TMO Quick Tip - Get Info and Summary Get Info

by , 7:30 AM EST, March 27th, 2006

Most people see the Macs Get Info window as the place you go when you want to change a file or folder's icon. One of its other useful functions is calculating the amount of hard drive space your files are taking up through the little-used Summary Get Info window.

If you click on an item in the Finder, and use the Command-I keyboard shortcut to open a Get Info window, you'll see the item's vital information in a single window. If you select several items and then type Command-I, you'll get several information windows. Selecting 11 or more items, however, gives you a single summary window that tells you how many items you selected along with the total file size. You can take advantage of the Summary Get Info window for any number of items thanks to the Command-Option-I keyboard shortcut.

I use the Summary Get Info window as a dynamic file size calculator. Here's how:

• Select one file in the Finder.
• Use Command-Option-I to open the Summary Get Info window.
• Shift-Click on the other items to add them to your summary.

A Get Info window (left), and a Summary Get Info window (right).

Shift-Clicking lets you select multiple items in the Finder, and in this case adds up the total file size of everything you select. This trick lets me add up the total space required to store a group of files before I copy them to a CD, DVD, or Flash drive.