FolderGlance 3.0.6
...your folders - at a glance!
FolderGlance lets you control- or right-click folders in the Finder to see and open their contents directly from the Finder's contextual menu, as well as examine the contents of sub-folders down an unlimited number of levels. With Hover Previews, you can preview files directly from FolderGlance's menus by simply hovering your cursor over an item.
A handy menu-extra also gives you access to your folders from the main menubar, and you can extend FolderGlance's functionality with your own custom scripts. You can move, copy and make aliases of files in folders you browse to, and open files with applications you define using FolderGlance's customizable "Open with..." menu.
FolderGlance is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 or later. On Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and later, you must disable System Integrity Protection to retain full functionality from FolderGlance.
Feature Highlights
Download and Requirements
Disabling System Integrity Protection
Screencast and Screenshots
Version History
Reviews and Testimonials
Support
Feature Highlights
Dig into folders
FolderGlance's main feature is its ability to dig down your folder hierarchy, either from the Finder's context menu, or from its menu extra. While browsing your hierarchy, you can open files, reveal them, or move/copy the current selection to the folder you browse to.
Hover Previews
Hover Previews lets you preview files directly from the Finder's context menu or from FolderGlance's menu extra by simply hovering your cursor over a menu item in FolderGlance's menus. You can preview images, text files and other documents that are handled by Mac OS X' QuickLook preview system.
Menu Extra
Using FolderGlance's menu extra, you can access custom folders and volumes straight from your menubar. You can also search for files and folders, and browse the results just as you would regularly do from FolderGlance's context menu in the Finder.
Extensibility with Custom Scripts
By writing your own scripts, you can customize your context menu with your own menu hierarchies, or write your own custom actions to apply to the selection or folders you browse to. Scripts can even be executed implicitly, put to good use by the included Disk Usage script that calculates the size of the selection and displays it to you directly in the Finder's context menu. After the New file item in the screenshot, the first item is the output from the Disk Usage script, the second counts the number of files and folders in the selection, and the final items serve to demonstrate how you can build your own menu hierarchies. You can learn more about FolderGlance scripts in the FolderGlance Scripting Guide [PDF link]. The scripting guide is also included when you download FolderGlance.
Easily move, copy and make aliases of files
FolderGlance lets you move, copy or make aliases of files in folders you browse to. Simply select the files and folders you wish to operate on, then browse to the location where you want to move, copy or make aliases of the files. The target folder can either be a part of the current selection, or a folder in one of your custom folders.
Download, Requirements and License
FolderGlance requires Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later as well as an Intel-based Mac. On Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and above, you also need to disable System Integrity Protection to retain full functionality from FolderGlance. You can download a free trial copy of FolderGlance by clicking the button above or the link below. Once downloaded, uncompress the archive and open the disk image. Then install FolderGlance by launching FolderGlance Installer from the disk image.
FolderGlance 3.0.6 (compressed disk image, 3.4 MB)
The full version of FolderGlance costs $20. When you purchase a license, you will receive a serial number that you enter in FolderGlance's preference pane to enable full functionality, removing the purchase reminders and allowing you to dig down an unlimited number of levels. Version 3.0 is a free upgrade for licensed users of FolderGlance 2.5 and later. Purchase a full license here:
FolderGlance for Leopard (10.5) and earlier
The current release of FolderGlance is not supported on Leopard and earlier. However, you can download the latest version to run on these versions of Mac OS X here:
FolderGlance 2.1.0 for Leopard (10.5) and earlier (compressed disk image, 1.9 MB)
Disabling System Integrity Protection (SIP)
With Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and later, Apple introduced a security feature called System Integrity Protection (SIP). This feature prevents FolderGlance from modifying the Finder's context menu, and must be disabled for FolderGlance to retain full functionality. To disable SIP, perform the following steps:
- Restart your computer. While the computer restarts, hold down Command-R to boot into recovery mode.
- Open Terminal, accessible from the Utilities menu
- Enter the following command in the Terminal window and hit return:
csrutil disable
- Reboot normally
If you at some point in the future wish to re-enable SIP, you can do so by following the steps above but instead of executing
csrutil disablefrom Terminal, execute
csrutil enableinstead.
Screencast
Screenshots
Click any image for a larger version.
Version History
Version 3.0.6
- FolderGlance now comes as a standard Mac OS X installer package. The default install location has been changed to work properly with Mavericks, Yosemite and El Capitan. Using FolderGlance on El Capitan requires that System Integrity Protection is disabled.
- Graphics are finally good to go on retina display-equipped Macs, and have gotten a minor makeover.
- FolderGlance no longer relies on login items for launching its helper apps, but instead uses launchd to handle this task.
- FolderGlance is now installed in such a way that it is available for all users of the computer.
Version 3.0.5
- FolderGlance is now able to resolve aliases on Mac OS X Yosemite. Alias handling on older Mac OS X releases has also been improved.
Version 3.0.4
- FolderGlance is now code signed to work with GateKeeper in Mavericks 10.9.5 and Yosemite.
Version 3.0.3
- FolderGlance is now code signed to work with GateKeeper in Lion and Mountain Lion.
- FolderGlance now loads properly on Mountain Lion, and no longer causes System Preferences to hang.
- An issue where long file names would be abbreviated with an ampersand character has been fixed.
- Automatic versions checks from the preference pane now work again.
Version 3.0.2
- Fixes the display name of the new MobileBackups volume that appears on laptops running Lion.
- Fixes spurious exceptions being logged to the Console by the Finder.
Version 3.0.1
- Adds support for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion!
- Adds ability to turn volumes in the menu extra on or off.
- Adds ability to mount network volumes by mousing over aliases to them with the Option-key held down.
- Improves type handling of aliases.
- Fixes an issue where the setting controlling hover previews on/off would fail to save.
- Prevents a crash that would occur when opening the preference pane when System Preferences was running in 32-bit mode.
- Fixes a character set issue for the context description for scripts and the destination description for move/copy operations.
- Fixes a bug where the title of labeled search results in the menu extra would render incorrectly.
- Fixes an issue where the preference pane would crash if System Preferences launched in 32-bit mode.
Version 3.0
- Adds a menu extra that gives you access to FolderGlance from your menubar. The menu extra shows custom folders and volumes by default, and lets you search for files and folders using Spotlight and then browse the results from the menu.
- Adds support for user-defined scripts
- Includes Disk usage and Open Terminal scripts
- Fully revamped preference pane
- Add ability to sort items by modification date
- Maximum Hover Preview size increased to 1024x1024
- Adds Uninstall functionality in FolderGlance's preference pane
Reviews
FolderGlance lets you peek inside files (and folders). "FolderGlance also offers a slew of options for customizing its menus. For example, you can choose to sort its menus alphabetically or by kind (folders, programs, packages, and files), to view or hide invisible items, to change the menu-font size, and much more. It's a more-focused alternative to FinderPop that some people may find easier to use." -Dan Frakes, MacWorld
Mac Gems
FolderGlance got an honorable mention in MacWorld's listing of Mac Gems of the Year 2010!
(now MacNews)
Rating 8/10
FolderGlance for Mac OS X will speed up your workflow. "Once you've used Yellow Lemon Software's FolderGlance, a utility for browsing files and folders, you may wonder how you lived -- or at least used your Mac -- without it."
Mac Power User Alert: The Folder Tool With Power. FolderGlance is a Mac power user's file and folder dream utility. "If you dream of easier, better, faster, cooler ways to do this or that on your Mac, FolderGlance is a file and folder dream utility come true."
Friday Favorite
Friday Favorite: FolderGlance. "The really neat part, at least for me, is to set custom folders. ... Then whenever you right-click, whether in an empty area of your desktop or on any folder, the custom folders appear at the top of your list of folders."
FolderGlance. "This folder navigation tool for Mac OS X Finder really extends its functionality."
Testimonials
"FolderGlance is so valuable and works so flawlessly, that every time I use it (which is all the time!) I wonder why the Mac Operating System doesn't come with it already built in..."
- Julian Krainin's review on MacUpdate
"What a great app! It offers all the features I need, and I prefer the way it is configured as compared with FinderPop. The developer has been extremely responsive as well, which is always nice to know when making a financial commitment to an application by purchasing a licence. Highly recommended!"
- Richard Drdul's review on MacUpdate
"brilliant!"
- fKing's review on VersionTracker
"this is a MUST have application."
- attentionwandered's review on MacUpdate
"Flawless, Stable, Lightning-Fast on my MacBook Pro..."
- yeomansg's review on VersionTracker
Support
If you have any questions regarding FolderGlance, need to report a bug or just want to make a feature request, all you need to do is send an e-mail here: yls@scsc.no. Please include FolderGlance in the subject so that your e-mail isn't accidentally classified as spam.
There is also a lot of information on FolderGlance available in the FolderGlance User's Guide. You can access the user's guide from FolderGlance's preference pane by selecting the Help section and clicking the Open FolderGlance User's Guide button. You can also read the manual here:
FolderGlance User's Guide [PDF]
For information on writing scripts that work with FolderGlance, a good starting point is the FolderGlance Scripting Guide. The FolderGlance Scripting Guide is, as the User's Guide, available from the preference pane. You can also read it here:
FolderGlance Scripting Guide [PDF]
