Sep 15, '09 07:30:05AM • Contributed by: astack
In OS 10.0-10.2, there was no sidebar in Finder windows and commonly-used locations were chosen by clicking on an icon in the toolbar. When Apple added the sidebar in 10.3, they changed the functionality of both the sidebar and the toolbar so that it 'roots' you to whatever location you picked while in column view, i.e. removes the horizontal scroll bar so that you can't access lower-level directories.
There were only two ways around this: double-clicking command-up arrow, or using this hint. In Snow Leopard, the functionality of column view has changed again. Now, when you have the sidebar visible, it still roots you to that spot. However, if you have the sidebar disabled (View » Hide Sidebar), clicking on an icon in the toolbar still gives you access to the entire file hierarchy with a horizontal scroll bar!
It's great; Apple finally let us reclaim all that unused space in the toolbar and gave us the ability to get rid of the sidebar by default (which is not an efficient use of space). It's a little buggy though, in that if you are previously rooted, you stay that way until you click on a lower level directory.
Incidentally, I'm typing this on the 13" MacBook Air, having previously had a 15" MacBook Pro and let me tell you, having the extra screen real estate without that sidebar there is great.
