Path Finder 4.6.1 —A file management program that out-finders the Finder

By Harry {doc} Babad - © 2007

Developed by: Steve Gehrman http://www.cocoatech.com/weblog/ Cocoatech Los Angeles, CA help@cocoatech.com http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/ $35 USD, Update $18 USD, £19 (inc. VAT) GBP. Released: December 5, 2006 Demo Path Finder 4 is available as a feature-complete demo for 21 days. http://www.cocoatech.com/download.php Requirements: Mac OS X 4.x; Universal Binary; 20 MB Download, Hard Drive Space. Versions for earlier Macintosh OS X Systems are available.

Strengths: If you want a finder function that is both fast and feature rich, try Path Finder. The product provides the most flexible method I’ve yet found to access and manage the almost 177,000 files stored on my drive as well as the un counted music and graphics files I keep on an external drive. The product’s primary features, although intimidating a first glance is both easy to use and powerfully capable. Weaknesses: The Product may be too complex, even for some experienced users. However I suggest folks download load it and play for a few days. By doing side-by-side searches in Apple’s finder/spotlight combination with Path Finder you will quickly recognize the benefits of using PF4 as both a search and file management tool. I also believe among heavy Macintosh users, the fearful will become advocates in less than the 21-day demo period. [Sic. Heavy means neither gaming nor surfing.] Copyright Notice: Product and company names and logos in this review may be registered trademarks of their respective companies. The software was tested on a 1 GHz dual processor PowerPC G4 Macintosh with 2 GB DDR SDRAM running under OS X 10.4.9. Disclaimer: When briefly reviewing share-freeware I will often use the developer’s product, functions and features descriptions. All other comments are strictly my own and based on testing. Why need I rewrite the developer’s narratives, if they are clearly written?

Introduction

Path Finder is a file management program that out-finder’s the Apple Finder. It is a powerful and flexible file browser that has a streamlined interface full of rich finder

However, having read about its additional features, and user-friendly interface, I decided to give it another try. After all despite tweaks over the years, Apples Finder is a very limited beast. Indeed, it too often bugs me disturbing by thought processes, by asking me (pop up message windows) dumb question many of which I have no way of answering. Popup Warnings - All I want to do is move documents and folder around to where they belong after working on them on my desktop.

In Matt Neuburg’s recent TidBits article he notes: “The Finder is the application that Mac OS X users love to hate. Take a moment to think of something about the Finder that makes you absolutely furious. It shouldn't take long! Here are some examples: “Why doesn't the Finder say where you are? Why doesn't it report what folder each window or column represents in the larger hierarchy of things? You probably know about Command-clicking on a window's title to see its path; but some people, like my mother, don't - and in any case you still have to do something (the Finder doesn't just show you where you are), plus you can easily get lost in column view because columns have no headings “When you drag multiple files into a folder, and the Finder asks if you want to replace an existing file, why doesn't it report relative modification dates? When you drag one file into a folder, the Finder tells you whether an existing file with the same name is older or newer. But if you drag multiple files into a folder, it doesn't - it puts up a separate dialog for each existing file, asking whether you want to replace it, but without the relative date information, which is usually crucial to making an intelligent decision about whether to proceed.”

Both Matt and I can go on at great lengths, as you likely can, about the finder’s limitations. Rather than doing that, let it suffice the Path Finder 4.x overcomes these limitations in a simple to understand way, with which even peecee switching newbies will be comfortable.

What is it?

Path Finder [PF4] is a file browser for Mac OS X. It has many added and more powerful features than Apple’s finder and other utilities provided in OS X Tiger. PF4 allows creating customizable labels, customized fonts and colors, a desktop trashcan, more controllable spring-loaded folders, and an image converter.

You need more flexibility? Check out the screen shots of the PF4 general and browser preferences at the end of this article.

There’s also a preview drawer, a menu key editor, an enhanced column view, and a built-in application launcher, The product give you the and the ability to view invisibles, to compress/decompress, files create disk images, add and remove thumbnail icons. Just incase that’s not enough you can open the program with the menu, view hex, copy paths, secure-delete, launch as root, find files, as well as creating aliases and symbolic links.

Getting Started

Drop and drag the application to your applications folder. Try it out for 21 days, and then buy it. [Oh, I haven’t told you why yet, oh well!]

Click on the product icon in your Menu or use the keyboard (Command F1) and Path Finder is at your beck and call.

To become re-familiarized with the product I spend about a week running my normal hard disk “find” searches with Apple’s Finder/Spotlight combination, EasyFind and Path Finder. Although it took a bit of time to become comfortable with Path Finder’s more complex interface, my learning curve for simple, attribute-limited searches was short.

Ignoring my searches with Apple’s Tools, always a hit or miss proposition, the items I located with PF4 were accurate. When compared to my normal EasyFind searches, the PF4 filters were easier to use. No, I’m not going to glut this review with side-by-side screen shots, the software works, and works effectively.

Just like the Spotlight and Finder search results windows, you can double-click any file in the software’s search results to open it, or use drag-and-drop to work with it. But unlike Spotlight, important information about each file—modification date, size, kind, and location—is visible without having to click get info button. (Hold the mouse pointer over the Where value to view the full path to the file without having to expand the window.)

If you’re interested in a blow-by-blow description of the PF4 interface check out Aaron Wright’s fine description in his AppleMatters artice - Path Finder: A Finder Alternative? The image below, with its numbered feature items should wet your appetite for such information. The image does not even show the products still closed drawers that expand PF4’s capabilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving right along — When your done finding stuff you’ve buried on your hard drive, include the path to where things live, you can create and manipulate disk images, compress with numerous formats (including StuffIt, which is built in), convert images from one format to another, and even do screen captures.

Stuff I Ignored — The aspects of the software’s capabilities which I ignored relate to what I call it geek tools. PF4 is capable of examining running processes, which are listed, and can be sampled or force quit. This seems like a steroid drive Activity Monitor. There's also terminal access, a console (for viewing logs), and a hex editor built right in.

But first a set of menu views in PF4 plus one of the trusty Apple Finder.

An Almost Concise Partial List of Key Features

Abandon Spotlight — Mostly eliminate any need to use Apples frustratingly stupid Spotlight. Path Finder allows you to search both file and folder names; only file names or only folder names, or the contents of files.

Search by Using Filtered Contents —A text box at the top of the window lets you quickly filter the current view. A folder's contents can be filtered by document kind. This allows you to view and work with (for example) just JPEGs, or just JPEGs and TIFFs. It’s a better alternative than sorting by kind in the Finder or even in EasyFind.

Tabs! — Tabs are easily the most powerful new feature in PF4. Its main benefit is reducing the number of windows you have open when you work, in a haphazard, multiple projects at one, fashion. This feature amazes me —I can just see how much easier file management can be without overlapping layers of windows cluttering up even my 22” screen. Better yet, every tab has the entire directory structure of the opened folder, thus you can access any folder quickly just by clicking on them.

Faster File Copying — Path Finder’s progress bars contain more information than just a blah graph. The copy engine is different (Apple’s has always been slow).

Bookmarks Bar [e.g., Tabbed Folder]s —Tabs are easily the most powerful new feature in PF4. Its main benefit is reducing the number of windows you have open when you work, in a haphazard, multiple projects at one, fashion. This feature amazes me — just how much better file management becomes without overlapping layers of windows cluttering up my 22” screen. PF4 adds a very FireFox-like Bookmarks Bar, onto which you can drag folders, applications, or documents. You can browse entire directories from the Bookmarks Bar and, when you get to where you want to go, open subfolders from the tabs. Multiple folders can be shown in a single window using "tabbed browsing", and files can be dragged from one tab to another.

Now I’m not yet a great fan of tabs, but their convenience is growing on me.

Drop Stack, Good Temporary Place To Collect Files for Grouped Actions— A "Drop Stack" drawer lets you drag and drop items from anywhere on you drive to form sets for later processing. You can delay task such as copying or moving a file or folder or even burning, compressing, or mailing it. Drop Stack is a temporary, smart holding bay for folders and files. Sometimes I need to gather odds and ends from all over my computer into one or more folders to use to burn a CD for a client. If you tried that with Apple’s finder, you know that it’s literally a drag, and another one… My most used solution is to drag stuff directly into Toast’s window, but that’s neither fast nor elegant.

In Path Finder you simply drag files and folders to the Drop Stack. DF4 keeps track as you stack-up files and folders. (Note the drop Stack box is an index (e.g., alias type link) of your files. Until you actually physically drag an item from its located on your hard drive, the file hasn’t actually moved anywhere.) However, you can use the stack to aggregate an archive, burn your stack to a CD/DVD, or e-mailing it, but only in Apple Mail.

Viewing File Contents From Within PF4 — You can view the contents of many kinds files with Path Finder’s built-in text editor and PDF viewers. I’ve read that PF4’s capabilities are more comprehensive than those of either Spotlight or the Finder, but have not tested this.

Work With and Easily Change Document Attributes — File information includes Spotlight metadata, and lets you change ownership, permissions, type/creator, and creation/modification dates, Normally I use another application to meet such needs; what’s that 3 or separate tools instead of a single well integrated one. I know there are wonderful tools for doing so, such as publicspace.net A Better Finder Attributes, now v. 4.5 -or FileUtilsCM X 1.7.2, but these are further additions to you application or CM collection.

Looking in detail at all of FP4’s rich features, I was impressed by the number of stand-alone applications that I use regularly, this tool could replace. This is true despite the fact that most of the more specialized tools I use have gotten 4.0+ rating from macC.

Discomforts

Do Boolean Searches — I still, haven’t figured out whether Path Finder can do Boolean Searches. I find such capabilities useful in other applications, allowing me to explicitly define the type of search to perform. For example, search for items containing all the search words (and), any of the search words (or), or the complete phrase. In addition, just like in Google, EasyFind or DEVONagent, it would be great if you could search using wildcards or operators. Also, controlling your searches to be case-sensitive or insensitive is something I value.

Eudora, Thunderbird, and I guess MS Entourage Mail Support — We hold these truths to be self evident, many of us don’t like or use apples mail application.

I Need a Manual — No in depth manual of how to make effective use of the splendiferous and abundant features. Trial and error is fun, but I’ve got roads to travel and other things to see, or at least lots of other reviews and articles to write.

The developer does note: “This basic documentation provides an overview of Path Finder 4's features. We will be posting more detailed help files for Path Finder 4 to our web site in the coming weeks.”

Permanently Replacing the Finder with Path Finder — I read that it was possible, if you decide that you like using Path Finder more than the Finder itself, you can have Path Finder quit the Finder and take its place. Now that make me nervous, I like the Command F1 approach better, especially since I’ve read no feed back on pros and cons of this alternative.

Conclusion

If you’re tired of the Finder’s limitations, the fact that it slow, crashes, and on my computer both stutters and loses icons, download and try Path Finder. The free 21 day trial period is more than long enough, if you do lots of searches for files on your hard disk, to demonstrate the superiority of this product to what Apple provided.

The Path Finder interface will look more cluttered than Apple’s Finder. But don’t sweat that, it only takes a few fast successful searches, rather then the results I too often get working in the finder, to make PF4 feel downright homey.

If this product had a detailed manual, I’d have no qualms about giving a perfect 5, someday soon, I hope.

Although I shall not five up using EasyFind, an old friend, I expect to do more of my hard disk searching and other finder function in Path Finder.

Recommendation

Try it — you’ll buy it! As noted by Kevin Schmidt; “Granted, $34.95 may seem a bit steep just to replace a part of Mac OS X, but with the native Finder as (arguably) bad as it is and with Path Finder 4 as good as it is, the price is a pittance, especially in light of the sheer volume of features Path Finder 4 packs under the hood.”

I completely agree with ATPM’s Miraz Jordan who noted: “Path Finder is a great investment for anyone who wants to have a more than a couple of clues about the files they work with. It’s not for everyone: if you’re stumped by how to Trash a document or can’t remember how to save your letter into a specific folder, then Apple’s Finder will suit you nicely.”

More Reading

7 things I like about Path Finder for OS X

Joshua Scott Emmons’ Tigersharks: Taking Path Finder 10.4-only

PS:

It is rare that one individual is responsible for creating such a rich and powerful program. Kudos to its developer.

Now Apple and Microsoft, are you listening?