Problem: Do you use the Column View when looking at your documents? If you do, then you have probably experienced problems with longer file names. The problem with the Column View is that by default you can't see the full file name - typically any file name that exceeds 20 characters is abbreviated. If you use the List View, Icon View, or deal exclusively with short file names then you won't have a problem. What do you do if you have a bunch of similarly named files that exceed 20 characters? We have a tip to correct this problem.
Let's say you are working with a bunch of spreadsheet files that you create and save on a daily basis. Perhaps you have one file named AcmeSoftware010110_DailySalesTotals.xls and a bunch of similar files with the same naming format:
AcmeSoftware010210_DailySalesTotals.xls,
AcmeSoftware010310_DailySalesTotals.xls, etc....
When using the column view the file name gets truncated and the only portion of each filename will show and will likely look like this:
AcmeSoftware....SalesTotals.xls
How can you differentiate one file from another without opening each one?
Tip: Double-click on the tab at the bottom of the vertical column divider bar. Once you double-click that, the column will expand so you can see the longest filename of any file in that column.
If you are working with long file names in a two column view, just hold down the Option key while double-clicking on the tab, and both columns will expand to the size of the longest filename.
