Review – Path Finder

You can hear the below review in MacReview Cast #113.
My experience with Path Finder is an interesting one. When I first switched to my Mac, a friend told me to forget about the Apple Finder and use Path Finder. Well I downloaded it when my Mac was shiny new and it didn’t grab me. I used it a few times but found myself going back to the less intimidating Apple Finder.
Well I know quite a bit more about OS X now than I did during that failed trial and decided to give it another go. Now I can’t imagine ever working without it.
Path Finder is the Swiss Army Knife of file management tools. When you first open the application there is a group of six windows that are fully customizable. You can display a variety of data from your running applications, file and folder histories, volumes, selection paths, information, permissions, attributes, console, and even a terminal window. The binary view makes me laugh but hey, it must be useful to somebody. With so much variety you can make Path Finder can change to suit your needs rather than forcing you to change to meet the application’s needs as is so often the case.
In the main display window it has a Path Navigator that visually tells you where you are and where you have been as you drill down. Like the Apple Finder, Path Finder supports all standard view modes including list, icon, and hierarchical. Also, control clicking on an item in Path Finder gives me a lot more options than I am used too. Of course you can do the normal file management tasks like copying and moving but you can also email, compress, create a disk image, open in terminal and a variety of other options.
This program is very feature rich. So much so that in the week I’ve been using it I won’t pretend to say I’m familiar with them all so I’m going to focus on a few that really grabbed me.
The customizable bookmark bar is very nice. Taking a page from Safari and other web browsers, Path Finder has a bar of common file locations across the top of the screen with drop down menus. It has the usual suspects built in: Documents, Music, Movies and the likes. But you can also create your own custom drop downs like “downloads” or anything else you need frequently.
Another great feature is the Drop Stack. When I open a finder window it is usually to work on several files. With the Drop Stack it gives me a place to temporarily drop files while I’m navigating through multiple menus. Once I’ve assembled everything I need to work on in my drop stack, its all in one place and easy to get too. This just doesn’t mean moving and copying. I can also burn and compress items straight out of the Drop Stack.
Like Forklift and Leopard’s Finder, Pathfinder has an excellent preview pane that handles most image and HTML files and even quicktime movie files. I set one of the larger panes for preview and it is very helpful when moving or cleaning image files.
Using the “File History” setting, Pathfinder keeps a running tally of my most recently accessed files. This is nice as I’m going through my day if I am working on several projects.
Path Finder also brings some extra muscle to searching your Mac. I’ve found Spotlight to be very good at ferreting out lost files but occasionally something will get misplaced into a location that Spotlight doesn’t look. Path Finder has its own separate “Fast Search” engine that will search the entire system.
You can’t beat Path Finder for compression. A version of the StuffIt compression engine is built right in. When sharing with your PC friends, it also allows for ZIP compression.
Another nice feature is the application window. By holding down command-F8 you open up an attractive window that displays icons for all of your applications. This is great when I need to open an application but forgot its name.
Did I mention it has a built in console window, text editor, and easily allows you to see hidden files?
Looking at the preferences you will see that Path Finder is even more adaptable giving you control over the entire look and feel of the application.
Reflecting on the way I manage files I must give a nod to Quicksilver. Once you get accustomed to Quicksilver, you can’t really beat it for down and dirty file management. With just a little practice, you can move, copy, and trash files as quickly as it takes to open Finder or one of its replacements. I really use Path Finder and Forklift on file management tasks that take some heavy lifting.
Path Finder is my finder replacement. It is robust and bends to fit my needs. I would give Forklift the advantage for FTP but generally found Path Finder more useful for the way I compute. I will be keeping both programs and I am certain I will be using them both. If you are looking for just one, you should download and give each one a week or two on your machine to see what fits you better. Like Forklift, Path Finder also has a free trial period. If you get hooked, it will run you $34.95.

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My Treo iPhone

Well as the cool-aid logo implies, I do like my Apple gadgets. Unfortunately, the iPhone is not one of the gadgets I’ll be able to use. My office is on Verizon and my office calendar system will only sync with Pocket PC or the Palm OS (for now at least). So it appears I am out of the running for that tempting iPhone.
But of course technolust can breed a bit of creativity. I did a search at PalmGear for OS X and found a few apps that make my Treo “almost” feel like an iPhone. There are a variety of launchers and other fancy pants add ons but the two that I ended up using are Font Smoother and Icons Plus. Using these two apps I have been able to set my Palm system font to the Mac Lucida Font (or something Very close) and I’ve replaced the blocky Palm icons with the OS X set. For instance, Snapper mail now has an Apple Mail icon.
Now granted these cheap parlor tricks don’t give me the functionality or user experience of an iPhone, (Don’t EVER try to surf the web on a Treo BTW) but still it makes me smile and when I show it to other geeks they freak out a bit which is entertainment in its own right.
By the way, does anyone else wish Apple will make an iPhone without the phone? Kind of a souped up iPod with all those nice tricks and perhaps a WiFi receiver to surf the web when in range? If they do, sign me up!

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Using My Moleskine and My Teeth

I’ve been using the low tech Moleskine method for tracking to do items when away from my Mac a few weeks now and can report I’m very pleased with it. I read a few of the forums at iGTD and the Missing Sync and it still appears there is a certain degree of black magic involved with getting a reliable sync between the Treo and iGTD. You could spend hours on it and you still seem to risk data corruption with every sync. I just keep the Moleskine in my pocket and when I’m away from my Mac and something occurs to me that needs to get done, I jot a quick note. At least once a day I go through that list and, if it is an easy task, I just do it. Othewise, it goes into the iGTD jumble. At that point it gets crossed off the moleskine list and I’m done with it. I also keep a miniaturized print out of the iGTD database in my Moleskine pocket. Granted this would be nice to do electronically but until it gets just as easy and MUCH more reliable. I’m sticking with this system. Someone who saw me using it said, “Hey Dave … You are a geek why aren’t you putting that in you Treo.” While granted I am a Geek, I also just want to get these things done. Whatever works. It reminds me of something an incredible woodworker, Sam Maloof, once told me when I was taking a class from him. “Use whatever tool works best. If it is easier to use a saw, use as saw .. If it is easier to use your teeth, use your teeth.”

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MacSparky Music – Over the Moon

Okay … I must admit … I still love E.T. I think I like it so much because that WAS my childhood. The bicycles, the D&D, the late nights with friends, the whole thing (excepting the alien … wink). So I’ve been working on playing my favorite melody from the movie and got a somewhat passable version recorded over the weekend. I am going to try and do this with more orchestra instruments later but for now I was just happy to get to the end on the piano. Enjoy.

Over The Moon

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WWDC Revisited and Shots

I sat down over the weekend and watched the keynote video. I also read a lot more of the reviews and media coverage of the keynote and have thought a bit more about it. I think the pundits (myself included) are missing the point. Granted most of the people reading this Blog have already figured out how to make a download folder or discovered great Tiger Applications like Path Finder to give us much of the promised future Leopard features. However, there are many Mac users, my daughter and wife among them, who will not do any of that stuff until Apple hands it to them, through OS X, on a silver platter. At that point we geeky folks will figure out some new hack to make it even more functional.
The other thing that occurred to me is that the next time Steve Jobs gives a keynote, I’m going to have a drinking game where you take a shot every time he says the word “cool”.

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Review – Forklift

This review was recorded and posted on Surfbits MacReview Cast #112
When working in Apple’s Finder I often find myself opening multiple finder windows to allow me to work with files across different locations. Sure you can technically do this within one finder window but it never seems to work quite right and it inevitably leads to a lot more clicks than necessary. Somebody at BinaryNights must have had the same revelation because when you open up Forklift, the first thing that strikes you is the dual pane window. This isn’t rocket science but the simplicity of it is refereshing. You can assign the left and the right panes to different locations and file management will suddenly get much faster and much easier. It even supports tabs and drawers so you can have collections of locations on each pane making the set up of of your source and destination even easier.
When I say “destinations” I’m not just talking about a few directories on you home drive or an external USB drive. Forklift gets the whole enchilada: FTP, SFTP servers, Amazon S3, iPods, Bluetooth devices and just about anything else you can plug into or airport link with. Using forklift I am able to upload files to my FTP server just as easily as if I were transferring between two directories. It even can look at archived files as if they were unscrunched. I don’t have an Amazon S3 account but reading the forums and other web postings this appears to run fine. I spent some time trying to get it to talk to my Verizon Treo 650 but was ultimately unsuccessful. I don’t think this has anything to do with Forklift and a lot to do with and phone. Except for that hiccup it really felt as if I was working on a local drive the whole time.
The application gives you multiple ways to find and sort items from spotlight searches to smart folders to favorites tabs. Whether you are the neat and tidy hierarchical type or a bit more of an anarchist that relies on sorts and smart folders, Forklift will accommodate you.
Another nice feature is the “Preview”. I know a lot of people are excited about the Quicklook feature in Leopard. Forklift has a similar, though not quite so slick, version built in. When you click an image or pdf you see a little version in the icon view. It is very helpful for sorting through images, especially when I am not disciplined in naming them. It does not render previews for all file types. For instance, OmniPlan and OmniOutlilnes just give you an icon, whereas OmniGraffle, pdf, and photo files give you an accurate representation.
Forklift fully supports Growl so my Mac can still tell me when it is done with a file transfer. Likewise it has the spring loaded folders like the Tiger Finder but I rarely used them since the dual panes made it unnecessary.
In addition to providing an excellent file management tool, it also has an application deleter. This is an additional tool in Forklift that hunts down all related files for any application you want to delete. This helps keep the junk off your drive. I ran it against AppZapper and it was comparable. One time, with ChronoSync, AppZappers found a few files Forklift didn’t, but just that once out of ten tests.
I really tried to make it work using keyboard navigation but never got the hang of it. I’ve only been using it a week and perhaps that would sort itself out with some time but I constantly found myself simply resorting to the mouse.
Forklift is an upgrade over the Tiger Finder. The simplified, dual pane interface, the previews, and the seamless integration with FTP and other media make this a no-brainer. You can pick it up at BinaryNights.com for $29.95. They also have a 15 day trial so you can check it out before buying.
This review, however, is not the end of my quest for Finder alternatives. Following this review I am shutting down Forklift and I will spend the next week working exclusively with Path Finder. It will be very interesting to compare and contrast these two applications next week and see how they all sort out.

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Logic Fun and Links

This weekend I am officially taking a break from the law and (in addition to playing/swimming with my kids) planning on spending some time with Logic. I have about 7 different music projects all in one state or another of completion. While I doubt I’ll finish any of them this weekend, I will have fun trying. In the meantime I found a great link at MacMediaCast for musicians linking some very good plugins right here. Check it out.

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The Great Finder Search

As I sink deeper into the depths of Mac Geekdom, I’m becoming a bit dissatisfied with the Apple Finder. Fortunately, there are several very good replacements. I just spent the last week playing with Forklift and prepared a review that I’ll post after it airs on the next MacReviewCast. I’m spending this week working in Pathfinder. I’ll be reviewing that one next week and hopefully I’ll have a few intelligent recommendations. Of course I’m not forgetting Quicksilver which I actually use for quite a bit of file management.
Check back and see how it all pans out!

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iGTD .. it just keeps getting better

Today iGTD released another update. I don’t know if Bartek has help or is just superhuman but this program just gets more and more polished with every update. I am using it for all of my task management and there are currently about 250 tasks being tracked in oodles of projects.
Granted I am a HUGE fan of the OmniGroup applications, OmniFocus really has a contender here. As an aside I’m now officially on the inside of the “sneaky peak” for OmniFocus but I don’t have time to really give it a look-see until this weekend.

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Stacks, MacSparky Style

I was watching Apple’s demonstration of the “Stacks” that will be released in Leopard and realized, “Hey, I’m already doing that!” I’m sure this is nothing new for many of you but using a series of smart (and not so smart) folders I already have my desktop set up in a way that drops downloads and other files into my desktop “inbox” for later sorting and action. Below is my desktop.

On the right side of my desktop there is an inbox, which contains a “download”, “media” and a few other subfolders that I find handy along with an “Outbox” which is where I put things that need to be sent off into the yonder. The “files” icon actually represents an encrypted sparse-image drive that I keep confidential work files in (I have a separate one not shown for personal confidential items) and the “Cabinet” is just a shortcut to my parsed set of document folders. I boosted this idea largely from an excellent series of screencasts by Ethan Schoonover on the Kinkless Desktop. Still and all, doesn’t that make me smart for adopting it?

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