Path Finder

[Ratsima]

I'm a long time Path Finder user. When first introduced it was a big improvement over the Mac Finder. I especially liked the Dual Browser feature because it made short, easy work of copying and moving files.

But, since the release of the version 8 update the software seems somewhat counterintuitive and plagued with bugs. Some of the bugs (such as the unfortunate application copy bug) have been fixed, but others remain. Two that I find most annoying:

• Sometimes clicking on a Folder in the Sidebar fails to change the focus of the browser window. For example, I might be looking at the Desktop folder. Clicking on the Documents folder in the Sidebar does nothing and the browser window still displays the Desktop folder.
• The Dual Browser feature ("Views" in the ToolBar and the View->Dual Browser menu item) changes the view in every open browser instead of just the frontmost browser. This is just plain weird. Why should every window have to have the same view? I should be able to have some windows with Dual Browsers and some with a singe browser.

I've reported both of these oddities to Cocoatech. The Sidebar bug has been around a long time. I just recently noticed the Dual Browser bug. I actually thought I was going nuts and only found out what was going on when I happened to have two Path Finder windows open on the same Desktop.

Any other thoughts on Path Finder and/or reasonable alternatives?

 

[chscag]

I'm currently using Path Finder 8.3.9 and have not noticed any problems with the Folder view when making a selection from the sidebar. The dual browser feature you pointed out in your post above seems to be the way Path Finder is designed to work.

Path Finder does have a quirk that I have run into though. For no reason that I can determine, it de-registers itself. In other words, it reverts back to being a trial version rather than the fully registered version that I purchased. I reported that to Cocoatech support and they were at a loss as to why it happens. They verified my serial number and said it should be registered okay. That has happened twice. Both times I was able to get things back to normal by rebooting and inserting the serial number again to the registration wizard.

As for a reasonable alternative.... I probably have tried them all and no other file manager in my opinion even comes close to the power and versatility of Path Finder.

 

[Ratsima]

I'm currently using Path Finder 8.3.9 and have not noticed any problems with the Folder view when making a selection from the sidebar.

I'm also on 8.3.9. Here's a screenshot showing what I'm talking about. I've selected Camera Uploads in the Sidebar, but the Browser is stuck on Screenshots:

The dual browser feature you pointed out in your post above seems to be the way Path Finder is designed to work.

It didn't use to be that way. I have one browser window that's always open with Dual Browsers for easy copying from one directory to another. It was a real surprise to me when it kept switching to single browser mode "all by itself". It took me some time to realize that the Dual Browser function had changed from affecting only the frontmost window to affecting all windows.

 

[Ratsima]

It didn't use to be that way. I have one browser window that's always open with Dual Browsers for easy copying from one directory to another. It was a real surprise to me when it kept switching to single browser mode "all by itself". It took me some time to realize that the Dual Browser function had changed from affecting only the frontmost window to affecting all windows.

I figured out how to fix this. You need to save browser configurations. I have one called "Single" and one called "Dual". If I click the "Dual Browser" tool in a "Single" mode browser, all "Single" browsers will change to dual mode. If I click the "Dual Browser" tool in a dual mode browser, then all "Dual" browsers will change to single mode. If you've changed "Dual" browsers to single mode, clicking on the "Dual Browser" tool will change all "Dual" browsers back to dual mode.

I'm not sure I like this, but at least now I understand what's going on. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

(I should note that I had saved browser configurations in previous version of PF. They stopped workin in version 8. I had to delete and recreate them to get the behavior I describe above.)