The Tracker windows give you a lot of information about files and
folders, but you will get a lot more information by bringing up
the Get Info panel for a file (or folder). This is done by right-clicking
on the item in a Tracker window (or on the desktop) and choosing
Get Info from the context menu that pops up, or by selecting the
item and pressing Alt+i.

The Get Info panel, provides information about the item, and also
lets you do the following:
- Double-click the icon that's displayed in the panel to open
(or launch) the file or folder.
- Right-click the icon to pop open a context menu. The contents
of the menu depends on the item's type: All menus let you open
and rename the item; the folder context menu also provides a submenu
that lets you navigate the folder; the volume menu lets you unmount
the volume, and so on.
- Drag and drop the icon into a different folder or onto the
desktop; this moves the item (or copies it if the destintation
is on a different volume). If you're getting info on a folder
or volume, you can also drop files (and folders) onto the folder
or volume icon that's displayed in the panel. This moves or copies
the dropped item into the dropped-on folder or volume.
- Click on the Path: field to open the folder the item
lives in.
- If you're getting info on a file, the panel includes an Opens
with: menu that lets you open the file with a non-default application.
- If you're getting info on a link, the Link to: field shows the
link's target (the file or folder it's linked to). Double-click
the Link to: field to open a Tracker window on the target's parent,
with the target itself highlighted. You can reset the target through
the Set new link target in the item's context menu.
Permissions
Every file and folder on the system is governed by a set of security-related
properties. The Permissions relates to the Owner,
Group and Other, and the permissions are Read,
Write and Execute.
Both ownership and permissions are assigned from default values
when a file or folder is created. The owner of the file or directory
can later change this information if needed. If you are to open
your computer remotely for others, you should be familiar with these
properties, so that you can control who is allowed to access sensitive
data.
Knowing a bit about permissions, will also make you understand
why you might not be able to access data belonging to others.
Information about Permissions can also be accessed through the
Terminal with the ls command and the option l (ls
-l).
|