Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

The Finder Toolbar

At the top of every Finder window is a small set of function icons, all in a brushed-aluminum row (Figure 4-6). The first time you run Mac OS X 10.4, 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 on Section 1.2.7.)

  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 in the View menu at the top of the screen—or by pressing ⌘-1, ⌘-2, or ⌘-3 (for Icon, List, and Columns view, respectively).

• Action. You can read all about this context-sensitive pop-up menu on Section 2.3.1.

• Search bar. This little round-ended text box is yet another entry point for the Spotlight feature described in Chapter 3. It's a handy way to search your Mac for some file, folder, disk, or program. See Section 3.4 for full details.

Removing or Shrinking the Toolbar

Between the toolbar, ...