When I publish hints here on Macworld, I usually try to walk through and explain how they work, so as to help you understand what’s going on behind the scenes. Sometimes, though, I’ll just present a solution without much of an explanation, such as with today’s hint.
Today’s hint is an AppleScript that will toggle the visibility of the sidebar in all open Finder windows. In 10.6, you can do this for any one window with the View -> Hide (or Show) Sidebar menu item, but it only applies to the current window. Using the script in today’s hint, you can toggle the visibility in all open windows.
While the script works in both 10.5 and 10.6, it’s most useful in 10.6, because the script can’t completely hide the sidebar in 10.5 (instead, it just shrinks down to its minimum width).
Another advantage to using this script in 10.6 is that it can be created as a Service, and then run via either the Services menu, or if you prefer, a keyboard shortcut.
The following instructions assume you’re running 10.6; if you’re running 10.5, you can either enter the code in the Script Editor, and save it as an application, or possibly create it in Automator and save it as a Finder Plug-In (though I haven’t tested that).
In 10.6, launch Automator, and when the template chooser window appears, click Service then click Choose to open a new workflow. Near the top of the window that opens, on the right, you’ll see two pop-up menus. Set the rightmost of those to Finder, then set the leftmost to “no input.” (If you set the leftmost one first, then the Finder will disappear from the rightmost pop-up.)
Next, in the search box on the left, type run apples, which should be enough text to find just one matching action, Run AppleScript. Drag that action into the work area on the right, and then delete all of the placeholder code that’s in the text area (on run {input...etc).
Insert the following code in its place:
set Showsidebar to truetell application "Finder" activate if exists window 1 then set allwins to every window whose collapsed is false set my_num to 0 repeat with onewin in allwins set my_num to my_num + 1 tell application "System Events" tell process "Finder" set my_id to the name of onewin tell application "Finder" try set my_test to get ¬ toolbar visible of window my_id on error set my_test to false end try end tell if my_test then tell application "Finder" if window my_id is window 1 then set the_place to get sidebar width of window my_id if the_place = 0 then set Showsidebar to true else set Showsidebar to false end if end if end tell end if tell application "Finder" if index of window my_id is not equal 1 then open window my_id else if Showsidebar then tell application "Finder" tell front window to set sidebar width to 150 end tell else tell application "Finder" tell front window to set sidebar width to 0 end tell end if end if end tell end tell if my_test then if Showsidebar then tell application "Finder" tell front window to set sidebar width to 150 end tell else tell application "Finder" tell front window to set sidebar width to 0 end tell end if end if end tell tell application "Finder" set index of window my_id to my_num end tell end repeat end ifend tell
Select File -> Save, and give your new Serivce a suitable name (Toggle Sidebar). At this point, you may want to test it by switching to the Finder, opening a few windows, then selecting Services -> Toggle Sidebar (or whatever you called it).
Assuming this works, you can then make it even simpler by creating a keyboard shortcut. Open System Preferences, and go to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard System Preferences panel. Select Services in the left-hand column, then scroll to General (the final group) in the right-hand column. Find your saved Service, and double-click in the blank area to the right of its name.
Type in a new keyboard shortcut—I’ve had the best luck with Services shortcuts when using Control in conjunction with Shift and/or Option—and you’re done. Switch back to the Finder, and you should be able to hide (and then show again) the sidebar in all open windows by typing your keyboard shortcut.
Thanks to Mac OS X Hints contributor Laine Lee for this useful bit of AppleScript code.