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I really like the Column view in Finder. (Cmd-3) However, navigating through it can be a pain sometimes. Well, not anymore. Using the Tab key you can easily navigate the columns while typing. Here's how it works.
When in column view, there are arrows next to folders.
When you click on a folder, that folder is selected and the arrow is now White. When the arrow is white, whatever you type into the finder window will be selected in the second column.
However, if you scroll to a folder instead of clicking on it, the folder arrow will be outlined in white. When it's like this, your "cursor" is still in the first column.
When you hit Tab, the "cursor" will move from the first column to the second column and the arrow will become white. You can now type in the name of the folder/file you want to select in column two. Repeat as necessary.
It's a very simple thing to do and once you start doing it, your folder diving should greatly speed up.
If you found this helpful, please 
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3/20/08
How to Quickly Navigate Column View
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7 comments:
That was very helpful. I never noticed the filled and hollow arrow in the Finder. I always wondered why it's behavior when using the keyboard seemed erratic. Thanks a lot for the tip!
Arrow keys also work nicely to navigate between columns - when moving to the rightward column, two taps will get you there (one to outline in grey, one to make it solid and the rightward column scrollable).
This is cool but Quicksilver is much faster.
@ Tpenberthy
While arrow keys can be nice, if you have a large folder it is often faster to type in the name. (Unless you don't know what it is.)
@ Brandon Titus
I've tried quicksilver many times. However, no matter how much I want to use it, it just never seems helpful enough.
MacTipper
I'm new to mac, and a lot of times I know what I want to get, but not where to find it. I found that in finder the quickest way for me is to just type my need in the search, works about 99% of the time on my nice macbook pro, its pretttttty quick.
Anyhow, thank you for the info on how to use that a little more skillfully. I use a lot of recording and graphic programs and i'm a very big fan of quick keys.
I prefer using right arrow to tab, because that way it's possible to choose the next item with arrows or by typing part of its name.
I couldn't agree more. I love my using my keyboard to navigate more quickly than a mouse and column view is the way to go. Like MacTipper, I use list view occasionally to sort the files by size, date or type, but as for Icon view... never!
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