adobeforums.com]

Sylvain,

Of course I've done that.

Setting it to always open in Column View in Finder Prefs seems to be working. I can then switch to List if I want and I don't have to ever see Icon View. And this seems ot have mysteriously gotten rid of Relative Dates as well (fingers crossed).

But what Apple should do is have all the choices of view in that same dialog so you could set a default view of your choosing, globally and forget it. Then you could switch on a window-by-window basis if you want but any new window would always be in your default view. Ideally you could also choose to have a window go back to the default if you close and reopen, or not. It would only make sense.

So far I like OS X but there seems to be some sloppiness and things still not quite thought out.

[Just_A_Mac_Guy@adobeforums.com]

I never got it to stick either but a simple workaround is to build a new folder {I keep it tucked in a corner of my desktop} set all the variables I want and drag acopy into the appropriate directory as often as I need one. Of course this only works for new folders but it keeps them starting consistantly.

Since CMD-n in OSX opens a new window instead of creating a new folder like Pre-X systems, this is no more effort than using the File or finder menus.

Column view has its uses but I don't care for it. Icon view is useless if you have lots of files in a directory.

[Sylvain_Gingras@adobeforums.com]

I see what you mean Ed

From some experience;

From a folder that is just being open; if you;

1° place it on your desktop where it suit you,
2° resize it to your liking,
3° view it as list,
4° then closing it without doing anything else. It will stick to theses criteria.

[Sylvain_Gingras@adobeforums.com]

The down side is that you have to do that for each folder.

[Welles_Goodrich@adobeforums.com]

Ed,

Here is the most comprehensive info I've ever encountered about how Finder Views work. It was written for OS 10.2.x but is still viable, I believe.

<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030305025744788&query=Finder+V iews>

[Ed_Hannigan@adobeforums.com]

Yikes! Well I'll try to make some sense of that after the weekend. Sure is complicated. One thing jumped out at me:

"the bizarre complexity of window states isn't Mac-like; it's more like something that came from the Beast of Redmond"

I have to tell you that window views are so easy to set and keep in Windows that it puts Apple to shame. Role reversal?