Tip: Browsing files with Cover Flow

The Cover Flow technology introduced in iTunes, which lets you flip through album covers just like in a jukebox, has been so popular with Mac users that Apple have decided to expand it to any folder in the new Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. It’s a nice way to flip through pictures or browse movies by their cover. If you have one of the latest iPods, you can even flip through all your photos, music albums and video clips with Cover Flow.

This new way of looking at files might be a bit discouraging to new users though. This is why Apple offer up a tutorial of Cover Flow on their website. When in Finder view, press Command-4 to go into Cover Flow view. You can open any image by double clicking it. If you’re working with a mouse use your trackpad or scroll wheel to quickly skim through files. You can also use the drag bar under the images or he arrows keys on your keyboard to move back and forth through your collection of files. To me the only drawback to Cover Flow is when you have too many files. How do you quickly find the one you’re looking for? Apple suggest to scroll through the list view under the images. You’ll know what you’re looking for and still enjoy the snazzy animation. You can even click on sidebar items in the Finder and keep the Cover Flow view.