This update is a critical maintenance update that fixes a number of issues, including a workaround for a Mac OS X 10.5.2 bug that could cause list view to crash or hang. It also fixes a critical Mac OS X 10.4 issue where file operations could fail. It is a highly recommended and free upgrade for all Path Finder 4 customers.

Looking for the complete changelog? Check out the Path Finder changelog page for all of the details.

We apologize for the inconvenience and delay in getting these fixes out to you, but due to the low-level bug in OS X 10.5.2 that affected Path Finder’s list view it took us quite a while to get a workaround from Apple. Apparently a fix for this in the OS itself will be available in the next maintenance update for OS X 10.5, but for those of you running OS X 10.5.2 now this new Path Finder release should provide relief.

If you are still experiencing issues with Path Finder please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and we’ll do what we can to help get you up and running again.

Many thanks for your continuing support!

Neil, Steve, Sasha, and Miho

Even though there are new 10.5-only features in this update, it is still free for all registered Path Finder 4 customers. Enjoy!

QuickLook

Yes, it’s true - Path Finder 4.8.2 now supports Mac OS X 10,5’s QuickLook. You can now select files in Path Finder and view them in QuickLook via a number of methods, including the space bar keyboard shortcut, the QuickLook contextual and Commands menu items, and a QuickLook toolbar icon.

What’s more, we’ve made the QuickLook toolbar icon switch to the Slideshow feature when the option key is held down, just like Apple’s Finder.

Normally we tend to hold off on adding OS-specific features until we release major new Path Finder versions, but QuickLook was too cool for us to wait.

Reveal in Path Finder

One of the biggest feature requests we get is for Path Finder to completely replace Apple’s Finder. To accomplish this, one of the key requirements would be to reroute any “reveal in the Finder” operations (i.e. show this file’s location in a new Finder window) to Path Finder.

In the past this has been impossible as Apple has not provided us with any way of “capturing” these reveal requests. Back before the release of Mac OS X 10.4 (“Tiger”) Apple promised us that they would add a preference to change the default file browser to specifically address this issue. Well, Mac OS X 10.4 came and went with no changes, and we were sad.

Happily, things have changed in Mac OS X 10.5 and we are now able to reroute most (if not all) of the “reveal in the Finder” requests to Path Finder! Hooray! This even includes that elusive beast, the Dock.

To turn on this new feature, open up the Path Finder preferences and select the “Reveal” preferences. You’ll see a preference there labelled “Set Path Finder as the default file viewer”.

All you have to do is check that preference, wait a few seconds for the update to apply and from this point on all “Reveal in the Finder” operations should open in Path Finder!

We’re not 100% sure if this is just for Cocoa applications or system-wide, so please let us know if you run into any applications that do not honor this preference.

This is exciting progress as it gets us much closer to being able to truly say that Path Finder can act as a complete replacement for the Finder.

Other improvements

On top of these two new features, Path Finder 4.8.2 also has a number of bug fixes and compatibility improvements. For the complete list of changes, check out the Path Finder changelog.

We hope you enjoy this free upgrade and as always we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us if you have any comments, questions, or feature requests.

Thank you for your support!

— Neil, Steve, Sasha, and Miho.

Path Finder 4.8.1 is a maintenance release that addresses a number of reported issues, and as always it is a free upgrade for all existing Path Finder 4 customers. Even though it’s a tiny version update there are some nice improvements in this release, including:

Per-folder settings fixes

• “This window” now correctly reflects “All windows” user preferences as starting point (before you had to start customizing from factory defaults)
• you can again have two windows open with two different types of sorting

Visual improvements

• Added a gear button below the Shelf with “Hide/Show Shelf” and “Hide/Show Drop Stack” options
• Fixed a “one pixel” alignment issue that occurred to the Drop Stack when the Bookmarks bar was hidden
• By popular request, we added a preference to make the Shelf blue (click on the new gear wheel button under the Shelf)
• Fixed font size differences in the Shelf contextual menu
• You can now access Sorting Preferences in Column View by clicking on the column header triangle
• Fixed the drawing of the reload button in the status bar
• Fixed an issue where the Tab text color was hard to read when windows were in the background
• Fixed an issue where the preview column’s background was inccorect when displaying movie previews

Terminal fixes

• Fixed the option key to work as Meta
• Fixed the broken Terminal background transparency preference
• Terminal window now matches browser window style

Other

• Fixed an issue with opening text files in the text editor when automatic encoding detection was turned on
• Fixes to the iTunes browser plugin (fixed a burning and isolated crash)
• Updated Taiwan, Japanese, German and Dutch localizations
• Updated the Stuffit engine to the brand new version (version 12)

Existing Path Finder 4 customers can use the integrated Sparkle updating system in Path Finder to get the new release, and you can always download the latest version from the downloads page.

We hope you like the update and as always feel free to let us know your questions and comments. Thank you for your support!

Neil, Steve, Miho, and Alexandra.

This major update includes a Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”) inspired interface redesign and adds the highly anticipated ability to store folder view options on a “per-folder” basis. Other enhancements include menu optimizations, Path Navigator improvements, and more powerful list view controls.

As always, this release is a free update for all licensed Path Finder 4 customers.

Major New Features in Path Finder 4.8

Leopard-esque interface redesign Taking cues from the upcoming release of OS X 10.5, Path Finder 4.8 has a sleek, beautiful new interface that integrates the best of the “dark aqua” look for a more consistent, visually appealing experience. We have some more details on this change in this post on our weblog.

“Per-folder” view settings Path Finder 4.8 now has the ability to remember and store view options (e.g. column / icon / list view, sorting, font and color settings, etc.) on an individual / per-folder basis. Check out this blog post for more details.

Path Finder 4.8 also features numerous improvements and bug fixes. A complete change log is available at http://www.cocoatech.com/changelog.php.

Pricing and Availability

Path Finder 4.8 is $34.95 and is available for purchase and automatic registration via its built-in store. It is a free upgrade for existing Path Finder 4 customers.

Previous Path Finder customers can upgrade to Path Finder 4.8 for $17.95, also purchasable via the built-in store.

Path Finder 4.8 is downloadable as a fully functional 21-day demo, and requires a minumum of Mac OS 10.4.

As always, it is a free update for all registered Path Finder 4 customers.

Here is what’s new in Path Finder 4.7.2:

• Fixed an issue where selecting or moving a large number of files could fail or cause Path Finder to crash
• Fixed path navigator drawing problems when placed below the browser
• Fixed Volume icons placement on the desktop (where the Network icon could overlap other icons)
• Setting PF’s terminal to use an external terminal application works again
• Fixed incorrect highlighting in Column View that could occur when deselecting files using command-click
• Dragging an address from Firefox browser to PF’s Desktop will now correctly create a .webloc file
• Dragging and dropping selected text into a Path Finder window or Desktop will now correctly create a .textClipping file
• Fixed an image converter bug
• Added a “Convert Image” item to the Preview menu
• Fixed an issue where ‘Date Modified’ could display twice when a custom date format was set in System Preferences
• Fixed Spotlight comments text wrapping
• Updated Japanese and Spanish localizations

For a complete history of changes for this and previous updates, check out the Path Finder changelog page.

Here’s what’s new in Path Finder 4.7.1:

• Fixed an issue where hitting tab in the svn commit panel submitted instead of focussing the cancel button—Subversion support is no longer experimental.
• The “Open Package” menu item was broken – fixed
• Optimized the speed of moving items to the trash and deleting items
• The Application Launcher will no longer show aliases to applications as duplicates
• Potentially fixed an exception that could occur when parsing XML for the “svn status” command
• Added Screen Capture back to global application menu
• Built-in Text Editor can open .rtfd documents again
• Added Module windows menu option to open Preview, Terminal, Console, etc. in their own window
• Label color names in Get Info window are now displayed correctly
• Added the ability to set “open with” application for multiple selection
• Fixed a cosmetic issue where the upper part of the column view separator didn’t move when resizing columns
• Optimized the Application Launcher&#8217’s loading time
• Internal localizations work and fixed Japanese localization of Application Launcher
• fixed Get Info on OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
• We now sort “open with” menu application list by name
• Reverted back to the old Connect to Server dialog (the OS-provided one is unfortunately still buggy)
• Added two preferences for associating FTP / AFP / file URLs with PF (see Path Finder > Application preferences)
• We now save Spotlight comments automatically when closing the Get Info window
• Fixed an issue where PDFs in the trash that had been in the PDF viewer prevented the trash from emptying.
• New updated Japanese and German localizations

You can download the upgrade from our downloads page.

A sampling of the improvements in this release include:

• Redesigned Get Info window which allows get summary info (Cmd-Option-I)
• New Subversion plugin (experimental - use with caution) that provides basic svn functionality (status, update, commit, diff, add)
• Redesigned Applications Launcher - press F8 or see the Go menu
• Updated the Terminal to the latest iTerm code: new interface; drag reorder tabs in terminal; drag tab out of window to create new window; many other new features. Terminal preferences have been moved and can be now found in the terminal window (“Settings” toolbar button).
• Added the ability to preview Safari .webarchive files
• You can now preview and play media files as well as preview PDF thumbnails in the last column of column view

For a complete list of new features, changes, and improvements please see the Path Finder change history.

Download the release from the Download page and please let us know what you think!

Path Finder 4.6.1 is a maintenance update that fixes issues reported after the Path Finder 4.6 release. Here's the changelog:

• Fixed tab switching quick keys (Cmd-Shift-[] shortcut for next and previous tabs should now work)
• Fixed an issue where the Secure Delete file listing could be garbled
• Updated Japanese and Italian localizations
• Worked around an incompatibility with older versions (pre 11.01) of the Stuffit contextual menu plugin
• Fixed an exception that could occur when printing from the PDF viewer
• Fixed an issue where print dialogue appeared as a sheet when invoked from the desktop
• Fixed an issue where applications launched via Path Finder’s application launcher were not added to the file history
• Fixed a bug where a window invoked from the Path Finder dock icon didn’t receive focus
• Fixed a rare NSBrowser crash
• Tweaked brushed metal mode to fix a window dragging issue
• Fixed a “calculate” issue with more than 10 items

Path Finder 4.6

Path Finder 4.6 features a metric ton of tab-related improvements, including one big new feature: Tab Sets.

Tab Sets provides users with the ability to capture the current Path Finder file browser window's settings and opened tabs. This allows you to have a number of workspaces which can be restored at any point.

This update also adds a number of highly requested tab-related enhancements.

• You can now open folders and volumes in a new tab of an existing file browser window
• Tabs can also be reordered via drag and drop
• The "Combine as Tabs” feature collects all currently open windows as tabs into one window
• Double-clicking on the tab bar opens a new tab
• Dragging a folder to the tab bar opens that folder as a new tab
• Path Finder now warns you if you try to close a window that has multiple tabs open

This update also has numerous improvements and bug fixes. Check out the complete changelog for all of the juicy details.

Head to the download page to grab the new version, or if you're running Path Finder 4.5 you can auto-update to version 4.6 by selecting the "check for new updates" from the Path Finder menu.

Don't forget you can discuss the new release and anything else Path Finder-related on the Cocoatech Forums. Plus add your tips, tricks, and other miscellaneous power moves on the Cocoatech Wiki.

As always, we couldn't do it without all of your feedback, feature requests, bug reports, and good vibes. We hope you like Path Finder 4.6's new features, and keep those emails and comments coming!

Neil, Steve, Miho, and Alexandra.

What's new in Path Finder 4.5

Some of the new features in Path Finder 4.5 include:

Undo Support
Move, copy, and send to trash operations are now easily undone via a menu item or keystroke.

Superuser Mode
The ability to temporarily elevate the user's permissions to superuser is now intergrated throughout Path Finder. Moving, copying, deleting, saving, and renaming files are just a few of the file operations that can be performed in superuser mode.

Labels editor
You can now edit label names and colors via Path Finder's new Labels editor

Multiple Shelves
Path Finder 4.5 reintroduces the ability to define, save, and switch between multiple Shelves.

Reload File Listing
Path Finder now has a reload button which forces file listings to refresh. This works around an issue where OS X may not automatically refresh changes to the file system.

Performance enhancements
There has been extensive improvements to Path Finder performance, including launch time as well as overall application responsiveness.

Check out the complete list of changes.

Download

You can always find download links to the most recent version of Path Finder on the Download Page.

Pricing

As always, Path Finder 4.5 is a free update for all registered Path Finder 4 users. For anyone running earlier versions, upgrades are just $17.95, purchasable from right in Path Finder using the integrated store.

Thanks to our beta testers and everyone who supports our work by sending us bug reports, feature requests, complaints, compliments, or by buying a license. We couldn't do it without you!

Enjoy the new release, and don't forget to join the discussion on Path Finder 4.5 in the Cocoatech Forum.

Thanks everyone!

Neil, Steve, Miho, and Alexandra.

Here's the changelog:

• Fixed a strange launching issue if Movies folder was missing from the home folder
• Fixed window activation when dragging in column view
• Fixed information refresh in burn window
• Potentially fixed an issue with launching on HFSX (case sensitive) volumes – please contact Support if you’re still seeing an issue
• Fixed a problem with the kind string and Audio CDs
• Back button in text-only mode now works
• Fixed an issue with licensing Path Finder
• Fixed looping issue in list view
• Fixed a crash involving filehistoryMgr
• Fixed an issue where keyboard focus could be lost in column view
• New Danish localization

Head to the download page to grab the new version.

As always, Path Finder 4.1.1 is a free update for all registered Path Finder 4 customers.

We've got lots of toys still in the trunk that we'll be introducing throughout the year, but keep those feature requests, bug reports, and comments coming. We read them all and really appreciate your input and support.

Thanks, everyone!

Neil, Steve, Miho, and Alexandra.

Path Finder 4.1 is a free upgrade to all registered Path Finder 4 customers.

Here’s the major points of what’s new in Path Finder 4.1:

New Features

• Now a Universal Binary
• Improved Go To Folder with autocomplete
• Smart Folders - Path Finder can now read Finder-created Smart Folders
• New Size Browser for quickly viewing total file sizes of folders, bundles, etc.
• Added rotate buttons to the integrated PDF viewer
• Path Finder can now preview PDF bundles (often found on OS X install disks)
• Added preview support for Help Viewer bundles
• Path Finder now displays if an application is PPC, Intel, or Universal Binary in the info panel
• Path Finder can now previews NEF files
• Added preliminary “email to” support for Microsoft Entourage and Eudora
• Updated Chinese, Japanese, Russian, French, and German localizations

For a complete changelog check out the Changelog page.

This is a maintenance release which addresses a number of reported issues, as well as incorporates our new crash reporter system. The new crash reporter system requires no extra files to be installed on your system but should still work just as effectively as before to get us critical data in the event of a crash.

Here’s the changelog for Path Finder 4.0.2:

• New Crash Reporter system. The first time Path Finder is launched after a crash, a window will appear with the crash report in it. PF then requests that the user submit the data to us. No input managers or other files are installed.
• Memory leaks fixes in the core application, as well as one in the helper app.
• Font and icon sizing now changeable in the Shelf / Volume pane
• Fixed a get info crash
• Tweaked the currently active indicator in the Path Navigator
• Fixed an issue where you could accidentally arrow into the preview column and not get out
• Fixed Volume field in the Get Info window (it showed the currently selected item’s name instead of the current volume)
• Fixed rename error sheet appearing when on the desktop
• Fixed column refresh issue (lots of nasty flickering when you scrolled up or down using the arrow keys)
• Transparency and float state now saved for text editor and image editor window
• Made the default HTML template PF uses to be less crufty
• Added Russian localization

As usual, Path Finder 4.0.2 is a free upgrade for all registered Path Finder 4 users.

We’re also excited to announce the availability of a brand new bundle. We’ve teamed up with Marko Karppinen & Co. to offer Path Finder 4.0.2 and Knox together for the killer price of only $46.95. Knox is an easy-to-use solution for securing and backing up files using super secure encryption, and it’s a great complement to Path Finder’s file managing capabilities.

Check out the Knox web site if you’re interested in more information on Knox, or read more on the special bundle offer.

As always, thanks to everyone for your input, comments, criticisms, and compliments. We read every email and listen to everything you have to say, and it’s helping us make Path Finder even better.

Neil, Steve, and Miho

If you’re a Path Finder 4.0 user this is highly recommended update.

Here’s a quick list of what’s changed in this version:

• Fixed crash when switching Shelves
• Fixed META key setting for Terminal
• Moved “Open in Tab” in Bookmark menus to the top of the menu
• Fixed an issue where closing the Select or Disk Image windows would prevent clicking elsewhere in Path Finder
• Fixed an issue with the interaction between Path Finder and DragThing
• Fixed a weird issue with the Shelf menu breaking after control-clicking
• Fixed the file list “loop around” feature
• Home / End keys fixed in column view
• Fixed poor quality of image previews in column view
• Improved the French and German localizations, thanks to help from volunteers

One key crash that we weren’t able to fix for this release is one triggered by drag-and-drop operations. The actual bug itself looks like a bug in the Cocoa frameworks we use, and we’re working with Apple to find a fix for this as quickly as possible. A workaround for now is to check “Disable superfluous visual effects” in the General preferences.

If you’re having any issues whatsoever, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with support or check out the Cocoatech forum.

We’re working hard to roll in the improvements and suggestions everyone has passed on to us and you can expect more updates to come out of the Cocoatech lab in the near future.

Thank you!

Neil, Steve, and Miho

I don't think this is overwrought hyperbole when I say that this is our biggest update ever. Over 80% of the Path Finder source code was ripped out and rewritten. As Steve said to our intrepid beta testers as we started beta testing:

It's been a while since the last Path Finder update, and I apologize for taking so long. I learned lots about writing great Cocoa apps while designing versions 1-3, and decided to rewrite and/or heavily modify most of the code for version 4. This should make it easier to maintain, and add move things forward in the future.

We know it was much too long between updates, and we want to thank all of our customers for being so patient with us as we went through this process. We needed to take this time to rewrite Path Finder because it was getting harder and harder to add to and maintain the original Path Finder code.

With this release we've stripped off all of the old paint down to the wood. This means that it will be much, much easier for Steve to add new features and update things. So expect very cool stuff in Path Finder's future as we move forward.

Path Finder 4 is better looking, faster, more efficient, and has a bunch of new tools to help you be more productive. We hope you like it!

As I've mentioned in previous news posts, because of the long delay between updates we are offering customers who purchased Path Finder after September 29th, 2004 (the date I posted this entry) free upgrades to Path Finder 4.

To receive your upgrade, fill out this form with the necessary details and we'll get you your registration code within 1-3 business days.

We will be posting much more on Path Finder 4 in the coming weeks, so check back often.

Thanks, everyone!

Neil. Steve, and Miho

Over the next week or two we will be posting more information on pricing, buying, and upgrading to Path Finder 4. We also post information for those of you who qualify to receive Path Finder 4 as a free upgrade - as we've mentioned previously anyone who purchased Path Finder after September 29th, 2004 will receive a free upgrade to the new version.

Again, we apologize profusely for the delay. We want to release Path Finder 4 as much as you want us to! It won't be long now, though...

Many thanks,
Neil, Steve, and Miho.