Q: How to get label colors back on Maverick?

Deedgee wrote:

 

Hmm, I have none of those problems (perhaps you should go to Genius help soon). But I do have vexing problem. My macros on Word do not function because Mavericks somehow erased Visual Basic, Word's interior programming language. Anyone have a clue on what to do for loss of Visual Basic? (Perhaps I should start a new thread.)

Probably the best idea as it is a different issue from this thread and you will get a lot more persomlised help that way for your issue.

Merry Christmas

Pete

I work in list view. My files have long names. This relates to client/title/size/format....very specific.

Anyway, here is what happens to me while using tags.

Step 1: I am looking for a file? Hmmm...

The dots are all the way to the right, pinned to the next column . So I have to follow across my large desktop screen to see the dot. At that point, I am looking back to see if I am on the same line as the dot. Ridiculous! Why even bother!

So step 2 sounds like a better option for making sure to see the color dot next to the end of my file name.

Step 2:

I will drag the column all the way to the left, but again, the dot is at the end of my long file name. Great...except now I have to look back at the beginning of the name of the file to make sure I am still looking at the file I originally wanted. Again, absolutely ridiculous!

At this point, I just wasted all that time trying to figure out what status my file was in. I give up. Way too much work involved here.

COLOR LABELS solved all of the above in less than a RIGHT-BRAIN SECOND! No conscious brain processing needed.

I posted my gripe to Apple, please post yours.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Bingo. You captured the frustration well.

Some of us work in column view and have no such frustrations.

Cheers

Pete

I've posted my gripe a number of times. The dot/tags are highly ineffiicient for me in a number of ways.

Apart from size, the most annoying is the way it does not delete the previous colour when choosing a new one. It just adds to it making the colour differenciation even harder to see. So it's a two-step process to code a file during my work processing.

I work with InDesign altering files through very specific and individual processes and it's important that each is coloured once it's received that treatment. I have various folders/jobs going at once and the Labels were fabulous as I knew where each file in each job was and so did everyone else at a glance. Now it's extremely difficult to see the colours and use them. There have been some major messups since Tags were invented!

I see what you mean. The dots are bigger, which does help. I would like that better if it could be that large in list view. I checked it out to see if it would help.

I have 2 issues in the column view: nested folders and date at-a-glance

I have deeply nested folders. So reading from right to left over the course of 5 or more columns across the screen is too much. In list view, it is very easy to read nested, in nested, in nested, etc. folders/files. Everthing is still flowing in a readable manner from top to bottom with only a slight offset.

And the most important thing is being able to see the most current date next to the name of the file or folder without having to select it.

You can delete the previous color by clicking on that color itself. Then click on the new color. At least that way you don't have 2 different colors muddying up the scene.

Path Finder 6 is $40

30 day free trial. I hope it does a lot more than colorize Finder names.

Like many other devout Mac users, I have tailored my life around color-coding files on my computer.  This became absolutely critical recently when I became sick and suffered a dramatic cognitive impairment that makes concentration an impossibility.  Almost simultaneously, I've all but lost far-sight vision in one eye, making reading difficult at best. 

Upon upgrading to OS X Mavericks, I was forced to devise a new strategy for navigating data which I had become familiar with based on the color of label as well as it's location and relation to other files with different color labels (which I could alter by changing the way the data was sorted).  Somehow this information had survived the cognitive issues and obviously, I had no idea that the loss of the label color was one of the casualties of OS X Mavericks.

And though it sounds somewhat reactionary, the loss of this functionality has the potential to seriously impact users with disabilities (myself excluded ... I can adapt, many others cannot).  In terms of features, this is the kind of thing which you could easily imagine existing within the host of "accessibility" features which every Macintosh has enjoyed since the early days (Text-to-Speech in OS 9, etc.)

Anyway, just my two cents ... I can really appreciate the frustation that others must feel, having organized business files, etc., by label color only to wake up one morning to discover their organizational system was wiped out by Apple in the name of improvements.

You will need to send your complaint to Apple. If enough users provide feedback then there is always a slim chance that Apple may listen and restore the feature.

FEEDBACK    http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Pete

I would also suggest encouraging third party software. I searched for solutions and I was especially impressed with Totalfinder.

http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/

It restores or adds qualities to the Finder that supporters find useful. It is a 10 day trial shareware and is not terribly expensive, and not as intrusive as some Finder alternatives.

The forum for feature requests is here:

http://discuss.binaryage.com/category/totalfinder

Several others have already requested restoration of full color labels of TotalFinder's developer. If more make the request, they are a very small company and my make the effort. Conversely Apple is huge and features are not always driven by user demand but rather by other forces. I appreciate Petermac87's post and i left a message there, but i am less optimistic about Apple Corporation's responsiveness.

Hi Team No,

There is an alternate finder application called "Path Finder" by Cocoatech--just google Path Finder and you will find it.  It has a free trial, and I have decided to purchase ($39.95) even though I've gotten used to (kind of) the little colored dots.  Their finder window shows all the colored labels just as before, but the app is a bit different and offers other features I haven't tried yet.  I like having the option to use either application.  It sounds like this app might be very helpful to you visually.  Very best to you.  BarbyGale

The labels come back when viewing your file on another Apple computer that doesn't have Maverick.  So Labels are still there, you just can't see them with Maverick because it converts them to dots.  I am a student and I don't have money to buy special software to see my labels again.

I am seriously thinking of removing Mavericks from my laptop.  I use labels to make it easier to find homework files I am currently working on and need to find immediately.  I do not use a dot coloring system like a dental office or doctor's office. 

The dot system is rather stupid.  If you want to organize all the files of one type, just put them all in a folder with the name RED DOT or YELLOW DOT for those who like DOTS.  Which I don't.

When I found out about labels, I was so happy because they saved me a lot of time and I could see them right away and find things faster.

Having to purchase additional software (especially at $40) reminds me of when Coke changed their formula and when people complained, they then brought it back as Classic Coke.  Why fix something that isn't broken?

Our school computers do not have Maverick and I can see my labels on those computers just fine.  But when doing homework on my laptop, the labels are stupid dots. 

I wish someone would invent a HIGHLIGHTER tool so I could highlight anything on my screen and make it stand out in all kinds of colors including file and folder names.  That would be a greater improvement for labels than turning them into dots.

Does anyone know how I can uninstall Maverick? 

Re uninstalling Mavericks, I asked that question of Apple Care awhile back.  If you have time machine, you can go back to before you installed Mavericks, but of course you would lose absolutely everything you did on the computer since then....not a very viable option.

I wonder why Apple didn't think about changing the color of the file folders rather than the dots at the end? Colored file folders would be great!  I am sure someday people will laugh at these comments because the whole world changes every few years and all this will be replaced by something even more ridiculous I suppose....

Apple used to have the ability to easily change folder colors within the OS ... I believe it went away after OS 9.2.2.  I'm sure people complained then as well, but the jump betw. OS 9 and OS X was so dramatic, they may have lost a lot of Mac diehards at the time (and new Macs were "dual boot" systems for awhile, i.e., you could boot into OS X or boot into OS 9 on the same machine).

This is all old news and I'm not telling the old skool people anything new, but just pointing out that it was once a feature which a lot of people used.