Showing/Hiding items in the Lion Finder

[elldove]

Lion has changed the way the Finder handles file/folder visibility.

The most noticeable difference is that, by default, ~/Library/, is hidden. This is probably a good decision for most users, as it can be confusing and I have seen users stash their documents in there. I think they could have gone further, /Library/ and /System/ ought to be hidden too.

But this can be pretty annoying if you're a power user who wants access to ~/Library/ (if you're reading this, then this probably means you). Luckily, you can change a folder/file's visibility with a simple Applescript:

tell application "System Events" 
set visible of folder "~/Library/" to true
end tell

If you want to re-hide the folder, just change true to false and re-run.

I should also note that Lion changes another way in which the Finder handles visibility: you can no longer add a period to start of a file name to hide it. In fact, Finder won't LET you start a filename with a period.

You have to use the applescript above to toggle visibility on any file/folder.

 

[mrapplegate]

Lion has changed the way the Finder handles file/folder visibility.

The most noticeable difference is that, by default, ~/Library/, is hidden. This is probably a good decision for most users, as it can be confusing and I have seen users stash their documents in there. I think they could have gone further, /Library/ and /System/ ought to be hidden too.

But this can be pretty annoying if you're a power user who wants access to ~/Library/ (if you're reading this, then this probably means you). Luckily, you can change a folder/file's visibility with a simple Applescript:

tell application "System Events" 
set visible of folder "~/Library/" to true
end tell

If you want to re-hide the folder, just change true to false and re-run.

I should also note that Lion changes another way in which the Finder handles visibility: you can no longer add a period to start of a file name to hide it. In fact, Finder won't LET you start a filename with a period.

You have to use the applescript above to toggle visibility on any file/folder.

Actually power users probably use chflags no hidden for files.

 

[baryon]

Great! I always thought the period way of hiding things is extremely stupid. If you want to hide a folder, you have to rename it, so any application that relies on that folder can no longer find it, which makes hiding them pointless.

 

[Kahnyl]

If you bring up the Go menu and hold alt you can select the library folder. I've found it easy so far.