FinderKeys

Nice idea, mediocre implementation (though one user considers FinderKeys the second best utility in the entire package, which proves that the Now Utilities meets different needs for different people). FinderKeys selects the file in the frontmost window that matches the keys you type. For instance, if I type the letter M with my System Folder window in front, it selects all files starting with M. If I continue to type the word "MultiFinder," FinderKeys narrows down the number of files selected until it is down to one. Then, if it’s executable (like most residents of banana republics) or openable, FinderKeys will do its best to open it if you hit the Return key. I like that part of it and do use it on occasion. However, the main limitation that FinderKeys has is that it can’t scroll the window to bring the selected file into view. If it could do that (as Finder 7.0 can, for those of you anxiously waiting), I’d use it a lot more. FinderKeys also allows you to work with files in inactive windows. If you hold down the command key when you click on a file in an inactive window, you will be able to pick it up without making that window active. The usual Finder shortcuts work with FinderKeys, so Command-Shift click on several files in an inactive window selects all of them, and Command-Option drag copies a file from an inactive window, and (all together, now) Command-Shift-Option drag copies several files from an inactive window. I’d like to say that I used this all the time, but I don’t. It’s not that difficult to make the source window active and then perform whatever action I wanted. I have trouble remembering the key combinations, which merely means that the functions weren’t useful enough to me for me to learn them.