New: Viewing File Metadata

In this lesson for macOS Mojave, I look at how to view the complete metadata of a file in a Finder Window.

Show Preview
The first thing you need to do is make sure you have Show Preview on in a Finder Window. The Preview is where the metadata is shown. To show the Preview, you go to View in the menu bar and select Show Preview. If it says Hide Preview, your preview is already shown. If this option is grayed out, open a Finder window, you’ll be able to select the option then.

Show More Metadata
When you select a file, in the preview section of the Finder Window, you’ll see some metadata. This includes the name, file size, the date it was created, and the date it was modified. To see more metadata, click on Show More. All the metadata for the selected file will be shown. To show less, click on Show Less.

Selecting what Metadata is Shown
Depending on the file type you have selected, you’ll get different metadata. With a photo, you’ll see the camera it was taken with as an example. With a PDF, you’ll see how many pages it is. You can select what metadata you want to see by default. First, select the file, then under View select Show Preview options. A new window will open. Just select the options you want to see by default in this window. These options will change depending on the file type you have selected.

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