I absolutely love this application, but I'm giving it just 4 stars because I think there can be improvements in the UI.

I've used Path Finder since before the developers changed its name. It has always been the most powerful and useful Finder replacement. After seeing the Leopard preview yesterday, I have little doubt that this status will continue. The program became really slow. It reached the point where I consciously thought about whether to use PF or the regular Finder before doing file maintenance. Not good! Starting, I think, with Version 3 the developers addressed this problem.

Version 4 was a huge upgrade introducing Tabs (very nice), shelves, easy terminal access etc., However, the new interface rearranged many functions. The default typeface is really small and sometimes hard to read and navigate. The benefit of the small typefaces is that the multiple visible window segments do not appear overly complex.

But there is much complexity none the less. The 4.7 "improvements" don't do a thing for me. They may for you if you need them. I already have multiple application launchers, and the PF launcher, while pretty, is inferior to Launchbar, Butler, MaxMenus, Dragthing etc. (I rely on Launchbar).

With so many capabilities, it is too easy for a feature that is important to you to be overlooked or lost.At one point, hi-lighting a MS Word document revealed it in the preview Window. PF removed this feature for some technical reason. By default you now have to hi-light then click on a preview button. The extra step is a killer if you are trying to quickly review multiple documents. While I just discovered that the automatic preview has been restored as a preference option. Has this choice always been in Version 4 or was it added during one of the updates?

My major peeve is the search functions. Ver. 4 did a major revamp of what was PF's weakest link. The revamp took some steps forward, but still could be improved. There are two ways to search. The quick Window search reminds. In previous versions, the default was to search the visible folder and all subfolders. Now, the current default is to search just the visible folder. This is frustrating because I like the ability to include subfolders. It took a long time to discover that you can refine this search by clicking on the included pull-down menu and choosing "selection" to include subfolders. Not intuitive. Why not include a Search choice in the Preferences so that the user can choose the desired default?

The more powerful Search Window allows complex searches but adding refinements. The default searches by Name, which can be refined to "begins with", "ends with" or "is." You can further limited your search by adding additional fields such as date, extension, size, kind etc. I thing this tool could be improved by including negatives (e.g., does not contain). Also, allow users to tab between fields. When I add a field, I sometimes type the search term before I change the search type. Currently, changing the search type destroys the search term. Why not provide an option for the user to change search types without destroying the term?


However, it is really difficult to get a handle on the power and all the capabilities of this application. I think that the best approach is to focus on what is important to you. Word is an overwhelming monstrosity. I probably use more features than most, and I probably use less than 30 percent of its features. However, if I want or need to occasionally use one of its esoteric features I'm glad it's there. The same thing applies to PF.