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24 July, 2011

Lion Tip# 1 - Where did my Library go?

I've been upgrading the Macs around our place to Lion. So far everything has gone as smooth as silk. There are somethings I enjoy like the ability to sign PDFs in Preview and some things that make me go "Hello! Why did you do that?". One of those things is in what Apple has done to protect users from themselves.

Way back in the pre-Lion days, one was able to browse the Library directory from the Finder. This was great when you needed to delete an application preference file that was suspected of causing a problem or two. Simply go into the Finder, browse to your home Library/Preferences directory and delete the suspect preferences file. There wasn't much danger as when the application was launched, the file would be recreated.

Alas, that ability to get directly to the Library directory is no more. I suspect Apple just figures the average person can cause more damage then good by messing with files in the Library. 

That said all is not lost. There is a rather simple way to get there from here.

From the Finder simply type cmd-shift-g
That will open a dialog box up where you can type
~/Library

The Finder will drop you right into your Library folder.
By the way, that '~' sign expands magically behind the scenes to /Users/username
which happens to be the root of your home directory.

If you want to make the Library folder always show up in the Finder you'll have to launch Terminal (found in your Utilities directory) and enter the following command.





You'll be prompted for a password. Enter your user password and hit Return. If you have a Finder window open you'll see Library magically appear.

To hide the Library type:




One word of warning. Make sure you include the ~ sign. Otherwise you'll hide and unhide the root Library.

That's it for today.

Cheers

Now for some reading material

  
  

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