Cool Tools for Mac OSX : Part 1 – Finder Add On(s)
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It’s been a long time that I have written any articles. I was so busy at work, couldn’t make some time or find any topic to write something about. After so long thinking, thought that why not help people on the internet by telling them some of the coolest tools [Free/Paid] which I use in my day-to-day work and on personal machines which makes my life easy. Sorry Microsoft Fans, these posts are for Mac OSX users. I switched to Mac OSX in the year 2007 and never turned back, but I still do work on windows platform. So I promise will try to write separate articles on tools for Windows platform for sure. I will be reviewing multiple Mac OSX tools which I personally use and has helped me in my day-to-day work. Please be advised that this is my personal view & personal experience, I would recommend to try or use the tools on your own discretion. I am not responsible for any loss occurred using any of these tools which I review. Since I said, I will be reviewing multiple tools, I will have to divide this article to multi-parts.
I hope Mac user by this time knows that the default file manager is “Finder”. It has its cool features and stuff which makes our lives easy. One of the things which I often miss is the ability to compare two or more folders contents side by side. Also while working sometimes I would have opened so many Finder windows that I feel very difficult to find the actual window I am looking for doing some file operations and I have been forced so many times to use Terminal to finish it rather than use the opened windows. I know Spaces, Mission Control, etc.. features are available to help in these cases, but not everything helps at times. In these times I have searched for Good tool which would help me in these regards. There are many tools available for these kinds of things. Among all I have personally used two Good tools “TotalFinder” which is Paid App & other “XtraFinder” which is Free. Both of the tools have similar functionality. Below table summarizes the features comparison for both tools
| Features | TotalFinder | XtraFinder |
|---|---|---|
| Tabbed Browsing | Yes | Yes |
| Dual Mode | Yes | Yes |
| Dual Panel/Window | No | Yes |
| Folders on Top | Yes | Yes |
| Show System Files | Yes | Yes |
| Visor | Yes | No |
| System Wide shortcuts | Yes | Yes |
| Cut & Paste | Yes | Yes |
| Customization | Yes [Limited, may be it's my fault, I did not completely customize or found ways to do so.] | Yes |
| OS Support | Mac OS X 10.6.x to 10.8.2 [Personally used it] | Mac OS X 10.6.8 to 10.8.2 [official claims, currently using on 10.8.3, works fine] |
| Price | $18.00 | $0.00 |
Above table just includes only a couple of features. Both have more than mentioned features, but personally, I found “XtraFinder” has more features than others. By the way let me tell you I didn’t just try “TotalFinder”, in-fact I have paid money & bought the “TotalFinder” license [First Paid to get License for a version & then upgrade fee for new version], used it for a couple of months and then found “XtraFinder”, tried it and then gave up “TotalFinder” completely. By the way one of the good features of “TotalFinder” is “Visor”, it was the key factor for me to buy in the first place. Below are the links for both apps, try them and use the one which is more useful to you.