From Windows Explorer to the Finder...

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So after an 8 year hiatus with Windows I've back with Mac for now. And I'm generally excited. However there are a few transitions I'm still uneasy about, one of the main ones being switching from using windows explorer to the mac finder. For better or worse, I'm pretty obsessive compulsive about organizing files, and I'm very used to seeing a hierarchical tree of files on the left of the split explorer screen, and the contents of whatever is selected on the left displayed on the right (including details like size, last edited, etc.). This is very useful for moving files between folders / drives / partitions, etc. As far as I can tell, the mac finder's "columns" view isn't as pleasing as what I'm used to, although maybe I'll get used to it. Is there something I'm missing, or maybe some other great 3rd party app. available?

My other concern is similar actually. I'm also pretty used to the way I can view and tag my music in the wonderful and free Mediamonkey for windows, which is similar to explorer in that it offers the split double view of your files. Itunes is pretty, but I find it lacking when I want to view folder views (mirroring the actually organization I have used on the discs, which is not completely reflected in the tag info). Is there a 3rd party app like Mediamonkey for OS X (fingers crossed)?

Thanks!
 
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I would start by stating that you are switching from one platform to another - don't expect Mac's basic file manager to be the same as Window's basic file manager. It simply isn't. You are used to the Windows way because you have done it for 8 years. You should give the Mac way a chance for a while. You may find that you like it.

That having been said, Finder is a bit lightweight for a file manager IMHO. After much hunting around, I have settled on PathFinder, rather like Finder on steroids. It still presents a very Mac look 'n feel, so it won't address your basic visual presentation issue, but if you dig into it, you will find it is hugely capable. I use it for all heavy duty filing work.

You can get PathFinder here.

If you insist on the Windows sort of visual presentation, you may wish to check out Macintosh Explorer, which does present a fairly Windows Explorer type interface, although with Mac improvements. I started with this package when I first got my Mac, but then quickly migrated to PathFinder.

Enjoy your new Mac, and try to approach it with an open mind. Try the "Mac way" for everything for a while. Make this a conscious decision. After a reasonable period, say one month, then sit back and evaluate. You may find (I know I did) that the Mac way is better than the Windows way once you get over your "culture shock".
 
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So after an 8 year hiatus with Windows I've back with Mac for now. And I'm generally excited. However there are a few transitions I'm still uneasy about, one of the main ones being switching from using windows explorer to the mac finder. For better or worse, I'm pretty obsessive compulsive about organizing files, and I'm very used to seeing a hierarchical tree of files on the left of the split explorer screen, and the contents of whatever is selected on the left displayed on the right (including details like size, last edited, etc.). This is very useful for moving files between folders / drives / partitions, etc. As far as I can tell, the mac finder's "columns" view isn't as pleasing as what I'm used to, although maybe I'll get used to it. Is there something I'm missing, or maybe some other great 3rd party app. available?

Give Path Finder a whirl. It's not cheap, but may suit your needs perfectly. They even have (or had at one time anyway) a tutorial on how to replace the Finder with Path Finder completely (though even they don't wholly recommend doing so).

My other concern is similar actually. I'm also pretty used to the way I can view and tag my music in the wonderful and free Mediamonkey for windows, which is similar to explorer in that it offers the split double view of your files. Itunes is pretty, but I find it lacking when I want to view folder views (mirroring the actually organization I have used on the discs, which is not completely reflected in the tag info). Is there a 3rd party app like Mediamonkey for OS X (fingers crossed)?

Kudlian Media Browser might do the trick. If not, search through VersionTracker and see what you can find.
 
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riverteeth
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Good advice Mac57... I'll definitely give the "mac way" a chance before trying to adapt the new OS to the way I've been doing things for 8 years. But thanks for the tip on Pathfinder all the same.
 
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I would recommend you do NOT mess around with files in finder, or even pathfinder, and let the applications do the organization for you. iTunes for your MP3s, iPhoto for your photos and others for others. The sooner you accept this, the easier life will be. OS X is not Windows, and you'll get frustrated if you try and use it as though it is.
 
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No, I'm pretty sure I consider a central file manager where I can see and organize all file types to be a necessary feature of an OS (cause I often have a project with music, video, text, webpages, program you want to keep together in one place). This isn't just a windows thing... Besides, I'm not looking for the SAME thing, just something similar, and hopefully better (as would be expected from apple).
 
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List view provides a much better hierarchal view than Column view, despite what the name implies. Use those little grey disclosure triangles!

List view can (if you are insane enough to try it) show every file on your Mac's filesystem in one scrolling window. It's the only way to, say, move a file from one "leaf" in a hierarchy to another without opening two windows.
 
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I would recommend you do NOT mess around with files in finder, or even pathfinder, and let the applications do the organization for you. iTunes for your MP3s, iPhoto for your photos and others for others. The sooner you accept this, the easier life will be. OS X is not Windows, and you'll get frustrated if you try and use it as though it is.

Your absolutely right on here. When I first moved to Mac 4 years ago I was still in that obsessive windows frame of mind where I have to organize all my files myself. Fast forward to present day and I let OSX do all that for me. Saves me a lot of time so I can enjoy the computer and not having to admin it.
 
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Ironically, this is a UNIX mindset as well. File managers on UNIX/Linux are not their strong suit while Mac OS X, which is a UNIX, has decent file managers for each application which uses files. I, too, had to adjust to this from years of dealing with my own files manually.

Photos are the one exception. I keep tenacious manual control over those, since the iPhotos and their ilk have a habit of reducing image quality over time. My tunes, movies, and documents on the other hand I let the OS do its thing with them, or at the very least keep them where Apple has deemed they best be located.
 
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I can tell you that in my day job I don't use a graphical interface at all on unix machines. ;) It's all command line. Which, will give you a very granular view of your files, just like any other CLI. Happily for me, I don't have to remember to use different commands on work machines or on the mac :D
 
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Spotlight is a great tool as well (it's the little magnifying glass in the top right of the screen), instead of actually going into the finder to find an app or file, just click on the Spotlight or press cmd+space, than type in all or part of the name of what your looking for, press enter once you got the right file in the spotlight or cmd+enter to go to the see the folder the file is encompassed in.
 
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All useful food for thought. I never thought of myself as a software luddite before now... but I still can't see giving up control of file organization. I can't even image how this would work with anything other than music which is all neatly taged. On the other hand, I'm sure as I use Mac OS more, I'll get a better idea of what yall are talking about.

But the larger issue for me is that me doing the actually organization is a critical part of understanding and processing the information I deal with and store on my machine. Come to think of it, this would apply to both virtual and physical space, like my books, or my kitchen. In other words, when I create a document, or a file of any kind, finding my own logic for where it goes (what other files are similar to it and in what hierarchical relationship) is integral to me understanding the content of that file and it's meaning to me. So I don't see it as just a matter of convenience. It's a kind of experiential learning for me, although I never of thought of it that way before.

I've been using the windows version of spotlight for a year or so, and I still find myself using the more limited search tool way more often (where I limit my search to a specific directory).
 
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I prefer list view, you can set each window how you want it to always look by right click and choose show view options and choosing to always have it look like the way you choose.
 
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Philosophical debates about file organization aside, really the only feature that I wish the finder had that explorer has is "folders", which looks exactly like "list" view in finder on the right, but changes the shortcuts on the left from "volumes", "shared", "places", and "search for" (OS X) to a folder tree view. So this is just a feature question, not a problem with the whole app and certainly not with the "mac way". Sorry I couldn't make that clearer in my initial post.
 
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Photos are the one exception. I keep tenacious manual control over those, since the iPhotos and their ilk have a habit of reducing image quality over time.

iPhoto does not alter the original file, it creates a new one that is the edit you have performed. You can always get back to the original by right clicking the photo and choosing "Revert to Original".

Aperature is more advanced. It too does not alter the original, but it doesn't keep a copy of the edited version. Instead it keeps all of the editing commands in its database and applies them each time you choose that photo. You can even remove some of the edits while not distubing the others for a single image.
 
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No, I'm pretty sure I consider a central file manager where I can see and organize all file types to be a necessary feature of an OS (cause I often have a project with music, video, text, webpages, program you want to keep together in one place). This isn't just a windows thing... Besides, I'm not looking for the SAME thing, just something similar, and hopefully better (as would be expected from apple).

Well you would consider iPhoto and iTunes libraries where you store stuff and maybe do some tuning. Then when you need something per project, say some external non-Apple application, you would export copies that would stay forever with your other project files that you could also backup as a whole. Web pages is an perfect example of that.

If your project is an iMovie or iDVD project, they can use the content directly from iPhoto and iTunes. The new iMovie even has a library concept, but I don't want to explain that here.
 
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All useful food for thought. I never thought of myself as a software luddite before now... but I still can't see giving up control of file organization. I can't even image how this would work with anything other than music which is all neatly taged. On the other hand, I'm sure as I use Mac OS more, I'll get a better idea of what yall are talking about.

Well even with iTunes, you don't HAVE to let it organize files the way it wants to. Organize them your way in Finder, then before importing them into iTunes, uncheck the option to let iTunes sort them. You can also avoid having iTunes copy the files to the iTunes music folder.
 
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Well even with iTunes, you don't HAVE to let it organize files the way it wants to. Organize them your way in Finder, then before importing them into iTunes, uncheck the option to let iTunes sort them. You can also avoid having iTunes copy the files to the iTunes music folder.

Yes, I've heard this time and time again. But as far as I can tell, this is only true in the sense that iTunes doesn't rename your files and folders on the hard drive. But virtually, in the iTunes library, it still organizing everything according to your tag info, and you do not have the option to view and edit tracks in their file architecture as exists on the hard drive. I'll admit it, this probably wouldn't be so bad if all of my music was "properly" taged (and I'm still confused about how best to use some tags: album artist, composer, what if there is no album, etc.). But I can't be the only person in the world who didn't do a lot of tagging on their own and don't want to be punished for moving to iTunes late in the game. Also, I have architecture in my file system that can't (as yet) be written into the tag system: super genre for example. I just don't see why I should force my own carefully thought out system into the iTunes way when there are so many other powerful programs out there.
 
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I think Windows Explorer and the Finder should both implement tabbed browsing, like Konqueror or PCManFM. When you have several things to organize, it's so much more convenient than having a hundred windows open that you have to position just right. Tabs are probably the single greatest software idea ever.
 

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