How to change the look and feel of Finder in OS X

Find out how to use Finder’s preferences to enhance the file browsing experience on your Mac with our quick step-by-step guide. It's easier than you think.

Without realising it, you probably use Finder more than you do Safari or any other app on your Mac – it’s the lifeblood of OS X and ensures you’re never more than a few clicks or keystrokes away from your apps, documents, music or movies. Finder might be the kind of app that you use without even noticing, but that doesn’t mean that a few simple tweaks can’t make it even easier to use and more effective as a staple of your OS X toolkit. Here’s a few tweaks that are well worth taking a look at if you want to speed up your searches and organise your files with ease using Finder on your Mac – try them out, they could well change the way you use this app forever.

Step 1: State your preference

Under Finder in the menubar, click on Preferences or use the Command+’comma’ keyboard shortcut to bring up Finder’s Preferences window and start work.

Step 2: Select your start point

Under the General tab, click on the drop-down menu under ‘New Finder windows open’ to choose Finder’s default starting point when you start searching.

Step 3: Clean your sidebar

If Finder’s sidebar is looking a little cluttered you can remove some of the unused shortcuts by unchecking them in list under the Sidebar tab.

Step 4: Start off a search

Under the Advanced tab, use the drop-down menu at the bottom to select where Finder’s search function looks first – Current Folder is usually best.