For the last 10 years, macOS has relied on Uniform Type Identifiers to recognise different types of files, for opening in apps, QuickLook, Spotlight and in other features.
Finder
How custom folders are easy to set up and to use. How they work in iCloud Drive, and can even be seen on your iPhone. And what makes them work.
When the numbers simply don’t add up. How some extended attributes may be included in quoted file sizes, but others are ignored, and Sequoia hasn’t really changed this since Classic Mac OS of 25 years ago.
How to create and use a Saved Search or Smart Folder, which isn’t a folder at all, how you can change its search, and how it works.
Using the Spotlight window and Finder’s Find window to locate local files that match your search criteria. Word boundaries and their effect on search results.
How the name of one of the two ancient Greek Graces confuses Spotlight’s search box, and which characters can separate words.
The magic of Mac was how you could double-click a document and it opened in the right app. Now that works differently with LaunchServices, it offers me 70 apps to edit any text document. Can we return to magic please?
When it started up after its macOS update, available space on its internal SSD had shot from about 160 GB to nearly 400 GB. Where had all my files gone?
Adding your own custom icons to files and folders goes back a long way, to Classic Mac OS […]
From its clean and spartan origins in Classic MacOS, the Finder has changed it metaphor, and now works more like a browser. Over 25 years of history.
The Eclectic Light Company 