how can I add 'file size' to finder search result columns? I try to do searches to find big files that I can delete to free up valuable hard drive space.

If you use Command F rather than spotlight you can add a search criteria for "Size" and make it greater than x. You can add a second criteria "Kind" and make it folders. You can also limit your search to folders within a particular folder.

The 2 together will limit your search to folders greater than x in size.

Thanks, that is a good trick. How can I put a column called 'files size' into those searches?

Here is a free visual and numerical file size search tool:

Disk Inventory X (http://www.derlien.com/)

http://www.derlien.com/download.php?file=DiskInventoryX

Thanks, that is a good trick. How can I put a column called 'files size' into those searches?

Switch to List view.
Look at View Options (command J) to see if Size is checked.

I swear the people writing OS X don't actually use the software themselves - if they used it, they would never downgrade the usability of a feature so blatantly. But then maybe they assumed they could get away with it because the majority of users wouldn't notice. And maybe they were right.

This actually dates all the way back to OS-8 or so. The default listed folder sizes. Only trouble was the Macs of that era seemed to need to get it to the nearest bit and counted on their fingers and toes to do it. I have seen a 1GB HD on these old machines take 2 minutes to complete the list view. Power users quickly learned to disable the size listing. Mac users since then have just gotten in the habit of using "Command i" if they need to see a folder size.

Given the gargantuan size of current HDs, it is quite possible this "feature" would still turn into a major resource hog.

I guess I should clarify something...

For those who have yet to "upgrade" to Leopard, when a search is performed (Spotlight or in the "Finder", the result is now the same), the results are presented with only three sort criteria: "Name", "Kind" and "Last Opened" and these can't be changed. "There are no view options for this window".

You can search for files based on "Size", but then you can't sort the results based on "Size". In fact, the search part is quite good, and you can search based on all sorts of things -- but the results can't be sorted on the basis of something useful like "Size", "Modification Date" or "Creation Date". Well, you can sort of get "Modification Date", but it isn't very practical. But nothing for "Creation Date", "Label", "Comments", etc.

I'm no fan of Spotlight in "Tiger", but at least all of the sort criteria available in a "Finder" window were available to sort "Finder" search results.

So the answer to the OP's query is either i) you can't; or ii) upgrade to 10.4 for a more familiar experience if your model supports it.

Just because it really really bugs me, I'm resurrecting this thread.

Two years plus a month, and this issue remains - not fixed in any of the 10.5.x updates.

...and don't get me started on the stupid bug that means you can't click-to-sort any column header in the search results window, unless you open a new finder window and close it again, which for some reason restores functionality.

...or are all the internal OS X developers using Path Finder? :mad:

10.6: Add Size and other columns to search results - Mac OS X Hints (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2009083113534843)

Use this instead Let me google that for you (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pathfinder+osx)