Switchers and new Mac users may hear veterans refer to "performing a get info." Here's what that means, and exactly what you'll get.Single-click a file or folder in the Finder and select "Get Info" from the File menu (or hit Command-I on your keyboard) and a new window appears. This is the Info window, and it provides a lot of information.
First, you'll see the file's name, size and most recent modification date. Below that is a field for storing comments or keywords to improve Spotlight search results. For instance, you might add "Colorado," "Map" and "Vacation" to a PDF you'll need for that upcoming trip.
Next you'll see the file's kind, size (again), location on your hard drive, creation date and most recent modification date (again). You can also add a color-coded label to any files you want to group visually.
Two checkboxes follow. Selecting "Stationery Pad" will force that file to open a copy of itself when double-clicked, and selecting "Locked" will prevent future changes (as well as deletion).
The "More Info" display depends on file type. For instance, an image will list data like dimensions, color space, etc. A Pages document will list last time opened or edited.
"Name and Extension" lists a file's name as well as an option to display or hide its extension. You'll also find an option to determine a file's parent application (the one used to open it), a preview of that file and finally sharing and permission information.
If you're new to the Mac, "perform a get info" on a few files to get a feel for that window and the data you'll find there. It's pretty useful.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-23-2008 @ 11:19AM
Bender Bending Rodriguez said...
If needing to check the Get Info data of many items holding down The Alt/option key will allow you to choose Show Inspector. This is the same data as Get Info but will change with each item you click or arrow on.
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7-23-2008 @ 11:19AM
Bender Bending Rodriguez said...
If needing to check the Get Info data of many items holding down The Alt/option key will allow you to choose Show Inspector. This is the same data as Get Info but will change with each item you click or arrow on.
Reply
7-23-2008 @ 12:00PM
Chris said...
Thanks!
7-23-2008 @ 12:12PM
wookie said...
Alt-Cmd-I does the same without needing to pick from a menu.
7-23-2008 @ 11:56AM
riddlu said...
Basically, "Get Info" is what "Properties" is on Windows. In various apps too.
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7-23-2008 @ 12:15PM
Peter said...
next up, How to Plug in Your Mac...
Just joking - the 'Change All...' button under 'Open with' is especially useful.
You can change a file's icon in here as well by pasting onto the toppermost preview.
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7-23-2008 @ 12:25PM
William Hook said...
Ah, is that what the Spotlight box does. What's the best way to add tags, too?
1) "this" "is" "an" "example" or
2) this, is, an, example, or
3) this is an example
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7-23-2008 @ 3:15PM
Dan said...
William, #3 is adequate and I can confirm it works as expected when searching based only on tags.
7-23-2008 @ 3:17PM
William Hook said...
Cool, thanks. :)
7-23-2008 @ 1:00PM
delight1 said...
i would suggest mentioning command + ctrl + i, which forces the selected items to use the same get info window. it is get for seeing the combined files size of a group of files.
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7-23-2008 @ 3:19PM
P120D1GY said...
Thanks man! This is actually something that was pissing me off about Mac OS X haha. Thanks for sharing.
http://www.digitalassassin.com
7-23-2008 @ 1:43PM
Mrtrik said...
one note of caution though.... if you multi - select say, 100 files and do a get info, the default in windows gives you one dialog box, mac will open 100 get info's.
That was fun.
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7-23-2008 @ 2:09PM
Rhywun said...
Tell me about it. I *still* do that sometimes.
7-24-2008 @ 3:36AM
Justin Piper said...
You can close all the Finder windows that are open with Command-Alt-W or Alt-clicking the close button on one of them if you get into a situation like that.
7-24-2008 @ 9:00AM
Olligarski said...
In Leopard selecting 10 items or less brings up individual info windows. Selecting 11 or more results in one summary window, just like Ctrl-Cmd-I.
7-23-2008 @ 3:23PM
Thomas said...
It really bugs me that you can't add spotlight comments and labels from the save as box, seems stupid that you save a file, then have to go to the file in finder in order to add these things.
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7-23-2008 @ 4:02PM
Balls said...
Sweet action. I added tags for all my phoenix wright mp3s!
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7-27-2008 @ 6:22PM
trendbreakr said...
I just switched to Mac and I'm so used to "Properties" and "Delete" that I usually overlook "Get Info" and "Move to trash" in the right click menu. I keep forgetting that Mac uses really simple phrases to do things.
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