Path Finder - A feature-laden Finder replacement
Dec 06, '06 07:30:05AM
Contributed by: robg
The macosxhints Rating:

[Score: 9 out of 10]
One of the things I often complain about in OS X is the Finder. While the rest of the system reflects some truly revolutionary advancements in application design and user interface, I've always felt that the OS X Finder is pretty much the same as the OS 9 Finder ... which was pretty much the OS 8 Finder ... which was, well, you get the idea. Apart from a sidebar and a column view (hooray!), things are pretty much status quo with the Finder. While it's a capable file manager, I've often felt myself wishing for something better with more features.
Way back in March of 2002, I found SNAX, an advanced file manager that worked well as a replacement for the Finder. I liked it well enough then to select it as one of the very first Pick of the Week winners. However, SNAX wasn't perfect, and there were a number of things the Finder did better and/or faster. So over time, I migrated away from SNAX and back to the good old (with the emphasis on old) Finder. At some point, the SNAX name vanished and was replaced by Path Finder. While I didn't use it regularly, I kept an eye on its continuing development, as I felt it had great potential. In August, CocoaTech released Path Finder 4.5, and after some testing, I started using that version on a daily basis. Sometime after I got back from the Geek Cruise in November, I decided to go "cold turkey" and replaced the Finder with Path Finder (which is easy to do via a setting in Path Finder's preferences).
So why have I made the switch? I think I use Path Finder for the same reasons I use Butler: it's a powerful tool that packs a ton of useful features into one application. As with Butler, there's a bit of a learning curve due to the sheer breadth of features available. But I've found the curve isn't all that steep, and the benefits of the switch have outweighed the efforts required. Here are just a few of the Path Finder features I find most useful:
- Tabs and tab sets. Open new windows as tabs, and save a collection of tabs as a tab set. I have a work tab set, a gaming tab set, etc. Tabs can be rearranged by dragging, and you can choose between vertical and horizontal tabs.
- A powerful Spotlight-independent search tool (you can also use Spotlight directly from Path Finder).
- Get Info windows with tons of data, all of which can be set directly from the window
- A Preview panel for viewing text files, images, Word documents, PDFs, HTML, Shockwave, Flash movies, and more. The panel is resizable, letting you easily see into many documents without opening them.
- A folder history drawer makes it simple to return to a recently-visited folder.
- A drop stack. Think of this as a temporary storage spot for items in transit. Instead of having to drag-navigate-drop, just drop the items on the drop stack, then navigate to where you want them to go, then drag them off the drop stack. While this sounds like more work (and you can still do things the other way), I find it much easier to navigate without worrying about holding the mouse button down.
- Pop-open folders in the toolbar. The OS X Finder used to do this (drag an item over a folder in the toolbar, and it springs open to show a navigable menu of the folder's contents), but they took that feature away when they gave us the sidebar.
- A bookmarks bar for super-fast access to often-used files and folders.
- A built-in Terminal drawer for quick trips to the Unix side of OS X.
- Fully customizable contextual menus, pre-built with some very useful options. I particularly like the "compress and email" and "copy path" options.
- Easy navigation into application bundles; you can even opt to view bundles as normal folders, if you wish.
These are just a few of the features I really like about Path Finder; there are many others listed on Cocoatech's Path Finder 4 page and on the Path Finder change log page. As you can see, there are tons of features that go well beyond anything the Finder has to offer.
There are still some things that don't quite work as expected when using Path Finder as your Finder. Some apps, for instance, insist on launching the Finder after completing an operation, just to show you the file they've just created. (I've used this hint to make it easy to quit the Finder again when that happens.) And I've run into a couple installers for obscure apps that simply wouldn't launch in Path Finder, but worked fine in the Finder. I'm also having an issue with using some Transmit - Automator workflows I've set up as contextual menu entries, but I think I'll be able to fix that problem. But these are minor points in contrast to the incredible number of added features that I've come to rely on in Path Finder. If you find yourself often frustrated by the Finder's limited feature set, give Path Finder a trial run -- you may find the added features are well worth the $34.95 investment.
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