How to See a Folder and All Its Subfolders as a Map on a Mac
The Finder has no map view. The closest it gets is list view, where you unfold folders one by one, and column view, which shows one path at a time. To see how a folder is organized at a glance, with several subfolders open side by side, use the Branches view of Folia Files (View › Branches, ⌘8): each folder you open becomes a card, and its subfolders open to its right, joined to their row by a curve.
What the Finder can show
List view and its arrows
In list view (View › as List, ⌘2), the small arrow next to a folder shows its contents, indented under it. Option-click the arrow and every folder inside it opens as well.
That works for two or three levels. Beyond that, everything lands in one long list: a folder of 300 photos pushes the rest off the screen, and indentation is the only clue to how deep you are.
Column view
Column view (View › as Columns, ⌘3) gives each level its own column, which is clear for one path. Click another folder in an earlier column, and the columns after it are replaced: you never see two branches at the same time.
In Terminal
find . -maxdepth 2 -type d lists the folders under the current one, two levels deep, as paths. The tree command, which draws the hierarchy in text, isn't part of macOS (Homebrew installs it). Either way, you get text to read, not folders you can open.
See a folder as a map with Branches
Branches is the eighth view of the panes in Folia Files, new in version 1.2. It helps when you take over a project folder, sort out an old archive, or need to show someone where things are. And it is a full file view: you open, rename, copy and drag files from it as in the others.
Open the map
- Open the folder in a pane.
- Choose View › Branches (⌘8), or click the forked-arrow icon among the view buttons in the pane's header.
- The folder appears as the first card on a dotted canvas: a small list with Name, Size and Date Modified, a dozen rows tall at most (a longer folder scrolls inside its card), with its number of items in the header.
- Click a subfolder. Its card opens to the right, linked to its row by a curve. Click another subfolder of the same card: a second card opens in the same column, and both stay open.
Go as deep as you need. The cards line up in columns, one per level, and the map grows to the right.
Read the map
- Each branch has its colour. A branch takes the colour of its first folder's tag if it has one, otherwise one of ten colours, different from the other open branches. The row of an open folder is tinted the same way, so you can follow a branch with your eyes.
- Folder sizes are measured in every card, in the background, on local disks: the Size column tells you which branch weighs the most.
- Each card sorts its own way. Click a column title (Size, for example) to sort that card alone, and click it again to reverse the order. View › Sort By sorts all the cards at once.
Keep only the branches you need
- Option-click a folder to open its card and close the other branches of the same card.
- The × in a card's header closes it, along with every card under it.
- Right-click a card for Keep Only This Branch or Close All Branches.
Zoom out to see everything
Pinch on the trackpad, press ⌘+ and ⌘−, or turn a mouse's scroll wheel while holding ⌘, anywhere from 15% to 200%. The buttons in the bottom-right corner of the canvas do the same: Zoom to Fit brings every card into view (never larger than actual size), and a click on the percentage brings back 100%.
Below 45%, the lists would be too small to read, so each card shows only its folder's name and number of items, filled with its branch's colour: the bird's-eye view of a whole project. Double-click a card there to zoom back in on it.
When the map is larger than the pane, a minimap appears above the zoom buttons, with the part in view framed. Click or drag in it to go elsewhere; its button in the zoom bar hides it. You can also scroll with two fingers, or drag the empty part of the canvas.
Arrange the cards
- Move a card by dragging its header: the cards under it follow, unless you hold ⌥. Put All Cards Back in Place, in the card's menu, restores the layout.
- Resize a card by dragging its right edge, its bottom edge or its corner: narrow for short names, tall to see a long folder without scrolling. Double-click the edge, or choose Default Size, to go back.
Work in the map
The cards are real file lists. Double-click a folder to go into it (it becomes the first card), or a file to open it. Press Space for Quick Look and ↩ to rename. With the keyboard, → opens the selected folder's card and moves into it, and ← goes back to the card above. Drag files onto a folder's row to put them there; hold them over the folder and its card opens. New folders (⇧⌘N) and pasted files go into the card you are working in.
The pane keeps its map
The pane remembers which cards are open, where you moved them, their sizes, colours and sorts, and the zoom. Switch to another view and back, visit another folder and return, or quit Folia Files: the map is there when you come back (with Restore panes at launch, on by default in Settings › General). Go › Enclosing Folder (⌘↑) keeps it too, the folder you leave becoming a card of the new map. A cloned pane, or a tab saved as a scene, takes its map along.
For a folder that should always open as a map, choose Branches, then Save for This Folder in the gear menu of the pane's header.
Map, tree or columns: which one when
Each pane of Folia Files has eight views, a click apart in its header (see them all on the panes page). For the structure of a folder, three of them work together:
- Branches (⌘8): several subfolders side by side, to understand how a project or a disk is organized, compare two branches or show someone where things are.
- Tree (⌘4): everything in one list with all its columns; View › Expand All (⌥⌘→) opens every folder.
- Columns (⌘5): the fastest way down a single path, with the selected file previewed at the end.
A map in one pane can also sit next to the folder you are working in, shown in another: see how to view two folders side by side. And if your question is what takes up the space rather than how things are organized, the Disk Usage view (⌘7) draws a folder as bubbles sized by what they hold: how to see which folders take the most space shows how.
