How is the "use as defaults" option in Finder supposed to work?

[bostich]

I don't get it. Theoretically, I should be able to set view options in a Finder window (e.g. type of columns) and then, by choosing "use as defaults" apply them to all folders. That's what I've read. But it doesn't work. All folders keep the settings they had before. Only if I delete all ".DS_Store" files and then set a default view it is applied to all folders.
Is there really no other way to change view options for all folders?

 

[NMF]

Seriously, this is absolutely infuriating. This is one of those painfully obvious features that users just assume they can do. Because obviously this is something that they can do.

All I want is for Finder to "Arrange by Type" and "Sort by Name." For every Finder window -- every single time.

Why is that so difficult to accomplish?

 

[w0lf]

It's certainly not obvious or something a normal user would be able to do without instructions but there are ways it can be done.

Here's one way:
http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/ss/Setting-Finder-Views-For-Folders-And-Sub-Folders_4.htm

 

[bostich]

That page of the article you linked explains how to set exceptions from the default view for folders and their sub-folders. That's not what I'm looking for.

The interesting part of the article is on page 2:
http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/ss/Setting-Finder-Views-For-Folders-And-Sub-Folders_2.htm

I quote:
"Setting the Finder view default is a simple task. Just open a Finder window, select the view you want, and set it as the default for your system. Once you've done that, all Finder windows will open using the default view you set, unless a specific folder has a different preset view."

The catch is that this only seems to work for folders that have never been altered in any way. If you've ever changed a view option of a folder it no longer reacts to changes to the default view.

While it is sometimes useful that Finder remembers each folder's view options, there definitely should be a way to define a new default view that overrides any individual view options in any folder.

It seems to me this is only possible by deleting all ".DS_Store" files first. Can somebody confirm this?