List View Click to see a larger image

To change the view, click on one of the four view buttons at the top left of the Finder window.

Icon view is the simplest view. Click on a file to open it and click on a folder to see its contents. The downside to Icon view is that it is hard to tell where you are in the file hierarchy .

List view can show you a very detailed view of the file hierarchy. Each folder has a disclosure triangle next to it. Click on the disclosure triangle and the view will drill down to show you the contents of that folder. You can continue to drill down as deep as there are folders. If you are a Switcher, you will notice that List View is very similar to Windows Explorer.

Column View is the the most powerful view and in my opinion the easiest to understand. When you click on a folder in Column view, a new column is created to the right that shows the contents of that folder. You can continue to click folders and new columns are created. What makes this view easy for me is that you can scroll right and left in the view to see your entire file hierarchy.

CoverFlow view shows your files in the same CoverFlow format that iTunes uses to browse albums. You browse from left to right and see the icon or the preview of the document. CoverFlow view works best if you have a folder of photos. With photos you can quickly browse the photo contents of the folder without having to select each file and wait for the preview to load.

Which view you use is a matter of personal preference. I suggest you take some time to experiment with all four so that you know how they work.

Related Items: Finder | Folder