A Neater, Cleaner Finder

Mac OS 10.3.x, also referred to as "Panther," provides an automatic solution to keep your Finder clean and neat.

In prior versions of the Mac OS, versions 8.x and 9.x for example, it was common to place icons on the desktop in the Finder. Although you can still place icons on the Finder Desktop, Apple provides a number of efficient ways to access items, within each Finder Window, where you can customize the look for individual folders: Icon, List or Directory views.

Panther has preserved this and many of the earlier View options. Within Icon view selected, the "Keep arranged" option is still available in the "View" menu under "View Options...". This allows you to arrange the items on a window by window basis according to several different criteria. Also under View, selecting "Show View Options..." allows you to specify how to automatically arrange your icons, including the "Always snap to grid" and resizing icons.

Another tip for Finder cleanliness is the handy left-side shelf within each Finder Window. Drag any folder or file icon from your Finder Window to the shelf for quick access to place an alias within. A good idea is to create folders containing aliases of your most often used applications or templates, dragging the folder icon containing the aliases into the shelf. You can manually order the folder icons as you wish, dragging them up or down, releasing the mouse to place each folder alias icon in the new position within the shelf.

As a final note, one can appreciate the benefits of accessing any hard drive or CD-ROM from within each Finder Window, as they also appear in the left-side shelf area.

< more on our approach