Re:Mac's finder is literally the worst program ive ever used
by ryan-duve on Sunday May 16, 2021 @09:44AM
(#27173653)
I was shellshocked when I was given my first Mac for work a few years ago and I couldn't find any way to get to the `/tmp` directory from Finder. I ended up making a symlink in my home folder and I still have no idea how else I was supposed to do it.
At first I felt very strongly about it, but then I just... stopped using it. Like, I stopped using Finder for everything. Here are some tips:
- Mac has an amazing CLI utility called "open" which is like a "xdg-open" that works better. Use that when you don't know what to specify what to open.
- The "Downloads" button on the dock is a quick way to run "open" on whatever you just downloaded.
- If you know you'll be opening several files over a workflow, just open the app first. For example, I will open Preview with the Cmd+Space shortcut and then Cmd+O to open a file system viewer.
- When opening files from the dialog box in apps, you can just type `/` and starting the path you want.
I'm sure I have a few others I would remember if I were on my Mac now, but the idea is yes, Finder is weirdly hard to use, but there are very few tasks where you actually have to open it.
At first I felt very strongly about it, but then I just... stopped using it. Like, I stopped using Finder for everything. Here are some tips:
- Mac has an amazing CLI utility called "open" which is like a "xdg-open" that works better. Use that when you don't know what to specify what to open.
- The "Downloads" button on the dock is a quick way to run "open" on whatever you just downloaded.
- If you know you'll be opening several files over a workflow, just open the app first. For example, I will open Preview with the Cmd+Space shortcut and then Cmd+O to open a file system viewer.
- When opening files from the dialog box in apps, you can just type `/` and starting the path you want.
I'm sure I have a few others I would remember if I were on my Mac now, but the idea is yes, Finder is weirdly hard to use, but there are very few tasks where you actually have to open it.