Selecting the first or the last file!
This is a great tip submitted by Rob Watts: Selecting the first or the last file! This will let you select either the first file in a folder or the last file. Within the Finder, in any window, you can hit "Shift-A" to select the first file and "Shift-Z" to select the last one. Here is the result on the screenshot:
First file:
Last file:
Thanks for the great tip Rob!
First file:
Last file:
Thanks for the great tip Rob!
posted by Frederic Tremblay at
6/23/2007
12 Comments:
And this is useful when exactly...?
Actually, this feature works with every possible key. Just as shift+a selects the first file and shift+z the last, shift+m will highlight the first file that begins with the letter "M", et cetera. This works for every key and key combination.
For example, if you are in your Application folder and hold down shift while typing s+a+f in sequence you will quickly highlight Safari. This allows one to quickly search a folder provided one know the spelling (or first few letters or numbers) of a file name.
It does work with other letters, but "Shift-A" will select the first file even if the file doesn't start with "A".
MacGeek
Actually, this 'feature' (I'ven been using this forever, even on Windows) doesn't even require pressing Shift. Just press a random letter when you're in a Finder window, and hte first file that starts with that letter will be highlighted. Saves you a lot of time when digging trough large amounts of files.
MacGeek, you're wrong. Try it.
I appreciate these tips and a lot of them are useful, but this one was pretty lame (especially when it added an unnecessary step - the Shift key).
Actually, pressing Shift-A does not highlight the first file in a directory; it highlights the first file that starts with "a" or the first file alphabetically that starts with a letter after "a" if there is none that starts with "a." This means that is you have a file whose name sarts with a number, like "1-12-2005 pictures," it lists alphabetically before any files beginning with "a" and therefor will *not* be selected when you press Shift-A. The same is true for every character (if there are no files beginning with that character, the next alphabetical file will be selected), even with "z", although I'm not sure what character a file name would have to start with to be listed alphabetically after "z."
That's weird. You're right. It doesn't always work the way it should. When I tried it yesterday, it highlighted the first file even if it wasn't starting with an "A". It kind of works intermittently.
MacGeek
Tomorrow's tip is a great free image editing application! I am just trying it out. It rocks!
MacGeek
MacGeek, You Rock!
Thanks for all the great tips (even if some people think certain tips are less great than others)
If you hit spacebar in a finder windows it will select the first item in that folder, this always works, even if the filename strats with a number...
I use the space bar to select the first item in a list and then I can navigate in all four directions by using the arrow keys which will let you fully navigate through your file structures without using a mouse if you should so choose. I find it particularly useful for files that have only numbers like photo files because as each item is highlighted you get the preview for it in the next column over.
The shift key works if you have more then one file that starts with S. For instance, if you have a fle called Saturday and another Sunday, you can press shift + s + u, this will take you to the Sunday folder.
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