In OS X Lion, Finder will not "Arrange By > Name" in "Column view".

I agree. This is another area where 10.7 is a step down from 10.6.

duc tuan wrote:

How can they invent this mad hidden feature ? are they learning from Microsoft ? Please fire the guy who is responsible for that !

It's not hidden if you understand the Mac OS. The option key isn't an alt key (even though it is marked as such on many keyboards; however, "alternative" fits this description).

The option key presents other options to the functionality. You can pack more into a menu item, button, etc by attaching a similar function to that item accessible with the option key.

Drop down some menus and press and release the option key. You will see various options available.

This wasn't used extensively in the past, but it has existed under various menu commands for a very long time.

Thanks - this was driving me nuts!

Sorry, it didn't work for me.

I'm considered going back to Windows 7 very soon. This is garbage.

LordHawks

If you hold down the option/alt key and press view you will see that arrange by becomes sort by.

It does work.

I had to set "Arrange By" to none, and then "Sort By" to name. It works now, but why do they have arrange and sort?

Arrangement is how the items are grouped.

Sort is how the items of a group are sorted.

thanks a lot, this thread is of great help to me.

I am new Mac user and I am enjoying the power of its GUI 🙂

Apple, please listen to the forum users OMG!!

Thank you for you help man, it worked for me too!

It worked fine with me until today. Now, it seems like my Mac forgot the alphabet. I have both Arrange and Sort set to Name, but this is the order it gives to four select items in a folder:

Sensur

oDesk

Krinein

Photos

It seems like it sorts the items from "Date added". I changed one folder to that option it seems like it does not understand that I have changed it back.

Finding items just got a lot more complicated. I think I’ve tried just about every setting, but I must have missed something. I hope someone can help me.

That looks as though it is sorting descending to me. For whatever reason, there isn't a way ot change the order in any of th arrangement options. The only way I've found is to switch to list view, sort by Name, ascending, then go back to what view you want and set the arrangement again.

Nope, Barney, its not descending, but thanks for trying. The first three are descending, but then there is a P. Anyhow, it keeps being an alphabetical mess. Towards the bottom there are some items sorted ascending alphabetical.

Symbols and list view sort the elements alphabetical, but column, which is the one I usually use is still a mess. I’ve tried sorting in different views, but when I go back to columns it’s a mess.

Barney 15E's solution works in Mountain Lion too, and his explanation

(Arrangement is how the items are grouped.

Sort is how the items of a group are sorted)

seems right in Mountain Lion too.

Barmagnus above seems to have neglected to set Arrange to None

THANK YOU !!! worked great in Mountain lion 😀
That's one glitch less yeay, a few more to go hahaha
Keep rocking.

Thank you Barney-15E