4 ms·

Things that are hard: launching a terminal at a location, viewing or copying a files path, navigating a deep file system, column width in the column view, searc

Things that are hard: launching a terminal at a location, viewing or copying a files path, navigating a deep file system, column width in the column view, searching for files, finding file info, and lots of other.

spinningarrow 2y ago
> launching a terminal at a location A workaround for this (especially if you have a terminal always open) is to drag the file/folder you want to operate on into an open terminal window, which will paste in its path.
- setopt 2y ago
  This is what I do as well. Note that nearly every MacOS app shows a file or folder icon in its title bar if you hover the mouse over it – this icon can be dragged into a terminal to open the current file or folder there. Also useful if I e.g. want to grep something in a currently open text file in the terminal, or something like that. (There is a system setting to always show this in the title bar without hovering, which was the old default behavior before Big Sur if I recall correctly. I’m a bit annoyed that it’s now hidden away by default.)
- WillAdams 2y ago
  Also, remember the commands pbcopy and pbpaste which along with pipes allow one to do a myriad of tasks.
johncoltrane 2y ago
> launching a terminal at a location Right-click on directory > Services > New Terminal at Folder. > viewing or copying a files path Right-click on directory or file and press Option > Copy "<filename>" as path name. > navigating a deep file system Not sure what you mean. > column width in the column view Option + click & Drag. Or do you want them to adjust to files/folders name length? > searching for files What's wrong with Command + F? > finding file info Do you want more than what is shown by Command + I or in the "details" column?
- matthew-wegner 2y ago
  > Right-click on directory > Services > New Terminal at Folder. Note that you can also bind a hotkey to this! And in general in macOS, you can a bind to a hotkey to any menu item in any application. Search "keyboard shortcuts" in settings, then under Services -> Files and Folders.
  - kernel-panics 2y ago
    To add to this: cdf: aliased to cd "$(pfd)" Doesn't really open a new Terminal, but usually, that's not what I want to happen anyway.
    - evanb 2y ago
      pfd is not standard and is doing all the work---what is it?
  - kmt-lnh 2y ago
    except Excel's ribbon menu items. As far as I know there's no method to hotkey those like ALT+[<letter>] on windows. Same for Outlook's categorize email function.
    - johncoltrane 2y ago
      Those are not "menu items" as generally understood in macOS.
    - nicwolff 2y ago
      That's because Microsoft has never used Apple's SDKs for their window widgets...
- kccqzy 2y ago
  In the column view, adjusting to the file/folder name length is easy. Just double click on the column divider.
  - 2y ago
traceroute66 2y ago
> searching for files Erm, what ? I use Mac, Windows, Linux and BSD daily. Of all four, searching for files on a Mac is a dream. Apple Spotlight is and always has been lightyears ahead of whatever garbage Microsoft use on Windows. And don't get me started on the inconvenience of searching for files on Linux or BSD, I mean, for starters you have to download a non-default tool like `fd` if you want to search at any reasonable speed.
- eviks 2y ago
  This just tells me you've never used they only file search dream - Everything search, unfortunately Windows only. Spotlight has never come close to that
  - KineticLensman 2y ago
    > Everything I was going to say Everything was awesome as a file searcher except for its non-easily searchable name. But when I checked in a raw Edge instance it was in fact the first result. Ho hum. It's produced by Voidtools in case YMMV: https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/ https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/
- rubslopes 2y ago
  I agree with OP, searching for files is awful. Many times it doesn't find a file I know it is inside a subdirectory of where I am right now. Things got much better when I moved from Spotlight to Raycast.
- setopt 2y ago
  > Apple Spotlight is and always has been lightyears ahead of whatever garbage Microsoft use on Windows. I certainly agree on that, and I also find it more convenient than the desktop search options I’ve tried on Linux (there I usually drop to the command line to search). But despite really wanting to like Spotlight, e.g. its integration with Apple Mail with email previews is great, I find it unusable for heavy work. I’ve tried customizing it to disable lots of search backends that I don’t need, but still for reasons I don’t understand, it sometimes takes 5+ seconds to process my search results before showing anything, and even the average search often takes a second and is not well-sorted. In comparison, Alfred is always instant at searching on my computer, and I really prefer how you can explicitly tell it what you are searching for (e.g. `'filename`, `in file contents`, `=math`, etc.) whereas Spotlight tries to guess this and often guesses wrong. It’s also easier to customize if you want to integrate e.g. specific web searches in it. I’ve tried Raycast since lots of people praise it, but I still find Alfred to have a nicer and more responsive interface, but perhaps it’s just what I’m used to.
kps 2y ago
At least it has a column view.

spinningarrow 2y ago

> launching a terminal at a location A workaround for this (especially if you have a terminal always open) is to drag the file/folder you want to operate on into an open terminal window, which will paste in its path.

setopt 2y ago
This is what I do as well. Note that nearly every MacOS app shows a file or folder icon in its title bar if you hover the mouse over it – this icon can be dragged into a terminal to open the current file or folder there. Also useful if I e.g. want to grep something in a currently open text file in the terminal, or something like that. (There is a system setting to always show this in the title bar without hovering, which was the old default behavior before Big Sur if I recall correctly. I’m a bit annoyed that it’s now hidden away by default.)
WillAdams 2y ago
Also, remember the commands pbcopy and pbpaste which along with pipes allow one to do a myriad of tasks.

johncoltrane 2y ago

> launching a terminal at a location Right-click on directory > Services > New Terminal at Folder. > viewing or copying a files path Right-click on directory or file and press Option > Copy "<filename>" as path name. > navigating a deep file system Not sure what you mean. > column width in the column view Option + click & Drag. Or do you want them to adjust to files/folders name length? > searching for files What's wrong with Command + F? > finding file info Do you want more than what is shown by Command + I or in the "details" column?

matthew-wegner 2y ago
> Right-click on directory > Services > New Terminal at Folder. Note that you can also bind a hotkey to this! And in general in macOS, you can a bind to a hotkey to any menu item in any application. Search "keyboard shortcuts" in settings, then under Services -> Files and Folders.
- kernel-panics 2y ago
  To add to this: cdf: aliased to cd "$(pfd)" Doesn't really open a new Terminal, but usually, that's not what I want to happen anyway.
  - evanb 2y ago
    pfd is not standard and is doing all the work---what is it?
- kmt-lnh 2y ago
  except Excel's ribbon menu items. As far as I know there's no method to hotkey those like ALT+[<letter>] on windows. Same for Outlook's categorize email function.
  - johncoltrane 2y ago
    Those are not "menu items" as generally understood in macOS.
  - nicwolff 2y ago
    That's because Microsoft has never used Apple's SDKs for their window widgets...
kccqzy 2y ago
In the column view, adjusting to the file/folder name length is easy. Just double click on the column divider.
- 2y ago

traceroute66 2y ago

> searching for files Erm, what ? I use Mac, Windows, Linux and BSD daily. Of all four, searching for files on a Mac is a dream. Apple Spotlight is and always has been lightyears ahead of whatever garbage Microsoft use on Windows. And don't get me started on the inconvenience of searching for files on Linux or BSD, I mean, for starters you have to download a non-default tool like `fd` if you want to search at any reasonable speed.

eviks 2y ago
This just tells me you've never used they only file search dream - Everything search, unfortunately Windows only. Spotlight has never come close to that
- KineticLensman 2y ago
  > Everything I was going to say Everything was awesome as a file searcher except for its non-easily searchable name. But when I checked in a raw Edge instance it was in fact the first result. Ho hum. It's produced by Voidtools in case YMMV: https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/ https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/
rubslopes 2y ago
I agree with OP, searching for files is awful. Many times it doesn't find a file I know it is inside a subdirectory of where I am right now. Things got much better when I moved from Spotlight to Raycast.
setopt 2y ago
> Apple Spotlight is and always has been lightyears ahead of whatever garbage Microsoft use on Windows. I certainly agree on that, and I also find it more convenient than the desktop search options I’ve tried on Linux (there I usually drop to the command line to search). But despite really wanting to like Spotlight, e.g. its integration with Apple Mail with email previews is great, I find it unusable for heavy work. I’ve tried customizing it to disable lots of search backends that I don’t need, but still for reasons I don’t understand, it sometimes takes 5+ seconds to process my search results before showing anything, and even the average search often takes a second and is not well-sorted. In comparison, Alfred is always instant at searching on my computer, and I really prefer how you can explicitly tell it what you are searching for (e.g. `'filename`, `in file contents`, `=math`, etc.) whereas Spotlight tries to guess this and often guesses wrong. It’s also easier to customize if you want to integrate e.g. specific web searches in it. I’ve tried Raycast since lots of people praise it, but I still find Alfred to have a nicer and more responsive interface, but perhaps it’s just what I’m used to.

kps 2y ago

At least it has a column view.