10.5: Change folder sort order in the Finder's Kind view

Apr 23, '09 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: robg

Note: This hint was lost when the site was hacked on April 23rd. I've reposted it, and the comment thread, as best as I could. --robg

In the Finder's list view, if you sort by Kind, folders are lumped together in the middle of the list. If you'd rather see all the folders at the beginning of the list, here's how to change the sort order. In the Finder, navigate to /System » Library » CoreServices » Finder.app » Contents » Resources » English.lproj (or the folder for your language). In that folder, open the InfoPlist.strings file in a pure text editor. Inside the file, find this section and entry:

/* General kind strings */
"Folder" = "Folder";
Leave the first line alone, but change the second to read:
"Folder" = " Folder";
Note that I have added only a single space before Folder. Save the file after making the change, and then restart OS X. To test your change, open a Finder window and view by Kind (either via View » Show View Options, or by pressing Command-2, then clicking on the Kind column header).

robg cautions: As noted in the comments, this hint will break OS X 10.5's code signing for the Finder. In theory, this will have some bad consequences, as you'll no longer be able to access the keychain when using the Finder. Proceed at your own risk; if you undo the edit, at least based on my testing, things will return to normal (code signing checks will pass).

[robg adds: This is an update to this much older hint, which required modifying a system-wide framework. Note that restarting isn't required; just restart the Finder via Terminal, Activity Monitor, or Option-click-and-hold its Dock icon.

If you want folders at the end of the list, instead of the beginning, you'll have to use one of a few special characters: I also did a bit of experimenting with the Edit » Special Characters palette. Most any Greek letter (European Scripts » Greek in the All Character view) will force a name to the end of the list, as will some Cyrillic characters. But that's about it; pretty much everything else I tested forced the names to the front of the list.]

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