The core difference in workflow when switching from Windows to the Mac, is the file manager. It’s called Windows Explorer on Windows, and Finder on the Mac. The Finder does things a little differently from what one is used to on a PC, even though on the surface it’s all just files and folders. I asked a bunch of new Mac users what kind of problems they had with adjusting (along with some searches on Forums), and here’s my view on how best to deal with it. I don’t mean to portray myself as an expert on UNIX and file systems, this is just the way I see things. Experts, feel free to correct me.

Organisational Structure

Starting at the top, there is no C drive to deal with. The Mac mounts logical partitions with their names, right on your desktop. The C drive equivalent here, is the startup disk. Owing to the non existence of a boot table, the Mac can pretty much boot into any logical partition as long as it’s bootable and has an OS loaded. Back to the Finder, ‘Devices’ are shown in a single column right at the top. It will show any hard drive partitions, flash drives, disk images, and network servers. There is a way to get right to the top of the directory structure however—the “My Computer” equivalent—and that’s to hit Cmd+Up right till you hit the “YourName’s Mac” with all your drives listed in the main Finder window. Drag that icon into your Devices, and you can have ready access to every disk, thereby being able to delete any aliases in your sidebar you don’t usually require.

So that’s how partitions are organised at the top level. But what about directory structure? Our family PC is a mess of things. There are a bunch of logical partitions, each of which have folders ‘organised’ for different types of data. This requires the need for having to display huge directory trees, sprawling over even an HD display like maggots. I got a little carried away there, I know. I’ve seen many a switcher store files in the Macintosh HD—their pleas for multiple partitions unanswered by Disk Utility. And that’s the wrong way to go about things. You want to store your files, in your user folder and nowhere else (unless you know what you’re doing). Your user folder is located in your MacHD » Users » YourHomeFolder folder. The Mac comes with folders for Documents, Music, Movies, etc, and while each of these may appear to be you average folders, they provide hooks into other applications which can tap into them. For instance, adding video files into the Movies folder makes them available via Front Row, the media center front end. Stick to the organisational structure provided by OS X, and you’ll be greatly repaid (in kind).

There is one thing I should warn you about, before we move on to anything else. Don’t ever attempt to rename the home folder, as you will end up losing all your data. If you rename it, there won’t be any issues until you restart. OS X will find there’s no home folder of the name in its record, and will create a new folder in place. There are ways to recover your data, but you still don’t want to play around. It’s best to leave it as it is.

Another note about organisation, and that’s about virtual aliases. Unlike aliases, or ‘shortcuts’, these aren’t real existing files, but entries in some database. These reside in your Finder sidebar, your Dock, or even the Finder toolbar (yes, you can Cmd+Drag files and folders there). If you accidentally or purposely move one of the places or devices out of the sidebar, it goes *poof*. The real files and folders will never be affected by this action. To restore any lost devices to the sidebar, either drag it from the desktop, or hit up the Finder preferences (Cmd+,), and uncheck and recheck that type of device in the Sidebar tab.

Navigating Finder

There are four main views in Finder. Thumbnail, which is great for viewing pictures; column, to get a detailed view of your files; column, great for moving around; and Coverflow, the glorified view that presents your files as 3D tiles. If you’re ever in need of serious moving around, I’d suggest switching to the Column view. It allows you to drill deep into folders while still keeping a perspective on where you are. It’s also the best view on smaller displays like a 13” MacBook. Those with the newer iMacs can definitely afford to splurge on the Coverflow view; it’s gorgeous.

How about moving around? The beauty of the Finder sidebar, is that it’s static. No matter which folder you drill down into, you don’t have to navigate back out to get to your flash drive. This makes the absence of “Cut and Paste” totally forgivable, as drag and drop is definitely the superior way to go about things. In fact, we’ve compiled a whole article with screencast on the awesomeness of Drag and Drop on the Mac.

While you’re in Finder, be sure to make use of one of Leopard’s better innovations—Quick Look. Just hit spacebar on any file, and it will immediately spring out with a preview of its contents. You can expand Quick look with easy to install plugins, as listed on a previous article. You can quick look multiple files, even presenting slideshows without having to open images up in an image viewer.

One major UI change in OS X, is the change in the ‘maximize’ button behavior. In fact, on the Mac it’s called the ‘zoom’ button. Instead of taking up the entire screen and wasting screen space, it resizes itself to take up just enough space to display contents. If you zoom while in the “list” view for instance, it will only resize vertically. Column views resize far more, taking as much horizontal space as required. The only problem with the zoom behavior is that it’s not predictable—at first. Once you get the hang of how exactly it functions, it’s all appreciation. You can however, get ‘maximize’ functionality if you check out these third party apps by Irradiated Software. Here’s a little sidetip for the column view. If you need to resize the width of the column to fit display the complete filenames, double click the little resizer at the bottom of the column divider. If you want all columns to display the complete filenames, Option+Double-click on it.

One important addition in Leopard, is the Path Bar functionality. It’s not enabled by default, but you can turn it on from the menubar at View » Show Path Bar. You can then drag and drop files onto the path bar, almost negating the need for the column view. In fact, I hardly ever move out of the List view. Yes, I think the List view is the best view, and that’s why Apple chose it to go along with Coverflow.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The Enter/Return key shows the biggest, most surprising change in behaviour to Windows users. Instead of opening files as it does on Windows, it triggers the rename-file behavior. I mean, which kind of a stupid entity would do such a thing? There’s more to it than meets the eye. The Mac uses Cmd + the arrow keys to effortlessly navigate through the entire directory structure. Cmd+Down to drill down into folders and, ultimately, open files, while Cmd+Up takes you up a level. The shortcut to delete is Cmd+Delete, so you don’t have to deal with an ‘are you really sure?’ confirmation.

Don’t be harrowed by the ‘extra’ Command key. In general, the Command (⌘) key is crucial to Mac operation. While it seems extraneous at first, it becomes a natural extension to the way you work on the Mac. Cmd+W to close windows, +Q to quit, +H to hide, +1,2,3,4 to switch between Finder views, and so many more. And while I don’t mean to sound fanboyish, its position on the keyboard is far better than Control can ever hope to be. Right beside the spacebar, so the idle thumb pretty much rests on it. And then there’s the myriad uses of the Option key, an article written even before we launched SA.

Shortcomings

There are some shortcomings on the Mac however. First of all, is the lack of ‘currently focussed item’. It rarely affects the user, but it’s very annoying nonetheless. If you’re selecting files with keyboard (Shift/Cmd+Arrow keys), and you accidentally select an extra file in that list, reversing the action doesn’t go back a step but instead starts selecting more files from where you started.

Second, is the lack of separation of folders from files. The only way to have folders show up separate is to arrange by Kind or Size. There is also no ‘list-column’ view like in windows, where you have rows of files in columns. On the Mac you have to scroll down.

It’s just a matter of time

When you’ve switched to the Mac, the only way you’ll get comfortable with it is to go with the flow. Trying to find Windows on OS X will only lead to more pain. To me the Finder is clean, uncluttered, and minimal. It doesn’t want to take up your entire screen, and while it certainly forces you to work in a particular way, at the end of the day the little things make up for all of its shortcomings.

Lastly, if you’re looking for more power, you might want to check out Forklift or PathFinder, both very capable file managers.