OS X File Organization

I've been a long time PC user and am encountering some frustrations with how OS X lists files.

When I try to open, say an Excel file and indicate I only want to open Excel files, why does it show all file types with the Excel files only highlighted? That then means I have to scroll down through every file in the folder to find the specific Excel file I want - I don't want to see all of the files in the folder, only the Excel files.

Worse, I don't see any way to sort only the Excel files by date.

In Windows, when I select "Open" in Excel, it only lists Excel files and provides the capability to sort the Excel files by date, size, etc. Also, you can preview any Office file prior to opening it, which allows you to see the actual file.

This is very frustrating.

Am I going about this the wrong way?

You need to tell us more about how you're going about opening or viewing the Excel files.

Are you using Microsoft Office to open the Excel files or are you trying to open them from the Finder? Because when in Excel, if you press File Open from the menu it will only list Excel files.

If you're viewing files from the Finder, all you need to do is select the file and press your spacebar to preview it.

I'm working in Excel.

When I select "File - Open" in Excel, it lists all of the files in the folder, not just the Excel files even though I select "All Excel Files" from the Excel dialog box. The non-Excel files are grayed out. However, I still have to scroll through every file in the folder to find the specific file I am looking for.

On the PC, when I select "File - Open" in Excel, it only displays Excel files and then allows me to sort the Excel files in that folder by name, date, size, etc.

I have my folders set up by project, so they include all types of files that relate to that specific project, pdf, illustrator, photoshop, word, etc.

As for "Previewing" the files, on the PC you actually see a preview of every Excel file rather than having to highlight the files and then press the spacebar to see what's in that file to determine if it is the one you are looking for. (I didn't know about pressing the spacebar to get a preview, so that is helpful.)

Same for Word, etc. Similar to photos, when you select Icon view in Finder. You see every document as they appear when opened in Excel or Word.

Of course you could put your excel files into their own folder, ditto word files etc...

Just change the view to list and sort by kind. That should do it.

You can view your files in icon view in the Open dialog; click the first of the three view tabs in the upper-left corner of the dialog box. (The one that looks like squares.)

Or you could just switch to the Finder, instead of using the Open dialog. The Open dialog is meant to be a quick way to get to your files if you already know what it is that you want to open.