Viewing Metadata in the Finder
The Finder can display more information about files than their size and datestamps, and for some types of file can extend to a lot of useful metadata. These are shown in the Preview pane containing the file’s QuickLook thumbnail, in the Get Info dialog, and some can be added to the columns shown in List View.
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To a degree, the user determines which fields are displayed in the Information shown in the Preview pane, although Apple doesn’t mention the key setting involved. Select the file, ensure the blue text to the right of Information is set to Show Less, then open its Preview Options using the Finder’s View menu.
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It’s only when the Preview pane is showing less information that your Preview Options are applied, and they’re now used the same for all types of Image.
Unfortunately:
Most of the metadata can’t be displayed unless the file is in a folder indexed by Spotlight. It can’t even tell you the dimensions of an image.
With my typical window sizes, there’s barely any space below the preview to see the metadata. I like to hide the Quick Actions and Last Opened date, to make more space for what I care about, but this has to be set separately for each type of file. I assume these settings are fragile and will have to be reapplied many times.
- There’s no way to adjust the order (like you can in Lightroom). And the order in the Preview Options inspector doesn’t fully match the order in the actual Finder window (e.g. Tags is at the top in one and the bottom in the other).
Previously:
