Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition

The Finder Toolbar

At the top of every Finder window is a small set of function icons, all in a brushedaluminum row (Figure 3-6). If you’re used to Mac OS X 10.2, a glance at this new, emaciated toolbar may make you wonder if Apple put it on some kind of crazy no-carb diet. Gone are the icons for Home, Computer, Applications, and other folders that used to appear here-because these now appear in the Sidebar (Section 1.2.1).

Instead, the first time you run Mac OS X 10.3, you’ll find only these icons on the toolbar:

• Back, Forward. As you’ve probably noticed, the Mac OS X Finder works something like a Web browser. Only a single window remains open as you navigate the various folders on your hard drive.

  The Back button returns you to whichever folder you were just looking at. (Instead of clicking Back, you can also press -[, or choose Go→Back-particularly handy if the toolbar is hidden, as described below.)

  The Forward button springs to life only after you’ve used the Back button. Clicking it (or pressing -]) returns you to the window you just backed out of.

• View controls. The three tiny buttons next to the Forward button switch the current window into icon, list, or column view, respectively (Section 1.3). And remember, if the toolbar is hidden, you can get by with the equivalent commands ...