Like most applications in OS X with a toolbar, Finder will let you rearrange, add and remove items from its toolbar (pictured below). This is a great timesaver for those who don’t have the keyboard shortcuts memorized for deleting or want to have access to a button.

Like most other OS X applications, customize Finder’s toolbar by choosing the Customize Toolbar… from the View menu (pictured below).

Just like previously mentioned, Finder acts just as most other OS X applications. Below is a screenshot of the toolbar items available for Finder’s toolbar; it includes options like New Folder, Delete, Get Info, Quick Look, Eject and multiple view/navigation items.

This can be looked at as a tip or just a reminder, a reminder that you can always customize your Toolbars and to use that feature to its fullest.

I like to add a little something to each of the applications I use, personalize them if you will. Even though I use keyboard shortcuts the majority of the time to delete, view file info or for Quick Look, I find myself using them occasionally when its not convenient to use the keyboard (other people who use my Mac use them as well).

First off, this tip does not work with all menu bar items, only Apple-provided menu bar items (like the clock, WiFi status, iChat, etc.) and select third-party application menu bar addons. This reason behind this how to do with how developers add an item to the menu bar: only items through OS X’s SystemUIServer will work with this tip. 

Back when I first switched to the Mac, I couldn’t for figure out a way to move the items on my Mac’s menu bar around. The only way I could figure a way to do it was to manually enable/disable them in the order I wanted them to be displayed. This tip is a simple solution to that problem.

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A simple time saving tip that I’ve found useful is to quit open Applications without switching to them first. I’ve got two time saving ways to accomplish that task, first through Mac OS X’s built in Application switcher (Command + Tab) and secondly the Mac OS X Dock.

The Application switcher built into OS X and accessible through Command + Tab, this allows you to quickly switch between open Applications. By striking Command + Tab once and holding down the Command key you’ll see something like the screenshot above with icons for each running Application on your Mac. Pressing Tab again will cycle forward through the list while Shift + Tab will go backwards. A nifty trick is to hit the Q key while you have an Application highlighted in the Application switcher; you’ll notice that the icon fades out, the Application has just quit.

Using Mac OS X’s Dock is also an easy shortcut for quitting Applications. Right-click an open Application and choose Quit from the menu. If you’ve got an Application that has locked up and is not responding right-clicking the Application’s Dock icon will reveal a Force Quit option (much easier than opening the Force Quit window).

I’ve noticed most people drag an external disk to the Trash in order to unmount/eject a drive from their Mac. Thats not the only way to safely eject a disk from your system though… I can’t claim this tip saves any time, but its one I use quite often when I’ve got several application windows open, this tip is how to eject a disk through the Finder window (instead of the Desktop and the Trash located on the Dock).

Each ejectable disk has a small eject icon next to it in the left sidebar of Finder, this is highlighted in the image above (click on it to enlarge). A simple click on this eject icon will unmount the disk from your system and allow for removal without data loss (providing it ejected without an error). You’ll know its been ejected from your Mac when the disk disappears.

There are other ways of ejecting a drive from your system, using Disk Utility is one, and another method is by selecting a disk in Finder and using Command + E (while a drive is selected).

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking your Mac’s Dock is to large or to small this tip will help you change the size as well as a few other Dock options quickly and easily without opening System Preferences.

 

To do this trick, locate the “cross walk” looking area between your Applications and your Stacks and the Trash area. Once you hover over it you’ll notice the cursor changes to a resize looking pointer, drag up or down to set a new size or right click (Control + Click) to bring up a menu like the one pictured below.

 

The popup menu provides quick access to options like enabling or disabling Dock Hiding and Magnification in addition to the location (left, bottom or right) of the dock and the minimize effect used when minimizing an application window. At the very bottom of the menu is an option to launch the Dock preference pane in System Preferences.

By default Finder does not list the sizes of all items on your hard drive when viewing folders and files. If you’re curious about the size of an item and Finder simply places an -- in the Size column give this a try.

Bring up the View Options for the current folder you’re looking at, do this by either using Cmd+J, View > Show View Options or by right-clicking in a blank part of the Finder window and choosing Show View Options from the menu. Once there you’ll see a window like the one below, check the Calculate all sizes checkbox and close the window.

For an additional bonus, click the Use as Defaults button to apply this change to all subfolders. For one reason or another Finder does not remember this setting after logging out and back in, I would assume thats to minimize the work the CPU and hard drives need to do while browsing your files to make the OS snappier. If you only care about the size of a single file or folder, Quick Look will give this info to you with less effort, additionally the Get Info option under the File menu (also available by right-clicking the file/folder) will tell you a little more.

Some backgrounds look best with Mac OS X’s menu bar transparent, while others look terrible. I suppose this is why Apple allows you to toggle the transparency of the menu bar in the Desktop & Screensaver preference pane in System Preferences (as seen in the image above).

The ability to disable the transparency of the original translucent menu bar came in the 10.5.2 update released by Apple, since then users have had the ability to toggle the setting. What this comes down to is individual preference, I encourage you to try your menu bar both with and without transparency enabled to find what suits you best. Although this may be a well known feature for long-time mac users (or just Leopard early adopters), tips like this help newcomers to the mac feel at home, look for more tips like this one in our Mac Basics category.