One of the most useful features for working with different file types in Mac OS X is Quick Look. Viewing your files with Quick Look saves you from having to either open up each file or start up an application just to view the contents. Multiple document, image and video file formats are supported, and Quick Look allows you read or view the entire contents of each file rather than just a thumbnail image.
In this tutorial, we’ll take you through viewing your files with Quick Look, as well as provide you with a selection of keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow.
1.) Quick Look works with document, video and picture formats that are supported by OS X. In this example, we have four folders on our Desktop, three containing files of each type, and one containing a mixture of file types:
2.) Let’s open up our folder of pictures. Mac OS X will display thumbnails representing each image:
3.) Select one of the image files and then press the Quick Look button on the Toolbar (alternatively, use the ⌘+Y keyboard shortcut):
4.) Quick Look will display the image, with the options to view it Full Screen or Add to iPhoto along the bottom. Note that no application, such as Preview, has opened to view the file:
5.) Quick Look will work with multiple selections. Here, we’ve selected all the images in the folder and then pressed the Quick Look button. Further options are available now along the bottom of the Quick Look window. We can step through the images using the Arrow keys or press the Play icon to view the images as a slideshow:
6.) If we click on the Index Sheet icon, Quick Look will tile the images in a similar fashion to Exposé:
7.) Opening a video file with Quick Look will allow you to view the video, and you can Play or Pause using the icon:
8.) Again, selecting multiple items will allow you to step through them with the Arrow keys, while Index Sheet will display all selected items:
9.) Document files work in the same way. Furthermore you can use the side Scroll Bar to read through the entire contents of a supported document type without ever opening an application:
10.) Quick Look works not only with groups of files of the same type, but mixed files as well. Here, we have a video, image and .PDF open in Quick Look together, allowing us to rapidly navigate between the contents of each file without having to deal with three different open applications:
Quick Look is an immensely useful feature of OS X, cutting down the amount of time you have to open and close applications simply to check the contents of individual files. If you do work with large quantities of files at a time, even of mixed file types, Quick Look is a great addition to your workflow.
