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I find using “Date Last Opened” in All My Files to be particularly useful while “Date Modified” I prefer for the other files and folders on a Mac.
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My personal date-based sorting favorites are Date Modified and Date Last Opened. Date Added – sort by when files, folders, and items were added to the current location or computer.Date Last Opened – sort by when a file or folder was last opened or accessed, though not necessarily changed or modified (you can open a file to view it without changing it, for example).Date Created – sort by the file or folder original creation date.Date Modified – sort by when files or folders were last modified, changed, or altered in any way.Wondering what all those sorting columns and settings mean? You can enable them all and experiment in a folder to see for yourself, or each option can be generalized as follows: What the File Sort by Date Sorting Options Mean in the Mac Finder
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You can click the date column to toggle this back and forth, my personal preference is for the most recent dates to be shown on top but every user is different. If the little arrow next to the date column is pointing up, that means the oldest dates will be shown at top. If the little arrow next to the date column is pointing down, that means the most recent dates will be shown on top. Shown above we chose “Date Modified” as the column type to sort files by in the Library folder. * View settings impact only the Finder folder currently open, however you can choose the “Use as Defaults” button to set your options chosen here as the default view options in other Finder windows on the Mac.
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If you’ve never used these features before, or perhaps just forget they exist, this tutorial will walk through how you can use date based file system sorting on your Mac. Using date based sorting in Mac OS, you can sort files by “Date Modified”, “Date Created”, “Date Last Opened”, and “Date Added”.
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