show package contents

From what I recollect, "Show Package Contents" always opened in a new window (instead of the next pane). To change the size of the new window, after it opens, immediately resize the window and move it to your desired location, then close it. Next time you open it, it should open exactly the same.

Andrew Lamont wrote:
From what I recollect, "Show Package Contents" always opened in a new window (instead of the next pane).

This is correct. There is no way to show package contents in the same window.

FWIW, I get almost the same results: contents windows always open centered left to right, about 1/3 down from the top of the screen. The width is always too narrow & the only setting retained on reopening the same package folder is whether or not the disclosure triangle next to "Contents" is opened or closed.

Have you tried blowing away ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist? Default window height and location is stored there. Go into Terminal and type:

mv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist.orig
killall Finder

This will move aside (not delete) your finder prefs file. It will get regenerated from scratch when the Finder relaunches. See if that solves the problem.

Another thing to check is if there is a .DS_Store file inside the app your trying to view the package contents of. It could be causing the weird window location issues, however, it would be specific to that app not to all app's. In terminal type:

ls -ale <path to app>

You can get the path by dragging the app to the Terminal window.

Message was edited by: petrock

Moving ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist doesn't help for me. Apparently (at least on my system), all windows opened via the Finder's "Show Package Contents" option are positioned & sized dynamically so that they always open in the 'in your face' location centered horizontally on the screen, about 1/3 of the way down from the top. I can find no height, width, or position info in the Finder plist corresponding to this, which I assume varies depending on screen size. (BTW, the same is true for sidebar width, which for these windows always opens in the overly wide setting I have so carefully tried to reduce in all windows opened normally.)

Moreover, spot checking shows that changing view settings of these windows never results in a .DS_Store file being created for the app or its Contents folder.

My experience has been weirder: usually the Show Package Contents results in a new window, in the middle of the screen, about a third of the way down, rather generously sized, and in icon view. But I have had a couple of windows that opened in the upper left corner and were extremely narrow. I have no idea why, but am glad that it has only happened a couple of times.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

Having the Show Package Contents window show up in the "Alert" position (centered horizontally and about 1/3 down from the top) sounds like the Finder chose a 'general' location and size of the window because it couldn't find any indicators (via a .DS_Store or entry in com.apple.finder.plist) for where to put the window or what size to use. I have the same behavior on my machine Its a reasonable size and place to put a window IMO. If it appeared in some obscure location or with a funky size, then I would consider that to be a bug.

Did moving aside the finder.plist help you (Lars Brehmer1)? If not, is this problem happening for a specific app/package? Or does it happen for all of them (i.e. all the apps in /Applications)? If its a specific app/package, launch Terminal and type:

ls -ale <path to app/package>

You can get the path to the app/package by dragging it to the Terminal window. Copy/Paste the results in a reply and post it up.

are you still effected by this problem? A buddy of mine got into this situation with an .xcodeproj package and let me take a look. It opened up in the upper right corner of the window with a sidebar about 40 pixels wide and the area showing the files was also about 40 pixels wide. I fixed it by blowing away the .DS_Store file for the folder that contained the package. After that the package contents window opened up in the default "alert" position with the default window size. So his package was on his desktop (~/Desktop/XXX.xcodeproj) I typed these commands in Terminal.

rm ~/Desktop/.DS_Store
killall Finder

and when the Finder came back up, opening the package contents worked as expected. You can modify the commands I did above with the path to the parent directory for your package that is causing problem (i.e. /Applications/.DS_Store). Hope that helps. I have no clue how he got into this state though.