Filed under: OS, How-tos, Mac 101
Mac 101: Finder Slideshows
Did you know that you could create a full-screen interactive slideshow just by selecting items in Finder? Finder's built-in slideshows are one of OS X's most fabulous but also most overlooked features. All you have to do is select a bunch of images, control-click (or right-click) your selection and choose Slideshow from the pop-up contextual menu. OS X clears your screen (or screens if you're running on more than one monitor) and begin its presentation.
You have full control over how the slides play back. For example, you can pause, rewind or skip forward by using the interactive controller at the bottom of the slideshow screen. As in QuickTime's full-screen mode, this controller disappears after a few moments and can be brought back by jiggling your mouse. From left to right, the controls let you go back (left arrow), pause (pause/play indicators), go forward (right arrow), switch to an index sheet presentation (four rectangles), toggle between full-screen and actual size presentation (square with arrows pointing out or in), import images into iPhoto (photo with camera) and leave the slideshow (circle with embedded "x").
The index screen presentation allows you to skip between images. Just click the image you want to jump to. The display of your slides scale depending on the number of pictures in your slideshow. If you have just a few pictures, the images are large. If you have, say, 90-odd slides, the images shrink quite a bit. Moving your mouse to any slide causes the file name to appear for that image.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michael Rose said 3:44PM on 4-19-2007
That was sooner than I expected: a Mac 101 of which I was completely, totally ignorant. Wow.
You mean all that time I spent importing stuff into iView and iPhoto just to do slideshows, I could have just right-clicked in the FINDER? Unbelievable!
*sigh* back to geek remedial school for me.
Reply
Aron Trimble said 3:52PM on 4-19-2007
For added control you can use Preview and go to View -> Slideshow
Reply
tim said 3:53PM on 4-19-2007
awesome! this will come in very handy!
Reply
Micah Neumark said 4:00PM on 4-19-2007
I've used this before, but I have an issue with it. If you take photos off a camera, they are automatically in alphabetical order. I opened the photos as suggested, but it doesn't put it in alphabetical order. Any ideas?
Reply
raminf said 4:03PM on 4-19-2007
It's a great feature. There's one recurring problem though. If I start a Finder slideshow with files sitting on a CD or DVD, it runs fine but then when time comes to eject the disk it refuses, saying an application has a file open.
The only way out seems to be to Force Quit the Finder. If anyone has a better solution, by all means, please post it here.
Reply
Sam said 4:04PM on 4-19-2007
@Micah
The photos in the slideshow appear in the same order as they do in the finder window. If you 'sort by name' before starting the slideshow, you'll get alphabetical order.
Reply
Tush said 4:44PM on 4-19-2007
Erica,
"As in QuickTime's full-screen mode"
Shouldn't you say "QuickTime Pro's full-screen mode"?
Full-screen is not something you get with the basic version
Reply
pepe said 4:55PM on 4-19-2007
Man, this one is really good. I never knew... I guess I'm not alone, as fellow old-fart Michael #1 confesses ;-)
Reply
Tush said 4:55PM on 4-19-2007
Erica,
"As in QuickTime's full-screen mode"
Shouldn't you say "QuickTime Pro's full-screen mode"?
Fulltime is not something you get with the basic version
Reply
Erica Sadun said 4:56PM on 4-19-2007
Hope this helps:
osascript -e 'tell application "QuickTime Player" to present front movie scale screen'
Reply
Allister said 9:46PM on 4-19-2007
Another limitation of the Finder slideshows is 99 images. :-( Also, if you want to view a folder full of images (as will most likely be the case) you have to open the folder and select all the images.
For this reason, I prefer Xee. I have it docked in the Finder toolbar and I just drag the folder over it. It's very configurable and I find it great for reviewing folders of images which I don't want in iPhoto.
Reply
Micha10589 said 3:15AM on 4-20-2007
Like Micah I don't use it because photos are never in alpahbetical order. Having them in alphabetical order in column view before doesn't help. So for me it's useless if I want to see pictures from travels quickly. I always use Graphic Converter which also allows to see short movies during the slideshow.
Reply
olle said 5:25AM on 4-20-2007
I agree with previous comments that it's completely useless I can get it to show images in alphabetical order order.
1000 of karma-points up for grabs to whoever solves this with a nifty Tarminal-hack!
-olle
Reply
tfj said 8:26AM on 4-20-2007
There should be some way of a tagging feature in this. Let's say, using it as a quick-look before deciding what to delete. You have to remember or write down the file names you want to toss away, exit the slideshow, select the files from your mind or paper clip and then you can drop in the trash.
With a button for tagging files with a finder label, or even a trash can, in the interactive controller had made this operation much easier.
Reply
mrtotes said 3:23PM on 4-20-2007
Shame you can't select multiple folders and show the contents.
Reply
ecobore said 9:12AM on 4-22-2007
yeah, been there, done that. Only problem is that if the files are big or the folder holds a lot of images, it can take an AGE watching the little pizza for the slide show to start... Ummm.. Pizza!
Reply
Ed said 4:57PM on 5-06-2007
I found that it will display in alphabetical order if you view it from column mode only. Otherwise, from detail or thumbnail mode, it won't do it alphabetically.
Reply