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macintologist · Oct 25, 2007, 12:44 AM

Is anyone here planning on using Cover Flow view in the Finder?

I will keep it to list view which is the best. Column view is also nice.

Sorry to keep this OP so simple but I'd like to get your reactions to Cover Flow.

alex_kac · Oct 25, 2007, 12:55 AM

Sure I plan to use it. When looking at a folder of images, or a folder of contracts or faxes. I plan to use it a lot in those instances. Otherwise list/column view are my favorite.

But it'll probably replace my icon view in many places. For me its a huge deal in those areas.

gradient · Oct 25, 2007, 01:10 AM

It'll be one more reason to make sure you have your pron locked up....

- - e r i k - - · Oct 25, 2007, 01:12 AM

If you work with ANY kind of visual media it's a godsend. CoverFlow in Finder is a million times more useful than in iTunes.

I thought the same thing as you when I first heard of it: gimmick. Not so at all once you've used it.

alex_kac · Oct 25, 2007, 01:25 AM

Exactly. Even with documents, I get a ton of contracts and spec docs that have very MSDOS-ish filenames and CoverFlow in Finder lets you see their contents very quickly and find what you're looking for more easily. Or PDFs. Or HTML pages. I mean its really a great file visualizer.

- - e r i k - - · Oct 25, 2007, 01:27 AM

Indeed. Or HTML or code even! CoverFlow easily lets you find the right document at a glance. Combine it with Spotlight and it's even more amazing.

I'mDaMac · Oct 25, 2007, 02:52 AM

I think it's setting up a touch screen Mac.

MindFad · Oct 25, 2007, 03:04 AM

Considering I work mostly with graphics, I'm psyched about it. It's going to be quite useful.

kilechki · Oct 25, 2007, 04:50 AM

Well, it sure is much less usefull on a non-intel mac, since it has a strong performance impact (less than coverflow in itunes, though).

My regret with Coverflow is that it isn't a view you could add to the 2 other "main" views. It shouldn't have been a mode in itself, it should have been a pane you can also use along the icon and columns view. Columns + Coverflow would have been incredible.
In its actual form (Coverflow + list), it is a pain to browse from one folder to another.

That, and a quicklook pane that would have 2 or 3 lines of editable metadata under it.

Who knows, maybe 10.6...

kilechki · Oct 25, 2007, 04:57 AM

One more thing : if you had Photoshop or you editing apps use custom icons for the pictures they handled, prepare to have some fun times removing manually all those icons... Since they were 128x128 or less, they are all pixelated in CF.

kilechki · Oct 25, 2007, 05:08 AM

And finally...

If you often use small PNG with transparency, for instance 2x500, you can only do the selection in coverflow on this 2-pixels-wide object. This is of course not the case in icon view, where there's a frame to make the selection easier.

On the "what were they thinking" side, the default icons in CF are both ugly and useless. They show a generic document icon, even if the selected element is an application for instance. And though CF can load sometimes slowly, I find it curious that apple didn't think of indicating at least the type of file (.doc/.jpg) in there.

I'm unfortunately expecting no radical improvement in CF in 10.5 lifespan.

kmkkid · Oct 25, 2007, 05:50 AM

Now that icon view has previews and updates, I can't see the sense in coverflow. Plus, it's slower to show up.

Kevin · Oct 25, 2007, 05:59 AM

And since it doesn't preview InDesign docs.. blah

macintologist · Oct 25, 2007, 12:41 PM

Here's my beef with Coverflow, at least in iTunes. When you scroll through coverflow, it loads album art in real time but if you scroll just fast enough, you'll see it loading.. which is quite annoying, and I have an intel mac!

DKeithA · Oct 25, 2007, 12:50 PM

I also think it is preliminary steps toward a touch screen Mac of some sort.

Judge_Fire · Oct 25, 2007, 01:44 PM

I think it's much more flexible to just keep the Quick Look window open and then select items in the other Finder views. The preview window updates instantly, you can compare several items and place/resize the window as you please.

macintologist · Oct 25, 2007, 04:26 PM

QuickLook is something I am very much looking forward to using.

- - e r i k - - · Oct 25, 2007, 07:12 PM

Sorry to hear CF is slow for some of you. It's perfect on my macs, Mac Pro and 24" iMac. The fact that it's smart in creating the previews means that it will always have them ready for where you stop. Browsing to the "All images" or "All movies" saved searches with over 10 000 items each is amazing!

.Neo · Oct 25, 2007, 07:21 PM

Didn't Steve Jobs told us that we could view all the pages of a document in Cover Flow? I'm only able to view the front page.

- - e r i k - - · Oct 25, 2007, 07:31 PM

That only works with PDFs. Other documents you just press space to quicklook them.

hldan · Oct 25, 2007, 08:55 PM

Coverflow will rock in Leopard. Yeah it's a lot different using it with the Finder vs. iTunes. Too many times people switching to the Mac from Windows complain that there's no picture viewer like in Windows and they don't like having to use iPhoto just to look at downloaded pics. Coverflow will make WIndows picture viewer yesterday's joke.

Sage · Oct 25, 2007, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by kilechki

Columns + Coverflow would have been incredible.

I concur.

macintologist · Oct 25, 2007, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Sorry to hear CF is slow for some of you. It's perfect on my macs, Mac Pro and 24" iMac. The fact that it's smart in creating the previews means that it will always have them ready for where you stop. Browsing to the "All images" or "All movies" saved searches with over 10 000 items each is amazing!

I have the first intel iMac, so it's only 1.86ghz Core Duo. When I first got it was blazing fast compared to my 867mhz Powerbook, and 21 months later I still think of my iMac as being very very fast. Would having a 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo make a big difference? Everything else is good, I have 2gigs of ram for example.

freudling · Oct 25, 2007, 10:16 PM

I was averse to Coverflow in iTunes but, when I got my iPhone, I became enamoured by it. It is a different way to search for stuff. I have embraced it. First I dismissed it as useless eye candy, now I look at it as, for instance, when I don't want to find just one song, it is a more tactile, visual experience to cover flow for it. I suspect the same thing will happen to me in Leopard, when I want to, for instance, clean stuff out of my folders. Spotlight and list view are the best for finding one particular thing, however. Although, there are a few cases where coverlow is going to come in handy, for those long, weird file names sprayed in folders. Insteady of clicking a bunch, I can cover flow it and get a visual at the same time.

Jasoco · Oct 26, 2007, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by alex_kac

Sure I plan to use it. When looking at a folder of images, or a folder of contracts or faxes. I plan to use it a lot in those instances. Otherwise list/column view are my favorite.

But it'll probably replace my icon view in many places. For me its a huge deal in those areas.

Copy and Paste what he said.

rkv · Oct 28, 2007, 04:12 AM

As noted earlier in this thread it is great for browsing directories where you have photos or other images. Unfortunately, a lot of my images are pixelated in the cover flow display. If I am using the mouse to browse, I would like for there to be MB2 popup when you select the cover flow image to either open in finder, open with application, or quickview the specific file. That way one could use the cover flow scroll bar and images and simply ignore the text below. Unfortunately, it does not appear that there is a preference to configure the new finder to have such behavior. Deja Menu gets you part of the way there.

For searching among images, I find cover flow extremely fast that is you can simply hold down the arrow keys and generally you can keep up with the images which are flashing by. It's much much faster than using the other finder views for finding a specific image. That is as long as you will recognize the image as opposed to needing the name to recognize it.

Actually, after using cover flow on folders with images I realize that I really would like cover flow to be in iPhoto as well.

surferboy · Oct 28, 2007, 10:11 AM

It's a huge feature for me. I have tons of professional journal articles on my hard drive. When you download these pdf's, the names a just numbers. I used to use spotlight to simply find what I was looking for, but now coverflow and quick look allow me to find it easier- and it's helping me organize my files better- I am now putting them in specific folders, etc., but I don't have to open them to figure out what the title of the article is, etc.

DigitalEl · Oct 28, 2007, 10:45 AM

It seems mostly eye candy to me, but I get how others would find it useful. I don't really use it in iTunes and I don't plan on using it in the Finder.