Drill, don't dig
This is one of those tools you don’t even remember you have or know that you use until, one day, you find yourself on someone else’s computer, looking in vein for it in the contextual menu. I’m talking about FolderGlance (2.0.1) and if you haven’t installed this phenomenal preference pane then you are truly missing out on the most useful contextual menu extensions I have ever come across.
I started using FolderGlance back in Mac OS X 10.2 (if I recall), simply because I wanter a faster way to navigate around my system then digging one step at a time in Finders column view. Once I started to get the hang of it’s features and operation I was really able to tap into the power behind FolderGlance. It is a finder-less Finder that allows instant drilling into folders, plugins, apps, etc… without having to stop and think about it. I can scream through a complex folder architecture as fast as I can move my mouse. No clicking, no hot keys, just pure, unadulterated mouse surfing.
What do I take advantage of the most? Drilling into plugins. I am not a big fan of the Finder. Using the finder is like climbing a really long flight of stairs; the only way to get to the top is one step at a time. The other thing that bothers me is Apple locks the gate to all the things it doesn’t feel you need to know about. To get into a plugin, for instance, you have to open the contextual menu and select “Show packages contents” which, in turn, opens up yet another Finder window. URGH! So if finder is like climbing a flight of stairs, then FolderGlance is like sliding down the railing… a greased railing. Take that same plugin; right-click, then just fall into the contents. Open a folder if you like, open a file if you like, read the a snippet of the content of a file, drag a copy of a file or folder somewhere else… all with just one or two clicks tops!
I spend a great deal of time going in and out of RapidWeaver theme files (a plugin of sorts) and without FolderGlance it would take me twice as long. If you hate the finder as much as I do, give FolderGlance a try.
[tags]FolderGlance, Mac OS X, Finder, RapidWeaver[/tags]