Swift Salamander
User Guide Sections

Start Here

Everyday Tasks

See Your Files Your Way

Preview

Find Files

Tools

Network and Cloud

Works With

Settings

Keyboard Shortcuts

Help and Problems

What Changed

Swift Salamander User Guide / See Your Files Your Way

Show or Hide Columns

How to show more information about each file, or hide information you do not need.

Checked with Swift Salamander 0.8.189 on 9 October 2026.

In Detailed List view, each file has columns of information, such as Size and Modified. You can show or hide each column. This page uses the View Options window.

Open View Options

  1. Make the pane active.
  2. Choose View > Show View Options from the menu bar, or press ⌘J.

The View Options window opens for the active pane.

Show a Column

  1. In the Columns section, find the Available list.
  2. Tick the box next to the column you want. It moves to the Shown list.

Hide a Column

  1. In the Columns section, find the Shown list.
  2. Untick the box next to the column. It moves to the Available list.

You can also right-click the column header and choose Hide This Column.

How Wide Columns Are

By default the app sizes the columns for you:

  1. Name is as wide as the longest name in the folder, up to 600 pixels.
  2. Every other column is as wide as its longest value.
  3. A column you drag keeps the width you gave it.
  4. When the pane is too narrow, columns hide one by one in the order set in Settings > Appearance > Columns. See See Hidden Columns in a Narrow Pane.
  5. Spare room goes to Name, so no column leaves a gap at the right edge.

Fit a Column to Its Content

  • Double-click the divider between two column headers to fit the column to its longest value. If you had dragged it, the app sizes it by itself again.
  • Hold Option and double-click any divider to fit every column.
  • You can also right-click a column header and choose Fit Column or Fit All Columns.

Size Columns Yourself

  1. Choose Settings > Appearance and find the Columns section.
  2. Set Column Sizing to Manual.

Columns then keep the widths you drag, and nothing resizes by itself. A column you turn on starts at the width of its longest value. Set Column Sizing back to Automatic to return to the default.

In the same section, Maximum Name Width sets how wide Name may grow, from 200 to 1200 pixels.

Column View

In Column view, each column is as wide as its longest name, between 160 and 600 pixels. Double-click the divider between two columns to fit one, or hold Option and double-click to fit all of them. Right-click a divider for Fit Column, Fit All Columns and Make All Columns Equal. With Column Sizing set to Manual, all columns share one width until you drag a divider.