Edit by moderator: This branch of posts has been detached from Phantom Opera, given its own thread, retitled, and moved to the Mac OS X 10.6.x & 10.7.x forum.


I'm continuously surprised at how unknown the Path Bar feature still remains (being introduced in Leopard, more than 4 years ago).

Case in point: for many items i download in dmg format, it's quite apparent that the developer went to great lengths to carefully position all the icons, and provide a fancy background, and resize the window "just so"... all in an attempt to present a pretty package. Yet most end up looking awkward (scroll bars activated, icons and/or background text partially covered, etc), all because they didn't have the Path Bar turned on when they set up the dmg's window. [had they done so, the window would still appear just as good to users whose Path Bar is turned off.]

But mainly, it's such a handy feature (e.g., moving items up 2 or more levels), i can't believe its usage isn't universally ubiquitous by now.

> [...] all because they didn't have the Path Bar turned on when they set up the dmg's window.

I don't follow that; would you please clarify?

Thanks.

When a programmer creates a .dmg, often the programmer will take great pains to make it look pretty, by using custom dmg backgrounds and such.

And then a user gets the dmg who has the Path Bar turned on, and all that work is wasted, because the Path Bar messes up the pretty arrangement. Had the programmer turned on the Path Bar when she made the dmg, she could create a dmg that looks pretty with the Path Bar on or off.

It's a mistake I've made when I've created pretty dmg packages.

> "the Path Bar messes up the pretty arrangement"

I'm not following that, because when I toggle the Path Bar on it doesn't encroach on a .dmg's window...merely adds to it.

Can you suggest an example .dmg from which I can get a good visual idea of what you mean?

Maybe later (when i happen to hit one).
Until then, just take my word for it.

> I'm continuously surprised at how unknown the Path Bar feature still remains (being introduced in Leopard, more than 4 years ago).

But was it hyped?

I was unaware of it until ganbustein mentioned it, perhaps a year ago, as a way to immediately see into which volume you were booted, and Kevin's is only the second FTM mention I recall.

I guess there are people who intently cruise their menu bar periodically to see if anything's new, but I also guess that they're a small minority.

The reason I asked is because I opened a few .dmgs that I thought I remembered as possibly being "guilty," but with no luck.

I guess the utility (and the public's awareness) of a Finder window's Path Bar is comparable to Control-, Command- or right-clicking a window's title. The latter may even be preferable with small windows or small screens, and works in many non-Finder windows to boot. Still, the Path Bar is a nice option.

I first became aware of that option in the same thread in which ganbustein posted about the path bar.

There are a gazillion options built into OS X, and some folks have read the detailed release notes of each version and are aware of all of them, and the rest of us just wait for fortuitous posts

I'd be quite surprised if you haven't, like I have, occasionally had something surprising and wonderful happen on your screen after hitting some unknown key combination and been frustrated at not knowing what you did.

(I wonder whether this line of discussion deserves its own thread?)

So, now I'm back to being mystified.

In Finder, when I check "View", the only reference to a Path Bar is "Hide Path Bar" and it's greyed out.

Don't know why it'd be greyed out and say Hide while not appearing at the bottom of all your finder windows.

Regarding finding new features, it's simple. When new versions of stuff comes out, I look around for what's new.

1. I don't think it should ever be greyed out; shouldn't it always show a clickable "Hide..." or "Show..." as in my 10.6.8 installation?

2. That's an awful lot of looking in OS X (as opposed to just some app)! My hat's off to you.

It's actually something that was borrowed from Windows (so no doubt switchers have been aware). I think they refer to it as a ‘breadcrumb trail’ (but i don't know the official Microsoftian term). If what i've read (in some ArsTechnica thread) is correct, then Windows users can also right-click on any of those breadcrumbs (folders at the bottom) and get a drop-down menu of all the items in that folder... and mouse along that menu to arrive anywhere in that sub-hierarchy. [sorta reminds me of something that Now-menus from Now Software might have done... or perhaps FinderPop even does that right now. I haven't been keeping up with FinderPop much.]

Edit/ at least not for a year it seems: "Clicked on a question mark, and WOW!"

Well... So much for my recollection about how I learned about the path bar. (Edit: It is the thread I was thinking of, though.)

I just tripped over this... You'll see "Hide..." greyed out if you're in Finder but don't have a window open; it should mean that when you open a window the path bar is at its bottom.

Yup...that's it. Actually...I realized earlier today that I just wasn't "getting it" but the thread was in the midst of being moved so I couldn't reply.

And thanks, Kevin, for another great tip.

Net Monitor
Pashua
iFileX

Once you view those listed above, can you suggest a better verbal description than i gave?

[don't forget to have Path Bar enabled first (i.e., before mounting).]

Nope!

Interesting. I didn't need examples as I am well aware of the potential difference, but I tried your examples just for giggles. And giggles I got, particularly with Net Monitor and Pashua:

With Path Bar view toggled ON / OFF:

Net Monitor: OK /OK
Pashua: cut off bottom icon titles, right hand icons / same problem
iFileX: Cut of icon titles / OK

Net Monitor Sidekick (on Net Monitor page): cut off bottom background text / OK

Only in the last case there was a background image/text.

(PPC iMac late 2005; Mac OS X 10.5.8)

Well, here is what i get on my screen. The background image ( stored in "/Volumes/Net Monitor 4.5.4/.background/background.png" ) has text that gets cut off, like so...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13098669/net-mon-window.jpg


Something wrong on your end i must guess. The mounted Net Monitor dmg has that 127KB png file (at the path named in orange above), which should produce the background shown in my pic (dropbox link).



That could be... i don't go checking both states (normally).

Easier than describing what I see:

Four .dmgs opened without path bar having been selected in advance of opening

The same four .dmgs opened with path bar having been selected in advance of opening

alternaut may not have considered the "in advance" part; I got different results when I toggled the functionality after the .dmgs were open.

Edit: To my eyes, iFileX looks better with path bar selected.

Sorry, but I'm a few sizes too anal to mess that up. When I'm fully awake, that is, and in this case I was. Really! All view changes were set before opening the test images. Still there are some interesting differences:

1. 'My' Pashua (v0.9.4.7; 11/29/2011, 1.71 MB) window is much smaller than you describe, and doesn't show all files and folders at that size to begin with. Weird. But it still gets smaller when the Path Bar is toggled on (before mounting and opening the dmg) and the vertical scroll bar appears. That part at least is normal behavior.

2. Net Monitor's background .png (of the same net4.5.4.dmg; 11/29/2011, 1.1MB) is present where Hal says it should be, but it doesn't show in the opened Net Monitor dmg window. Hence any cutoffs due to Path Bar view changes remain invisible, as opposed to the Net Monitor Sidekick image window. Weird, but otherwise again normal view behavior.

Repeated downloads of the affected files produce the same results. Therefore, these two differences must be due to my Mac, Leopard, or the (currently florfed?) combination thereof.

Apart from that, it appears that the original premise about the effect of the Path Bar view on the appearance of Finder windows still stands.


PS, your iFileX pre- and post images differ from the 3 others (note how the Path Bar here doesn't encroach upon the window contents area, but gets added below); this is likely due to the fact that this particular pair really shows the difference between Show- and Hide Path Bar, rather than a difference in toggle setting before you opened this dmg.

FileX is a strange case... probably due to how small the window size was set, and perhaps the large icons as well. [almost wish i hadn't included it.]

Anyway, i just pulled those 3 examples out of my hat. There are plenty more out there in Macdom. Though hopefully their numbers will be decreasing, as more folks (including devs) leave Path Bar enabled permanently.

I wonder whether screen resolution has anything to do with the differences? (Sorry, but, the point having been made, I've absolutely no inclination to experiment.)

As you say, the main issue has been settled. That said, there's no apparent variation in screen resolution, and the iFileX difference literally jumps off the screen when you open your two screen images in Preview and toggle back and forth. No need for further experimenting either: I did enough for the two of us checking this out, and I'm satisfied with the explanation.

Keka 1.0 - http://www.kekaosx.com/en/

Thanks. That certainly makes the point.