Hi! This is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you
the three different modes of the Get Info Window in the Mac Finder.
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So in the Finder on your Mac you can choose a File and then use Command i or File, Get Info
to get all sorts of information about the file you've selected. So, for instance, I can select
this file here. I can go to File, Get Info, and you can see the keyboard shortcut is Command i,
and it brings up this window here. At the top you see the name of the file you've selected
and the word Info and then you see its icon, you see the name, you see the file size here,
the last modified date. You can see any Tags that are associated with that file.
Then you have these different sections. You can reveal these different sections with the little
Disclosure triangle here on the left. The first one, General, gives you information like the Kind,
More Detail about the size, where it is located, the date it was created, and such. Under More
Info you can see lots of other information. This may change depending on the type of file. So in
this case it is an image so you can see things like Dimensions, the color space, whether there
is an output channel, all sorts of things like that. Each one of these gives you more and more
information. Here's the name again but this time in an editable window so you can actually change
the name here. You've got Comments, if you want to see that. Open With, and you can set the default
app to open this file. You've got a Preview area and some file types, like in Image here, will give
you a preview. You see Sharing and Permissions as the last one. So you can open and close these
sections as you need and it will remember that and show you that in the Info window.
Now if you want to get information about another file you would select that file, like that, and
do Command i or File, Get Info, and then you have a second window here. Each one of these showing
the information for the file that was selected when you choose that file. So if you want to get
info on a lot of files you're going to have a lot of these little windows open. In fact, if I close
both of these and say I want to get info on these four files here and use Command i it is going to
open four different windows. One for each file. That's the way the standard Get Info Window works.
But there are two other variations of this window. These are more useful when you're
dealing with multiple files or just wanted to get info on various files without having to
open up an Info Window, Close it, select another file, Open again, Close, and so on. So the first
variation I want to show you is if you go to File, Get Info but this time you hold down the
Control Key. You can see Get Info changes to Get Summary Info. The keyboard shortcut, since I'm
holding down the Control Key, is Control Command i. Now if I select that with four files selected
it will show multiple item info here at the top. How many items there are and the total amount
of space they're using. Then all of the sections here will show you only combined information. So,
for instance, the combined size. This is a handy way to find out how much space a group
of files takes up. But other than that it works just like a regular Get Info Window. The is a
regular window here. It will go behind another window if I select it. If I select some other
files here this stays the same. Showing the info for those four items that were selected before.
So, here's the third variation on the Get Info Window. If I go to File,
Get Info but this time hold down the Option Key you can see it changes to
Show Inspector with the keyboard shortcut Option Command i. Now when I bring this up,
at first it doesn't seem any different than the Get Info Window. It shows the same title up here
although you may notice that the title area is smaller. Then it shows the same info below that,
Tags, all of these different sections are the same. It all just appears basically be the same
thing as the Get Info Window. But there are two important differences. One is this floats
on top. If I were to select this window here notice how when I drag it this Info Window
or the Inspector Window remains on top of the Finder window. It's a floating window. So that
kind of makes it easier to always have that on top as, say, you move windows around like this.
But the other, very important difference, is that what this shows will change depending upon what I
have selected. So here I have selected this image here. If I go to select this image instead notice
it changes. It doesn't still show the information from that original file selection. So now I see
the information for this file that's selected. In fact, you only have one Inspector Window.
You can't open a second one because just a single window that will change to show you whatever it is
you've got selected and all of the information for that. In addition, if I were to select
multiple files, and I'll do that by selecting one file and then Command clicking another file,
you could see it changes to show me the summary info. So now it says two items here and show me
the total and summarizes the information. I can select a third file as well. Now it says
three items. I can even select folders. If I select this folder it will show me the total
there and I can select more folders and you can see it adds it up. It counts each folder as one
item. So it's not actually showing me the items inside of each one. But, if I look under Size here
in general it shows me the total size and that there are, in fact, 41 items in these 4 folders.
So actually this Inspector is usually more useful. Rarely are we trying to get info on
maybe different files at the same time, like that. Usually we just want one file, like that,
and then when we want another file we close this one, select another file, and Get Info on that.
But with the Inspector, holding down the Option Key and using Option Command i, I get this file
here and then I get whatever file it is I have selected. Plus, since it remains on top it's not
always going to jump behind every time I try to use something in a Finder Window. In fact it is
easy to keep this window open as kind of a Preview area especially if you're looking at images. So
I've got the Preview here turned On and now I can go through and perhaps use this as a way to see
what image it is that I have selected. It's a little more permanent than using Quick Look
which will pop-up when you use the Spacebar and go away and usually you have to get rid
of it in order to see what's behind it and it's more movable than using View, Show Preview which
will show a Preview here with some information, but it's attached to the Finder window. It's
always on the right side. This you could move around and put somewhere else if you need.
I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.