Not only does Leopard bring along a brand new Finder (review of that coming later this month), but the open and save panels have been updated to reflect the new changes. There is now a brand new sidebar in both panels that include the same new sidebar that you see in Finder, but the new open and save panels also include some new features that have not been seen thus far.

The new open and save panels, rather than just displaying a listing of your files, actually appears and behaves much more like a mini-Finder. For example, you can actually edit the contents of your sidebar right from the Open & Save panel, just as you would in Finder. Drag a folder into the sidebar, or drag one out of it, or move folders around, and not only will you be able to do it, but your sidebar in the Finder will also reflect your changes. (The sidebars in Panther and Tiger were firmly set and you could only modify them directly in Finder.)

Since you get the exact same Leopard sidebar, you can also open Shared computers directly from the open and save panels, however there’s no way of logging into those shared computers from the open and save panels. Therefore, if you were to click on a computer in the sidebar from the open and save panel, you would only have access to the public folders for each user; you’d have to switch to the Finder to be able to login and get to your own files.

Another Finder match is that you now have more than just column and list views with which to browse files. Icon view now comes to the open & save panels for the first time, which you can use to practically completely emulate your Finder experience. (You don’t get Cover Flow in the panels though, but I think most of us can adjust to that minor disappointment.) One thing that I would like to have seen would be to have Quick Look built-into these panels so that I could see what file I’m about to open before I open it. (If you haven’t guessed, I really do love Quick Look and wish Apple had put it in more places.)

However, one thing that I really think is clever is that the new open panels also include the iLife Media Browser, once only available to a select group of applications, now built right into the open panel for EVERY application. At the bottom of the sidebar is a “MEDIA” section, with options for Music, Photos, and Videos, which connect to iTunes, GarageBand, iPhoto, Photo Booth, and your Movies Folder. Although you don’t get the Quick Look experience, you can preview the music/photos/video by tapping the space bar. Now, the usefulness of this may seem kind of strange when you’re opening a document in, say, TextEdit, but I’ve found this very useful for things like my podcast editing workflow. Now, to upload a phpBB Weekly episode, I no longer have to drag it to the Finder, I can now put it into the upload box directly from iTunes!

Now, the Open and Save panels are probably not the main reason why anyone would want to update Mac OS X versions for $129, and probably aren’t considered top features in an operating system, but there certainly are improvements in these panels, if not simply having them be more flexible. Once again, it shows that Apple has been very tenuous with streamlining their interface for Leopard, and is just another reason to love Mac OS X.

Feature Satistfaction Rating:

Be sure to check out the other articles in the Leopard Feature Presentation, occurring throughout the month of November here on Webmacster87.info.

Tags: features, files, Finder, flexibility, iLife, Leopard Feature Presentation, Mac OS X Leopard, media, open, panels, review, save