Toggle the showing of hidden files in Mac OS X Finder

Posted on July 17, 2008 under aetherworld

At work, I often have to deal with hidden files - or dot-files - in the OS X Finder. I usually have a TextMate project for every client website where I can open all files from the convenient project drawer but often I just have to quickly edit a line in a .htaccess or .htpasswd file and don’t feel like opening the whole TextMate project. On the other hand, I dont’t always want to see all hidden files in all folders. My home folder is littered with .ssh, .gpg, .DS_Store, .localized, .bashrc, .Trash etc. files which I don’t need to see most of the time.

Since it’s apparently impossible to modify the Finder so that it only shows hidden files in certain directories or it only shows hidden files matching certain criteria, I looked for another solution. Using defaults write in the Terminal, you can change the Finders settings and persuade it to display the hidden files on the filesystem, but I can also just use ls -al or mate ~/Projects/myproject/.htaccess to fire up TextMate directly with the .htaccess file opened, when I’m in the Terminal.

Screenshot of the OS X Finder with the 'Toggle Hidden Files' button in the menu bar

What I was looking for was a simple button in the Finder’s menu bar, that allowed me to toggle between hiding and showing those files. What I came up with is a small application that does just that. It doesn’t ask you whether you really want to toggle showing the hidden files, it doesn’t give you any options, you just click the button and can see all of your hidden files. And when you don’t need to see them anymore, they’re gone - at another click of the button. Convenient, isn’t it?

Here is how you use it:

  1. Download FinderToggleHiddenFiles.dmg and mount it
  2. Copy the ‘Toggle Hidden Files’ application to your Applications folder
  3. Go to your Applications folder and find the ‘Toggle Hidden Files‘ application
  4. Drag the ‘Toggle Hidden Files’ application to the free space on your Finder’s menu bar

Note: When dragging, hold it for a while until you see the green + icon next to your cursor.

This works on Tiger (10.4) and Leopard (10.5) on both PPC and Intel.

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comments

There are 8 comments for this post.
  1. Comment #1
    Tim on August 14, 2008 at 15:10
    Pretty useful app. I wish it was a notification icon so it wouldn’t have to live on the dock, but it so useful already I can’t complain.
  2. Comment #2
    Alexander Graf on August 14, 2008 at 15:14
    Dear Tim, it does not have to live in your Dock! Just remove it from the Dock and follow the instructions above: You can drag the Application to the Menu Bar of a Finder window. In the screenshot you can see there is an extra button on the right side of the Finder window! Let me know if you need help with this. When dragging the application to the menu bar, you need to hold it for a few seconds.
  3. Comment #3
    Pierrot on September 25, 2008 at 23:17
    Seriously, this is one of the most helpful apps I’ve ever used! Great job! I hope you don’t mind but I blogged a little about it.

    http://www.devtronik.com/apple/toggle-hidden-files/

  4. Comment #4
    Brett on October 1, 2008 at 15:10
    Alexander, well done - I had exactly this need in particular when migrating servers and copying many .[a-z]* files from various server to my Mac for archiving and editing. Thanks!

    -brett

  5. Comment #5
    Chris Roberson on December 10, 2008 at 22:26
    I don’t seem to be able to drag the application to my Menu Bar. I hold it there for quite a few seconds and the cursor does not change. Any tips?
  6. Comment #6
    Alexander Graf on December 10, 2008 at 22:57
    Are you really dragging it to the Menu Bar of your Finder window? You don’t drag it to the menu bar on the top of your screen!

    If you look in the screenshot I posted, there is an icon next to the “Action” menu bar icon on the right side. You have to drag it there.

    Let me know if this works for you.

  7. Comment #7
    James Turner on June 30, 2009 at 12:16
    Seriously useful, I was getting very annoyed having to go to the command line to navigate around. Well done and thanks.
    Is it possible to do it without the few seconds delay while Finder restarts?
  8. Comment #8
    Alexander Graf on July 2, 2009 at 15:18
    Thanks James! Unfortunately, restarting the Finder is necessary and there really is no delay in my application. If your computer is faster, Finder can restart more quickly, if it’s slower, then a Finder restart is going to take a few seconds.

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