Quick Look Inside Folders (original) (raw)

Mac OS X Leopard only: You already know how to view zip archive contents and even preview files in the Trash using Leopard's handy Quick Look feature, and now you can look inside folders, too. Using a Folder Quick Look plug-in, instead of just looking at a big old folder icon when you Quick Look a directory, you can get a file listing of what's inside. Here's how to get it working.

1. Download the Folder Quick Look plug-in.
2. Extract its contents into /Users/YOU/Library/QuickLook/. Replace YOU with your username. You may have to create the final QuickLook folder. Make sure that the contents of the zip file go here (it's four files total; two are readme's.)
3. Relaunch Finder by holding down the Option key and click and holding on the Dock's Finder icon. Choose "Relaunch" from the context menu.

Then, just select any folder in Finder and hit the Space key to Quick Look what's inside. Here's the result when I Quick Look my Applications folder:

Notice you can also see hidden files and show the file timestamp using the checkboxes at the bottom, too. Handy! The plug-in is a free download for Mac OS X Leopard only. (Don't forget you can also quick look multiple files at once as well, no plug-in required.)

View the Contents of a Folder in Quick Look [MacTips: OS X Tips]