I really like Quick Look but one of its failings is that when you press the Space Bar to Quick Look at a folder, all you get is a big folder icon. Now, that’s not much use, is it?

Well, there are two free plugins that you can add into a QuickLook folder in your Library folder and when you then restart your Finder you’ll get the additional functionality of being able to see what files are within a folder or a zipped file.

written by Mike Bradbrook \\ tags: Finder, QuickLook

The new Leopard Finder automatically shows all the images on your machine using the Smart folder “All Images”.

Now, doesn’t that sound just lovely? Well, it does unless there are images on your machine that you really don’t want friends or family seeing. I’m sure you have immediately thought of an example and I bet that what you’re thinking of rhymes with corn!

Well, there is a solution that is something you probably should do with sensitive data anyway - put these files into an encrypted disk image.

Let’s work with an example - I’ll use Smurfs, which obviously I’d be really embarrassed if my wife saw on my machine while she scrolled through Cover Flow. Let’s put these little beauties into an encrypted disk image!

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written by Mike Bradbrook \\ tags: Finder, How To, Security

This little ditty is an ammendment to a post I recently made: Coverflow Makes for Great Font Browsing.

You can use ‘Quick Look’ to take an even better look at the fonts in your fonts folder. In cover flow mode in Finder, select the font you wish to preview. Notice the preview in the cover flow window. Cool.

Now, all you have to do is hit the spacebar. ‘Quick Look’ will jump in and give you a preview of the full file!

Not enough? Now try hitting the two arrows near the bottom of the quick look window. This will give you a fullscreen preview of the file. When you’re done previewing simply click the X to close, or the 2 arrows to go back to the main quick look mode.

This doesn’t apply to font files alone. Try this out on any file in any location on your mac! It’s a very handy little shortcut that lets you take a closer look at your files without having to open up any applications!

Thanks to our good friend Dan on this one.

written by Mr. Mayor

If you’re like me, and you design a lot of things on your mac (websites, posters… you name it)… You should appreciate this one.

I was fooling around with the coverflow option in finder the other day when I somehow stumbled into the fonts folder. I wondered to myself, ‘geez, will Leopard give me a preview of the fonts in coverflow?’ I had to check it out to see.

What do you know, coverflow DOES show you a preview of your fonts… And it’s very handy to flip through your fonts if you’re looking for something in particular.

If you’re like me, and the font dropdown in Photoshop just isn’t enough (small, small previews of the fonts) then this is a good option. Add a shortcut to your fonts on your desktop or dock, and large font previews are always one-click away!

written by Mr. Mayor