OS X Mountain Lion Bible

Adjusting Finder View Options

Another place to configure the Finder windows' display is in the Finder's View menu.

Choose View⇒Show View Options or press +J to control how Finder windows display their contents. If no disk, folder, or file is selected, you get a limited set of options that apply to the desktop compared to the options that display when a disk, folder, or file is selected. (If a file is selected, the view options apply to its folder.)

Note that these settings apply only to the desktop (if no disk or file is selected) or just to the selected disk or folder.

The settings for disks and folders also vary based on what the Finder window's current view mode is: icon, list, column, or Cover Flow. Figure 3.7 shows the settings available.

Desktop view settings

For the desktop, you can set the icon size using the Icon Size slider, and you can set the space between icons using the Grid Spacing slider. You can choose the text label's size for the items that display within the desktop, folder, or disk using the Text Size pop-up menu, and you can determine where that label appears by selecting either the Bottom or Right radio button.

Select the Show Item Info option to have details about the disk or folder—such as its size and number of items—display under the item's name. Deselect the Show Icon Preview option so the Mac no longer creates a thumbnail of the image or document as its ...