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Cover flow - any one actually use it
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Maflynn
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:13 PM
 
The title says it all, does anyone use cover flow in the finder?

I find it to a clumsy solution view my files and folders. Great eye candy but its usefulness is debatable.
~Mike
     
Atheist
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:14 PM
 
I used it for about 10 minutes... then never again.

Why isn't this a poll?
     
Dakar V
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:15 PM
 
Yes, it's my default view for the finder. It's also a killer on an integrated graphics laptop. It also has weird habits. And it loves to hog VM.
     
ShortcutToMoncton
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:19 PM
 
No. To me it's like Dashboard: cool to use and cool to think about using, but it just doesn't happen in practice.

greg
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Mac User #001
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:26 PM
 
I'm a bit shocked to hear you say that about Dashboard.

Oh, and I don't have Leopard. If I did though, I wouldn't use it because my laptop is sucky.
I have returned... 2020 MacBook Air - 1.1 GHz Quad-Core i5 - 16 GB RAM
     
nonhuman
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:35 PM
 
Nope, never use it. Just seems kinda pointless. I use it in iTunes, but even then it's only because it looks good and I'm actually picking my songs/albums by the text below.
     
paul w
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:36 PM
 
Yes - when browsing for images in the finder (when using spotlight to search for a particular file). Very useful.
     
Maflynn  (op)
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:39 PM
 
Originally Posted by paul w View Post
Yes - when browsing for images in the finder (when using spotlight to search for a particular file). Very useful.
I use bridge cs3 for that, while not everyone has the photoshop tools, bridge > cover flow.
~Mike
     
paul w
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:42 PM
 
I use Bridge all day - but when I want to move image files around, I prefer the Finder.
     
Laminar
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Feb 10, 2009, 12:45 PM
 
Tried it for 10 seconds, then got bored.
     
Eug
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Feb 10, 2009, 01:02 PM
 
I used the Dashboard all the time.

I would use Cover Flow, but it's too slow to use reliably most of the time.

P.S. The guy who developed it used to post at Ars and was giving it out for testing... and then he disappeared. We found out later it was because Apple had bought it out.
     
Jawbone54
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Feb 10, 2009, 01:05 PM
 
Hate it and never use it. It's just a demo for non-Mac users.
     
dcmacdaddy
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Feb 10, 2009, 01:09 PM
 
Huh, been using Leopard for almost a year and didn't even know there was a Cover Flow option for browsing items in the Finder. Turns out I haven't missed it as I just spent five seconds browsing through my Applications folder via Cover Flow and the experience left me wanting those five seconds back.
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Eriamjh
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Feb 10, 2009, 01:12 PM
 
Since I use iPhoto for my pictures, coverflow is worthless to me for file management.

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osiris
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Feb 10, 2009, 01:14 PM
 
No, except for showing off my system.
Nothing says "wow" like flowing through hundreds of text documents.
"Faster, faster! 'Till the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." - HST
     
zro
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Feb 10, 2009, 03:26 PM
 
Not I. Not in iTunes, either. Makes me feel clumsy.
     
Hg2491
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Feb 10, 2009, 03:42 PM
 
I also don't use Cover Flow -- it's kind of hard to quickly find a file or folder.
     
Jens Peter
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Feb 10, 2009, 04:52 PM
 
I had totally forgotten about coverflow in Finder! Guess that makes my answer pretty obvious
     
ort888
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Feb 10, 2009, 04:59 PM
 
Never use it. I do use quicklook a lot though.

My sig is 1 pixel too big.
     
Laminar
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Feb 10, 2009, 05:06 PM
 
I heart quicklook.
     
mattyb
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Feb 10, 2009, 05:09 PM
 
Don't use Cover Flow either.

It does make people go 'wow' on the iPhone or iPod Touch when choosing music. That is until you get to an album without album art. Then it sucks.
     
Dakar V
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Feb 10, 2009, 05:13 PM
 
I <3 Quicklook™
     
Jawbone54
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Feb 10, 2009, 05:22 PM
 
I ♥ Quicklook

Eat it.
     
Oneota
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Feb 10, 2009, 05:40 PM
 
I never use it in the Finder, rarely use it in iTunes, and wish I could banish it from my iPod touch. Or at least make it optional.
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Jawbone54
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Feb 10, 2009, 05:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by Oneota View Post
I never use it in the Finder, rarely use it in iTunes, and wish I could banish it from my iPod touch. Or at least make it optional.
It drives me crazy when my iPhone tilts slightly to the left enough to go into Cover Flow mode, and I can no longer select which song/podcast I want from a menu.

Then I have to tilt it back, wait for the phone to catch up...
     
JKT
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Feb 10, 2009, 06:03 PM
 
I would probably use it if Apple hadn't implemented it in such an appalling fashion in the Finder. In spite of abhorring list view regardless, I despise the way that the cover flow gets bigger when you resize a window instead of the file listing. So a big fat no - it's useless rubbish and another demonstration of how Apple has been adding utter toss to the Finder without actually fixing the thing for over a decade now (and yes, I am including the OS 8/9 versions in that because they were largely **** too).
     
Salty
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Feb 10, 2009, 06:06 PM
 
I used it the other day to help a friend look through the graphic files I'd designed for his film thingy. That's the first time I've used it in months. Great nifty feature, but not terribly useful for day to day stuff. Though during a party or something it's great eye candy.
     
brassplayersrock²
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Feb 10, 2009, 07:47 PM
 
I have lots of data input sheets in excel and word. With coverflow I don't have to open each document separately to find the information I need, and have tons of windows open. I find the one I need, and bingo, I open it.
     
- - e r i k - -
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Feb 10, 2009, 07:53 PM
 
It is useful for some things, especially in combination with Spotlight. I use it to find images and video clips in my work. But no, it doesn't happen often (because I still use a pretty good hierarchical system).

QuickLook however I use ALL the time.

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0157988944
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Feb 10, 2009, 08:32 PM
 
Icon view and Quicklook. CoverFlow is the stupidest idea ever for browsing anything but album covers.
     
slugslugslug
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Feb 10, 2009, 10:46 PM
 
I guess I can see how it'd be useful in the Finder if I had a bunch of image files that I needed to deal with. But I don't think I've ever used it except to look at it.

I have too many art-free tracks in iTunes to care about it there either.

I'll echo everyone else's <3 for Quicklook, though. I usually use Column View in the Finder, except when I need to re-sort a list.
     
Cipher13
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Feb 11, 2009, 01:38 AM
 
Never.

As for Dashboard, well, for me it's just an inconvenient way to use a calculator.
     
d4nth3m4n
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Feb 11, 2009, 11:41 PM
 
yup. for my "forum pics" folder. the majority of the files have some crazy hexadecimal file name, so it helps a ton. and i rock my dashboard for my weather channel widget. harumph.

i DO however, like to complain about the folders in the dock in leopard. i just want to open up a finder window when i click them. harumph.
     
Laminar
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Feb 12, 2009, 12:50 AM
 
My Dashboard is weather and calculator. I used to have a Pandora WebClip but I just started using PandoraJam instead.
     
Judge_Fire
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Feb 14, 2009, 05:40 PM
 
Nah, keeping the Quicklook window open and browsing files from the keyboard works better for me.
     
Laminar
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Feb 14, 2009, 05:52 PM
 
I actually used it to search through an icon pack I downloaded. Weird.
     
ghporter
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Feb 14, 2009, 09:25 PM
 
I just tried it. It doesn't seem to let you select the arrangement order of the files/folders in a folder, so that gives me absolutely NO control over how my stuff is displayed-and makes the feature useless for me.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
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Feb 14, 2009, 09:35 PM
 
It gives you the exact same control as the regular list view does. Just click the column headers to sort.
     
ghporter
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Feb 14, 2009, 10:31 PM
 
Oh. I wonder why it wasn't that obvious when I tried it. Probably because I'm used to using the icons. Dragging files into folders is a little clumsy, but that's just the paradigm, not the interface... Still, it's a lot of show and not a lot of functionality that I didn't have with other display styles, so I'm not wowed by it.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
zro
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Feb 14, 2009, 11:38 PM
 
I thought for sure they would have put a preview pane in the lower left corner à la iTunes artwork by now.
     
HenryMelton
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Feb 15, 2009, 01:22 AM
 
I had just used it an hour or so before I noticed this thread. It was ideal for selecting a batch of scanned pages from a large group similarly named ie. scan0058.jpg etc. It took a couple of seconds to switch from list view to cover flow, slide through the pages until I saw the right ones, and then dragged them into Acrobat Pro to combine them into a PDF. It was the ideal method for the job. Firing up Bridge would be tremendous overkill. Do I use coverflow every day? No. Rarely. But for some jobs it's ideal.
     
- - e r i k - -
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Feb 15, 2009, 05:23 AM
 
Originally Posted by Cipher13 View Post
Never.

As for Dashboard, well, for me it's just an inconvenient way to use a calculator.
I use Spotlight for all my simple calculations.

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Laminar
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Feb 15, 2009, 10:31 AM
 
Originally Posted by - - e r i k - - View Post
I use Spotlight for all my simple calculations.
I had no idea...now if only spotlight could do unit conversions.
     
msuper69
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Feb 15, 2009, 12:54 PM
 
I didn't like it at first but now I use it all the time. It's especially handy when I'm scanning in a bunch of old photos to keep track of things.
     
Cold Warrior
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Feb 15, 2009, 12:59 PM
 
Originally Posted by msuper69 View Post
I didn't like it at first but now I use it all the time. It's especially handy when I'm scanning in a bunch of old photos to keep track of things.
That's what I use it for. I'm not an avid iPhoto user so if I come into a bunch of photos I'm not familiar with, Cover Flow (cmd+4) in a Finder window lets me view pics quickly.
     
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Feb 15, 2009, 04:44 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
I had no idea...now if only spotlight could do unit conversions.
And show a list of active users from my xbox live friend list.

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