Desktop Icon Text limited to one line, no wrap to two lines

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Level 1

8 points

Desktop Icon Text limited to one line, no wrap to two lines

A new installation of Big Sur on a new MacBook Air M1, the desktop icons will not display more than one line of text—no wrap to two lines when text label is longer than one line.

I recollect there was a dropdown menu for selecting multiple lines of text in the past, but cannot find this. I remember there was a setting in the user com.apple.finder.plist file, when it was plain text, but I cannot locate any control over this display anywhere now.

Thanks in advance for input/feedback.

Posted on Oct 24, 2021 5:08 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 25, 2021 7:09 AM in response to b.bingham

b.bingham wrote:

A new installation of Big Sur on a new MacBook Air M1, the desktop icons will not display more than one line of text—no wrap to two lines when text label is longer than one line.

I recollect there was a dropdown menu for selecting multiple lines of text in the past, but cannot find this. I remember there was a setting in the user com.apple.finder.plist file, when it was plain text, but I cannot locate any control over this display anywhere now.

Thanks in advance for input/feedback.

Not sure what you are saying here

"desktop icons will not display more than one line of text—no wrap to two lines when text label is longer than one line. "

File names are not intended to be paragraphs of information...

You can change icon size, grid spacing etc if you click on the Desktop and Command J will open— this will effect what is shown in the file name.

Make it easier to see what's on the screen of your Mac - Apple ...

Align and resize items in icon view on Mac - Apple Support

Make it easier to see what's on the screen of your Mac - Apple ...

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

122,627 points

Oct 25, 2021 7:58 AM in response to b.bingham

Can't tell you why you are having that issue. I don't have it on my M1 MacBook Air or any other Mac running Big Sur. You could try moving the Finder .plist to the trash and restart. If it's fixed, you can empty the Trash.

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Answer 3

HD

Level 5

4,933 points

Oct 25, 2021 8:07 AM in response to b.bingham

Increase the grid spacing in View Options so that the icon is moved further in from the edge of the screen.

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Answer 4

dialabrain

Level 10

122,627 points

Oct 25, 2021 7:20 AM in response to b.bingham

b.bingham wrote:

A new installation of Big Sur on a new MacBook Air M1, the desktop icons will not display more than one line of text—no wrap to two lines when text label is longer than one line.

They wrap here…

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Answer 5

b.bingham Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 25, 2021 7:47 AM in response to b.bingham

Further background: Other versions of the Mac OS we are using, back to OS X 10.6 are displaying normally, as they have since the early systems: Two lines of text. I've attached screenshots from two different installs of MacOS 11.6 Big Sur to illustrate.

There used to be an old version of Onyx, perhaps, or Tinker Tool, that had a drop-down menu that could control this setting, and you could watch it change in the .plist file for Finder. But I think that file is binary now, not simple text. There appears to be some change in this particular installation that has altered the behaviour. Perhaps as simple as trashing the finder preferences?

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Answer 6

PRP_53

Level 10

85,159 points

Oct 25, 2021 8:00 AM in response to b.bingham

Maybe am out of my depth here - See below png. Original Name was DU.png. Moved to Desktop. Right click Get Info. Under Name & Extension >> Changes to Disk Utilities Screen Shot. Done on M1 Mac Mini Big Sur 11.6

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Answer 7

b.bingham Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 25, 2021 7:43 AM in response to leroydouglas

Thank you for this—I see I was incomplete: I'm fully aware of Cmd–j View Options, Cmd-, Finder preferences, System Preferences.

None of these are offering controls on the ability to wrap text/display two or three lines of text. At least not since OS X 10.6, which is the earliest installed system we have here. I have no desire to display a paragraph of text.

I see we can post screenshots, so will do so below—

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