PathFinder - Finder how it should be

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Soldato
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27 Jun 2006
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Just discovered this and thought it may be of interest to some people on here.

It's basically Finder on steroids and looks very well thought-out.

It has a free 30-day trial so no need to go out and make a purchase right away.

Anyone use it or tried it? Will probably download the trial in a bit and see if it's up to scratch.
 
That looks brilliant and i can think of loads of times i would use the features, $40 though, stuff that.

I just dont understand why companies like that price things too high, at $10 they would sell 100x more software :)
 
Someone else described this to me exactly the same way "Finder on steroids". Has it been talked about and called this in a podcast recently?
 
I accidentally found it when I was looking up the terminal code to show and hide invisible files in OS X. (something that PathFinder can do with a quick menu bar choice)

The 'on steroids' bit is just what I saw it as, given how basic Finder is. :)
 
I have to say, it does stuff the way you often wonder how Apple developers could possibly miss it in a process of creating finder - like an option of grouping stuff by date but leaving folders in separate group on top or switching to cover flow but still having option of switching list of files below between icons, list and column. And, uh oh - CUT for files. Omg, it's like browsing your files on mac makes sense again.

Then you look at the price and... someone please call straight jacket people.
 
It's one of those apps that looks really nice, but as has been said above why on earth would you pay $40 for it?
 
v0n said:
I have to say, it does stuff the way you often wonder how Apple developers could possibly miss it in a process of creating finder - like an option of grouping stuff by date but leaving folders in separate group on top
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It's worse than that. It considers "Folder" to be a file type. So if you like to view your files sorted by type (one of the more logical ways) then nested folders get shoved in to the F position in amongst an A-Z listing of how ever many files you have!

True facepalm material.

About the only thing Finder has on Windows Explorer is that it isn't hell-bent on guessing what kind of folder you're in and activating some horrible custom view on a per-folder basis.
 
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My mate uses this, and now anytime he gets a new Mac or reinstalls the OS, installing this program is the first thing he does. He also says its well worth the money.
 
What's wrong with Finder? :confused:

Serious question .

:EDIT: OK so PathFinder looks ace but does it break when you upgrade OS X. I.e. 10.6 will it work? I know some programs caused serious issues when people went to 10.5
 
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LordSplodge said:
What's wrong with Finder? :confused:

Serious question .

:EDIT: OK so PathFinder looks ace but does it break when you upgrade OS X. I.e. 10.6 will it work? I know some programs caused serious issues when people went to 10.5
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I haven't been a Mac user for very long and I must admit I do struggle with Finder and have found it quite limiting compared to Windows Explorer. It might just be that I need to learn new methods but there have been several times where I have wanted to perform a simple task and I have stuggled.

I am tempted to buy but I am also concerned how it will work when 10.6 is out?
 
Fillado said:
It's one of those apps that looks really nice, but as has been said above why on earth would you pay $40 for it?
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Because someone has gone to the trouble of putting their time and resources into building it. This is not an apple product, I believe it has been developed by one person, and you know I think he might want to make a living from his efforts.

With regards to 10.6 breaking software, paid software usually sorts itself out prretty quickly as the developers can afford to spend time on testing for compatibility etc. Also the nature of the 10.6 upgrade should mean that most software will be unlikely to break.
 
nav... said:
Because someone has gone to the trouble of putting their time and resources into building it. This is not an apple product, I believe it has been developed by one person, and you know I think he might want to make a living from his efforts.
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So development costs are extremely low then.........
 
mark66 said:
I haven't been a Mac user for very long...
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I've been a Apple user since the Mac Classic and I don't see what the issue with Finder is. Sure PathFinder has all those cool features but how often do you use them on a daily basis.

I copy, move, rename, delete and search with Finder and have never really thought "I wish Finder did this..."

I certainly find Finder (lol :D ) a better experience than Windows Explorer especially the one with Vista.

Then again on both platforms if I need to do anything complex I hit the command line (Terminal and PowerShell respectively)
 
So the fact that Finder doesn't have "move", "cut", sort by real modified date, not after it put .DS_Store folder everywhere and screwed up dates on all folders, list by name, but with folders separated from files and inability to choose fields like "list by owner/creator/user" on large and network volumes doesn't bother you at all?
There is one more stupid thing in Finder. Delete your files from USB stick, forget to empty thrash can, go to work and you're screwed - because Finder doesn't move them, but hides them your pen is almost empty, but with 0 space available on it, unless you can go back to your mac to empty that can, it's either format or a lot of swearing.
 
It cannae merge folders either. Drag over a folder with the same name as an existing one and the only choice is to delete the contents of the existing one.

I don't hate it though. Quick Look is nice, and Vista Explorer's guess-at-a-custom-view shenanigans genuinely enrage me so I'm glad when I'm clear of that.
 
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v0n said:
Stuff about Finders quirks.
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Apart from the .DS stuff when on Windows I cannot say I have hit any of those problems. I thought the lack of "cut" was amusing but not a real issue (I have got used to copy & delete) as I have been using OS X since 10.0 (and that had a few more issues than a lack of cut!)

The memory stick issue sounds both daft and very annoying. Thankfully I always empty the Trash straight away (Time Machine on a NAS for the win)

I may give PathFinder a try and seeing as I always do a nuke install If it doesn't work on 10.6 then it won't be an issue although I have issues with installing anything that gets it's claws too deep into OS X!
 
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