Always use "View as List" as the Finder default?

H

Hippo Man

Hippo Man
In OS X, is there a way to configure the Finder so that every time a new window opens, it always comes up in "View as List" mode?

Thanks.
 
You have no idea of the number of thousands [perhaps - millions] who complain to Apple, its representatives, Macintosh User Groups, etc., about the inability to set 'View by List' for any new folders.

Nor does MacOS X properly maintain a 'View by List' setting on currently set folders. Many Mac'ers continue to request 'Button' view, also.

'... world’s most advanced operating system' my ...
 
They want you to use Column View. They've been shoving it down our throats from the beginning. I like it very much and only use list view _sometimes_ for sorting by date.
 
'They've been shoving it down our throats from the beginning' - I could not agree with you any more.

'Column' view has its uses, and its' followers; however, all 'views' should be honored (by Apple) and truly maintained - when set (by MacOS X).
 
Hear, hear!

FWIW, OS X is a lot better at remembering your window settings (in a way that's predictable by a mere mortal) if you don't use the metal mode. This is one of the reasons I never use the metal mode when I can avoid it (unfortunately, Apple makes it hard to avoid.....).
 
I'm not sure what "metal mode" is. Is it the metallic look and feel that comes with OS 10.4? If so, how do I change it?
 
Hippo Man said:
I'm not sure what "metal mode" is. Is it the metallic look and feel that comes with OS 10.4? If so, how do I change it?
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Click the little gumdrop-like button at the top-right of Finder windows.

This won't help you set list view as the default, though.
 
Hippo Man said:
I'll give Finder Window Manager a try ... I'm happy to pay for software that performs a function that serves me well. And I'll post to the OS X feedback page, as well.

Thank you very much.
Click to expand...

Talk to all the Mac users you can and have them also post back the almost same feedback to Apple. Trust me, I have personally seen this happen when enough people submit similar feedback.
 
What exactly did you personally see change in Mac OS X because of enough user feedback? Labels have been brought back and spring-loaded folders. But _both_ these features have been crippled. You can't choose your own label colours and 1.5-clicking doesn't work. Both these features were _complete_ in OS 9 and we've only got a "there you got it and now shut up"-response from Apple.
The criticism of the Mac OS X Finder and its window behaviour(s) has been loud for *YEARS*, and the changes that came have been, let's say, bad. The Finder isn't fixed, but with Panther we got "brushed metal view", which didn't make the Finder work better but is only there to explain to users that there are actually two Finder modes (browsing and spatial). I don't really believe we'll see a really good Finder in OS X. Ever. It'll take Mac OS 11 (or whatever it'll be called) to replace the Finder. Until then we'll get more features in the Finder along with very small improvements. I do hear that Leopard will bring more of these small enhancements. (You can finally better set the grid for desktop icon arrangement, unless they take that out 'til final.)
 
Satcomer said:
Talk to all the Mac users you can and have them also post back the almost same feedback to Apple. Trust me, I have personally seen this happen when enough people submit similar feedback.
Click to expand...
Well, honestly, I don't have the time nor the energy for this kind of political activism. I spend that on other, more pressing political issues. If someone has to organize a full-blown grass-roots movement just to get Apple to pay attention to the user community's desires about a certain Finder feature, then I'd just rather program around the problems or obtain freeware or shareware that modifies this Finder behavior.

With my recently purchased MacBook Pro, I'm new to the Apple community. Up until now, I've spent a lot of time in the Unix world, and a lesser (but still significant) amount of time with Windows. Under Unix, there are two principal desktop systems, Gnome and KDE. Both are open source and both are attempting to create a powerful and useful desktop environment.

In general, KDE takes the approach that the users should get good, standard, useful functionality, and in addition, the capability to reconfigure almost everything on the desktop in a number of different ways that might deviate from the defaults. Each new release of KDE seems to have more features and more options for reconfiguring the desktop.

Gnome, on the other hand, is taking a different approach. They are trying to come up with a standard desktop that is only configurable in certain, restricted ways. Often, when a new version of Gnome comes out, capabilities that previously allowed users to configure certain aspects of the desktop are removed, and we are forced to live with more and more restrictions in this area, in the name of uniformity.

Over time, KDE has therefore been evolving into the desktop for "power users", and Gnome is being used more and more for users who are less technical.

Based on what I'm hearing here, it's starting to look to me like Apple is taking an approach closer to that of Gnome than that of KDE. If so, I find this sad.
 
For me, that looks a little different. It seems like both KDE and Gnome don't know what's best. KDE chooses not to choose because of that and Gnome tries to find out what the majority wants. Apple tries to find the _right_ thing to do.
 
Gnome says the same thing that you attribute to Apple ... they try to do what they think is "right". They are not majority-driven, and they don't respond well to requests for changes, no matter how many people ask for them.

KDE also tries to do what they think is "right" for the defaults. They have chosen a core set of features and they indeed have converged on something fairly static. They just give people the chance to reconfigure things away from the defaults if they so choose, and they don't normally take away capabilities to do so, like Gnome does in newer releases.

The analogy isn't perfect (for example, both are open source and are willing to accept patches from the user community, while Apple doesn't operate that way, of course), but Gnome's attitude is still a lot closer to that which is being attributed to Apple than KDE's.
 
fryke said:
What exactly did you personally see change in Mac OS X because of enough user feedback? Labels have been brought back and spring-loaded folders.
Click to expand...

The eastern US MUGS banded together for spring-loaded folders a while back. I remember the MUG meeting well. We were even given scripts on how to write the feedback. That is how I found the feedback page.
 
Yes, but you _do_ see that not the _whole_ feature was brought back, afterwards. I'm not saying that feedback doesn't help at all. Instead: I'm all _for_ giving more (and better) feedback to Apple. I'm just saying that even *if* Apple - reluctantly - takes action on feedback, they might still not do entirely what the "feedbackers" really want.
 
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