Comments on: Quick Tip: Show/Hide Hidden Files

By: Mike Cheung

Mike Cheung — Thu, 26 May 2011 09:53:48 +0000

Someone (nikolar) had asked about this in the other comment section but for some reason I wasn’t able to reply to it. I retooled the two services into one that toggles between showing and hiding the hidden files:

VALUE=$(defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles).
if [ "$VALUE" = FALSE ]; then.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE.
else
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE.
fi
osascript -e ‘tell application “Finder” to quit’;.
osascript -e ‘tell application “Finder” to activate’;.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:08:12 +0000

I followed these steps. When I went into Finder > Documents…all my Documents are now missing. Are my documents deleted forever?

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:00:32 +0000

Ok, so I followed these steps, and now when I go into my Documents Folder..there’s nothing there. Have all my Documents been deleted??

By: nova media

nova media — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:15:06 +0000

If you want to hide some files on your Mac from curious eyes, then there is a solution available. It is called UberMask. It allows to hide/show files with a single keystroke. Available for test here: http://www.novamedia.de/en/mac-ubermask.html

By: Vijay

Vijay — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:31:14 +0000

This works great, but two things happened. The script showed the hidden files, but also show how much used/free space is on my local drives. I was able to run the script to now show the hidden files, but my local drives still know the used/free space. How do I get rid of that?

By: zach

zach — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:05:04 +0000

Thanks Melanie this worked perfect

By: nicole Weber

nicole Weber — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 04:01:03 +0000

cmd click not working… don’t know why i cannot get the pop up box? please help

By: CamJH

CamJH — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 11:22:01 +0000

When I open Automator, what template do i use???

By: James Wilson

James Wilson — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:19:33 +0000

Thanks for this writeup! You should update it (or provide new instructions) for the changes to Automator right-click menu functionality in Snow Leopard.

I found the following comment to be useful, that describes the changes.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=8713076&postcount=3

The steps to get the Automator script right-click menu items back in Snow Leopard are:

1. Open Automater.
2. Choose the ‘Service’ template
3. Specify that the service receives input from ‘files or folders’ in application ‘Finder’
4. Find and Drag the ‘Run Shell Script’ action from the Actions sidebar.
5. Paste in the commands mentioned in the original instructions.
6. Save the script according to the original instructions.
7. Repeat these instructions for both ‘Show Hidden Files’ and ‘Hide Hidden Files’.

To see it in action just right click on any file or folder in finder, and there will be a new ‘Services’ menu > Hide Hidden Files, Show Hidden Files.

Note you can also make this option appear in the MAIN application Services menu (eg, Finder > Services > Hide Hidden Files). In step #3, choose ‘no input’ instead of ‘files or folders’.

By: r

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:07:52 +0000

I was having trouble with Automator on my laptop and found this much MUCH simpler alternative using Terminal…

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=lBCaPLrN5Mw

By: Android the Mac-Eclipse way | BackyardRocket.com

Android the Mac-Eclipse way | BackyardRocket.com — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 03:21:04 +0000

[...] You can place the SDK anywhere you like. I’ve seen many suggest placing the Android SDK in the /Developer folder. I leave this directory to the apple developer tools and place SDKs in the more traditional /usr/lib. The /usr/lib directory is hidden by default. You will need to show hidden files to see it in the finder. If you develop on the Mac, you probably know how to show/hide invisible files, if not I like this method: Show/Hide Hidden Files. [...]

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:24:53 +0000

Hi…
i can’t find save as plugin… in automator menu…
what am I missing? is this only for older version of automator?

Thanks,
Robert

By: Lance

Lance — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 02:18:33 +0000

It worked fine in Snow Leopard for me. Here’s what I did:

- started automator
- choose work flow as the template type
- clicked Utilities on the far left window
- dragged then dropped Run Shell Script into Workflow window
- delete the “cat” text and then paste in the:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

- File –> Save As
– name it and choose Application as the type
- That’s it!

By: John

John — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:12:31 +0000

The above procedure doesn't work with Snow Leop-ard. There is no "Save As Plug-in" option available.

Nor is Applications listed in the Library.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:24:57 +0000

You're welcome. I wonder why you two weren't able to get it to work. I simply typed the EXACT steps I used and it works just fine for me. Who knows. I'm glad you found something else that works at least. This was a big hassle for me when I was trying to figure it out.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:34:19 +0000

Thanks Melanie and Jessica! I couldn't get Automator to work for me either, but the widget is great!

Thanks again :)