Pick a Finder view and make every folder use it
Four ways to look at a folder, four shortcuts, and one button that saves you setting them again folder by folder.
Works on: macOS Big Sur 11 and later · checked on macOS Golden Gate 27
Published: · Source: Snoflaa
The Finder has four views, and the View menu switches between them: as Icons ⌘ + 1, as List ⌘ + 2, as Columns ⌘ + 3, as Gallery ⌘ + 4.
List is the one to default to if you work with names rather than pictures: it sorts by any column, shows dates and sizes side by side, and does not ask you to identify a document from a thumbnail the size of a stamp. Columns is better for walking down a deep tree of folders, and Gallery earns its keep in a folder of photos.
The annoying part is that macOS remembers the view per folder, so you end up setting it a thousand times. Open View → Show View Options (⌘ + J), tick the columns you actually want — Date Added and Size are the useful ones — and click Use as Defaults at the bottom. Every folder that uses the same view now opens the way you just described. The button is not available in Column view.
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