Michael Mortilla
Level 2 (289 points)
Mac OS X

Q: "Name" portion of my Finder windows too long

When I open most (but not all) Finder windows, the Name section is extremely long, even when the names in the directory or folder are very short.

 

Does anyone know a way to reset or define the width of the name column? The other columns seem fine.

 

screenshot.jpg

OS X Mavericks (10.9), 2008 MP 3.2gHz; 20GB RAM

Posted on Oct 29, 2013 12:29 AM

by Michael Mortilla,Solvedanswer
Michael Mortilla Michael Mortilla
Level 2 (289 points)
Mac OS X
A:

UPDATE: I have found a way to temporarily fix this. Toggle the Finder window to FULL SCREEN and then back to normal (traditional) view). You can use the ESC key to do this. It fixes it. New windows seem to revert to the problem on an ad hoc basis but at least there is an easy fix. I'll be setting up a Quickeys command to toggle it for me when the need arises.

Posted on Oct 31, 2013 9:16 PM

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Michael Mortilla

Q: "Name" portion of my Finder windows too long

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  • by FlorianSchommertz,

    FlorianSchommertz FlorianSchommertz Nov 14, 2014 5:47 PM in response to Michael Mortilla
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 14, 2014 5:47 PM in response to Michael Mortilla

    I have an ugly apple script that i fire with quicksilver

    Things could be better - but maybe somebody likes this way too.

     

     

    tell application "Finder"

    activate application "Finder"

     

      tell application "System Events" to keystroke "t" using {option down, command down}

      delay 0.1

     

     

     

      tell application "System Events"

      tell process "Finder"

      click menu item "Zoom" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1

     

      end tell

      end tell

     

      tell application "System Events" to keystroke "t" using {option down, command down}

      delay 0.1

     

    end tell

  • by TjallingKikkert,

    TjallingKikkert TjallingKikkert Jul 2, 2015 6:29 AM in response to Michael Mortilla
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 6:29 AM in response to Michael Mortilla

    They we're right, adjust column width and THEN adjust the windowsize to let it "sink in", make the Finder understand what you want. Close the window, f.e. Applications (shift-cmd-a) and column width is as you'd like them...

  • by Mark Grodzki,

    Mark Grodzki Mark Grodzki Oct 30, 2015 8:45 AM in response to campoxford
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 30, 2015 8:45 AM in response to campoxford

    That TOTALLY worked. Option click and drag. The next window I opened was the fixed size. Using 10.10.5.

  • by cwebber1,

    cwebber1 cwebber1 Nov 9, 2015 7:22 AM in response to Mike K
    Level 1 (47 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 9, 2015 7:22 AM in response to Mike K

    I'm absolutely amazed how many things that worked well years ago in OSX (Panther, Tiger, SnowLeopard, ...) don't work anymore.

     

    OSX is harder to use, less intuitive, less colorful, and less productive.

    Honestly, the only thing keeping me with Apple today (I've ditched the iPhone) is good hardware and the fact the its the only high volume production OS with Unix underneath the hood.  If somebody were to make a NEXT-like machine with Unix, or something similar, I'd probably give it a try.

  • by RebeccaMigdal,

    RebeccaMigdal RebeccaMigdal Dec 18, 2015 9:08 AM in response to alexpselamat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 18, 2015 9:08 AM in response to alexpselamat

    Thank you so much Alex. It's still a bit of a wonky fix, but doing as you suggest has made it a much less annoying issue for me.

     

    Rebecca

     

    PS I love they way they marked Michael's temporary fix "solved"! Kind of obnoxious.

  • by n.mitchell.86,

    n.mitchell.86 n.mitchell.86 Jan 31, 2016 4:59 AM in response to Disuser
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 31, 2016 4:59 AM in response to Disuser

    Installing XtraFinder (a free plug in to add functionality to Finder) solved this problem 100%. Did I mention that it is FREE?

     

    In the settings there is an option to simply 'tick', which automatically adjusts the columns widths to fit the window size. It also allows the user to specify a given width for the Names column.

    https://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/

     

    Summary of Failed attempts (Mavericks):

    Readjusting the size of the columns manually (holding the 'alt' key or not!) does have persistence, like people have mentioned, but only for THAT specific folder where you have adjusted it, so any new folders you make or folders that you haven't visited before still have the default column widths that are too wide.

     

    I noticed this problem started for me when I used a montor with a much higher resolution than my MBP.

    I have played around with the 'com.apple.finder.plist' file found in "/Users/your_user_name/Library/Preferences/", because this file should dictate the default columns widths and other parameters, however Finder appears have the incorrect values cached, or at least isn't paying attention to that file.

     

    I did try deleting all the hidden '.DS_Store' files for every folder before too, but that also failed.

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