How to Stop Column View From Cutting Off File Names on a Mac

October 21, 2026 · 5 min read

In column view, a long file name often ends up shortened, with an ellipsis in the middle. Two screenshots, two installers or two versions of a document then look almost identical. Each column has its own width, and a name that doesn't fit in it is cut.

The short answer: in the Finder, drag the small handle at the bottom of a column to widen it, hold ⌥ while you drag to widen every column at once, or double-click the handle to fit the column to its longest name. Recent versions of macOS also have a Resize columns to fit filenames option in the view options. In Folia Files, each pane has a Fit Columns to Names option, and you can turn off its Preview Column to give that room to your folders.

Why names get cut off in column view

Column view shows one column per folder along the path you clicked through, then a preview of the selected file in a last column. The columns sit side by side in the window, so each one stays fairly narrow. When a name is longer than its column, it is shortened in the middle: you keep its beginning and its extension, and lose what's in between. That's fine for “IMG_4027.jpg”, much less so for names that only differ in the middle or at the end.

Make room for long names in the Finder

Switch the window to column view with View › as Columns (⌘3), then use the handles or the view options.

Drag a column's handle

At the bottom of each column, on the line that separates it from the next one, there is a small handle (two short vertical lines). Drag it to the right to widen the column, to the left to narrow it.

Hold Option to resize all the columns

Hold ⌥ while you drag a handle: all the columns change width together.

Double-click to fit a column to its names

Double-click a column's handle: the column takes the width of the longest name it shows.

Let the Finder size the columns

Choose View › Show View Options (⌘J) while the window is in column view. In recent versions of macOS, the window has a Resize columns to fit filenames checkbox: tick it and the Finder sizes the columns to the names they contain.

Hide the preview column

The last column shows a preview of the selected file, and it takes as much room as a folder. To turn it off and give that room back to your folders, choose View › Hide Preview (⇧⌘P), or untick Show preview column in the view options. View › Show Preview brings it back.

Column widths in Folia Files

Any pane of Folia Files can show a folder in columns: click the Columns button in the pane's header, or choose View › Columns (⌘5). Its columns follow one rule: none is ever wider than the first one. By default, every new column opens at the first column's width, so a long name can still be cut:

Folia Files in Columns view with its default settings: the home folder, then the Desktop, where the two long screenshot names are cut in the middle; the selected screenshot is shown in full in the preview column at the end

The handles work as in the Finder:

Drag the first column's handle and the other columns follow it.
Hold ⌥ while you drag to resize all the columns together.
Double-click a handle to fit that column to its longest name, up to the first column's width.
A column you narrow stays narrower, and none can be dragged wider than the first.

To give long names more room everywhere, widen the first column.

Fit Columns to Names

Click the gear at the right of the pane's header (Folder and Pane Settings), and in its View section, tick Fit Columns to Names. The same command is in the View menu of the menu bar while the pane is in Columns view.

Each column after the first then takes the width of its longest name, never more than the first column's:

a folder of short names gets a narrow column, so more folders fit side by side;
a folder of long names gets as much room as the first column allows;
the first column keeps the width you give it: widen it, and the others widen with it, each up to what its names need;
a column you resize yourself keeps its width as long as it shows the same folder.

Untick the option and every column goes back to the first one's width.

Turn off the Preview Column

In the same place, untick Preview Column. Selecting a file then opens no extra column: the file stays selected in its own column, and the room goes to your folders. To look at a file, press Space for Quick Look (more on Quick Look), or keep the Preview module open in the right sidebar.

Keep it for one folder, or for every new pane

Both options belong to the pane, like its view and its sort order. A pane keeps them from one folder to the next, and the pane beside it can show the same folders another way, which helps when you view two folders side by side.

For one folder: in the gear, choose Save for This Folder, or Save for This Folder and Its Subfolders. Any pane that opens the folder then shows it that way: a Downloads folder full of long installer names, for example.
For every new pane: open Folia Files › Settings… (⌘,) › Panes. The Default view section has Fit columns to names (Columns view) and Preview column (Columns view). Use as Default View, in the gear, does it in one go from the pane you've just set up.

Folia Files Settings, Panes page: the Default view section with the Fit columns to names (Columns view) and Preview column (Columns view) checkboxes

The panes page shows the other views and what a pane can do.

In short

Finder: drag a column's handle, ⌥-drag to resize them all, double-click to fit a column to its names; on recent macOS, tick Resize columns to fit filenames in the view options; ⇧⌘P hides the preview column.
Folia Files: Fit Columns to Names in the pane's gear, the first column as the widest, Preview Column off for more room, saved for a folder or for every new pane.