OS X Mavericks Unleashed: Finder Adds Tabs & Tags, Becomes More Usable

“Finder” is the file manager you’ll find in Apple’s Mac OS X. It’s been there dating all the way back to the earliest versions of the OS from the ’80s, and though Apple’s operating system has changed dramatically and Finder itself has added many features, the look hasn’t changed all that much. One of the major complaints with Finder in the past was that it didn’t offer much to power users, but with the release of Apple’s latest update to OS X, Mavericks, the company aims to turn Finder into a more powerful tool.

It’s not immediately apparent when you first launch a Finder window, but the application now supports tabs. This means that, much like you can in a Web browser, you can open several folder locations inside one Finder window. Simply right-click on a folder and select “Open in New Tab” to make it happen. You can also select a folder, click the gear icon and then click “Open in New Tab.” Once you have at least two tabs open, you can click the “+” button in the tabs section to open additional tabs.

When you’re transferring files back and forth from one folder to another, using tabs as opposed to multiple Finder windows can help you stay organized. Simply drag a file out of the current folder and onto the tab for the other folder you have open to move the file. If you have several folders you work in regularly, keeping them readily available in a Finder window can also save you some time. Finder tabs are a simple addition from Apple, but one that improves the app’s usability significantly.

Another feature that will delight power users is the addition of file tags. In Finder, you can now add tags to certain files by selecting them and clicking the tag icon in the Finder window. You can also right-click a file and select “Tags.” Adding tags to files can help you better organize them — for instance, you could use them tag people mentioned in a document, or to remember who sent you the file. You could also use tags to assign a status to a file — think “to do” or “in progress.”

Basically, tags are a way to call up files that may not be related to each other but share certain characteristics. It’s not a feature everyone will use, but some have been clamoring for it for quite some time.

I was listening to a podcast the other day from iMore in which one of the guests said that Mavericks was basically a love letter from Apple to power users. There are some newer Mavericks features — iBooks and Maps, for example — that are aimed at the general population. But Finder tabs and tags definitely feel like features that Apple included to appease OS X power users. I’m sure those users are saying “It’s about time.”