Q: I hate the new tags in Mavericks, need coloured folders!!

Hello, I think it is really necessary to gather as many people around the world to say in a loud voice to Apple mac managers and engineers : YOU WANT TO HAVE THE POSSIBILITY OF FILES WITH COLORED MAVERICKS 10.9.2 SYSTEM  : Revert to the Mountain Lion style labels instead/or with of Mavericks tags . Do you ability to route these messages to your friends who share this opinion Thank you Lutins from France

For lutins france and other late-comers, the following information, becoming buried in earlier posts, should be helpful.

Two applications have emerged that nicely solve the missing colored file/folder labels issue, XtraFinder (free so far) and TotalFinder. ($18 after a 2-week free trial). These apps run on top of the Finder but do not interfere with it, and they do not substitute for the Finder as do some other fixes. I understand that TotalFinder may have some advantages over XtraFinder in terms of file handling, but I would not know about that as I have been perfectly satisfied with Xtrafinder which does not interfere or slow other Mac operations in any way.

So, a fix is available, temporarily or permanently, depending on whether or not Mavericks will be updated to restore label color funtionality.

Meanwhile, many of us have posted to one of the Apple product feedback sites, such as this one,

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

which we encourage you to contribute your thoughts to. We remain hopeful that Apple is listening to us there, and/or here.

Thanks to all positive contributors. Just a brief note to express my satisfaction with XtraFinder after a couple of weeks using it. No problems to interact with Mac OS. It's what Finder should become (and hopefully will, better sooner than later).

I concur regarding XtraFinder. I've had it for 3 weeks, now. I will mention that even with the 19.2 update, the desktop folder colorization isn't stable. Nevertheless, colored folders has returned after 5 months of absence, and I like it even better than the original Apple version. I'm very grateful!

I have a big problem using this in Xtrafinder as I mentioned earlier. The color label extends the do not drag and drop area of any given folder to the maximum size and so it is hard to drag and drop stuff inside a folder with other folders in it without inadvertently dropping it in a random folder. This was not an issuse in Mountain Lion.  I don't know if this is the case in Total Finder?  In any case this has made this unusable for me.

grdh20 wrote:

I have a big problem using this in Xtrafinder as I mentioned earlier. The color label extends the do not drag and drop area of any given folder to the maximum size and so it is hard to drag and drop stuff inside a folder with other folders in it without inadvertently dropping it in a random folder. This was not an issuse in Mountain Lion.  I don't know if this is the case in Total Finder?  In any case this has made this unusable for me.

I'm not sure if you're describing the problem I had with XtraFinder but, yes, I had a problem that sounds like it's the same (or in the same family).  I switched to TotalFinder and couldn't be happier.  (It has a trial so you can check it out to see if it fixes your situation.)

I cannot replicate this misbehavior, either with Xtrafinder turned off or turned on. There might be a little difference in the hover time before a folder opens to receive a dragged folder-- quicker with Xtrafinder?  Otherwise, I find that if you drag a folder into another folder it will open only the folder that you hover the dragged folder over.

grdh20, I've had that problem (files in movement inadvertently dropping, randomly), but it preceded ExtraFinder. In fact, it has existed since ML and perhaps earlier, but I don't recall when I started noticing it. Are we talking about the same thing: clicking on a file, squeezing the sides of the MagicMouse and dragging from one folder to to another only to have it prematurely drop into who-knows-where?

Still cannot replicate, even with my Magic Mouse (MM), which was sitting in a corner for a couple of weeks, having "magically" disabled itself. It has since magically restored, but cannot replicate the problem with it, nor with my USB wired mouse, which was substituting for the Magic Mouse while it recuperated.

I am starting to wonder if maybe your problem is with the MM, or the way that you are handling it. I am unfamiliar with this "squeezing the sides," for example. I looked at the video on the following site, which contains instructions for the MM. https://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

Or, you might want to substitute a wired or other mouse as a test, and see if the problem persists.

I'm proibably not describing the problem right. It is hard to describe without a video screen capture. I'll try Totalfinder tonight and see if it behaves differently to Xtrafinders implementation. In Xtrafinder the blank space next to a color label folder name in list view is compromised when trying to drag any file into the root folder. This was not the case in ML or if just using Tags alone in Mavericks.

BY THE WAY!!!!!  Why does this forum not allow spellcheck in these posts?

Well now! I must say this 'Hate Tags' thread continues to provide invaluable information and help! DABbio, I had been squeezing the sides of my MM (to drag and drop files) from years of motor-habit as was required with the previous Apple Pro Mouse without consciously thinking about it, and was actually developing arthritic-like joint issues—not to mention years of yelling expletives of search-and-rescue of "fallen files." The MM requires only one finger on the top to recreate that function. Sooo, now I'll have to experiment to see if the problem of inadvertent transfer-dropping persists. I realize, folks, that this thread is about Tags/Colored Labels, so I'll discontinue mousing issues after this final entry as I'm convinced it has nothing to do with ExtraFinder or even Mavericks. My MM has had issues since day one (August 2010), so that's for another thread. And, yes, grdh20,it would appear your symptoms are completely different from mine.

grdh20 wrote:

I'm proibably not describing the problem right.

How you've described it resonates with me!  When you wrote

In Xtrafinder the blank space next to a color label folder name in list view is compromised...

that "compromised" is a very good what to describe what I was experiencing.  My problem with that "compromised" area was not that I couldn't use it to drop something and have it go to the root (tho' I do use that and would probably have come to be bothered by that as well).  My problem with XtraFinder compromising that area was that a click-and-drag in that area immediately grabbed onto the item to the left of the click, rather than letting the drag motion continue on to multiselect.  (This too is a hard thing to describe if it's not a gesture one typically uses.)

TotalFinder does not "compromise" the blank area to the right of a file or folder name.  I just checked a drag-and-drop and was successful having the item be dragged into the root rather than added into the folder to the left.

Yes, I find total finder does behave properly with regard to my earlier issue with xtrafinder, even on 10.9.3 beta and even with both Totalfinder and Xtrafinder runningh together as long as lables is turned off in xtrafinder.  So I am very happy that I have better control over all of this now.

Grrregerrr, just to round out this mouse issue: (1) There exist Apple Support Communities forums on Magic Mouse, including some covering my "magical" disconnect problem; and (2) Additional mouse gestures including Swipe between pages, Swipe between full-screen apps, and Mission Contol, are demonstrated in your System Preferences/Mouse.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5474093?start=0&tstart=0