View Options for Finder Windows

In this lesson for macOS Mojave, I look at the different view options we have when looking at the files and folders in a Finder window on the Mac.

Switching between Views
To switch between your different views in a Finder window, you can go to View in the Menu Bar and select the view, or you can click on the appropriate icon in the toolbar in a Finder window. These icons are above the text View in the toolbar of a Finder window. You can select between icon, list, column, and gallery.

Icon View
Icon view will show all your files as large icons. If you are looking at images, this is an excellent way to see your files as you can see what the images are easy.

List View
List view will show all the files and folders in a list view, this is usually how I have my folders set. To set the sort order, just click on the header at the top of the list of files and folders. To open a folder, you can double-click on it or click on the triangle to the left of the file or folder name.

Column View
Column views shows all your folders as columns. This is another favorite way of viewing my files and folders. When you use this view, when you select a folder, it opens up in a new column to the right.

Gallery View
Gallery view is new to macOS Mojave. When you select Gallery view, you will see all the files and folders across the bottom of the window with a preview of the file or folder above. This is another view that is primarily used for images and videos.

View Options
To see all the view options for a window, select Show View Options in the Menu Bar under View. A new window will open, and you’ll have a number of view options for the selected window.

See this Lesson Action
To see this lesson in action, take a look at the video above.