View File Metadata

In this video, we’re going to look at how we can view a file’s complete metadata in a Finder window. If you’re not familiar with metadata, each file has different types of data attached to it. For example, if you have an image, you’re going to see what camera that was taken with, or if the flash was used. If it’s a PDF, the metadata includes how many pages are in that PDF. We can now view this information in a Finder window. Let’s see how we do this. Let’s go to my Mac.

The first thing we need to do is show our preview that shows up in our preview in a Finder window. If we look here, you’re going to see I have my list of files. Right now, I am not showing the preview. To show the preview, what we do is we go up under View, and then we go over to Show Preview. When I select this, my Finder window is going to be divided into half. Let’s go ahead and select it.

I now have my files here, and then over to the right, we have our preview. Right now, it is blank because I do not have anything selected. Let’s go and select my photo, the beach. I select it, and now we have our preview. When we’re looking at our preview, we can see the metadata for that file. In this case, being that this is a photo, what I can do is I can see that it’s a JPEG, and it’s 3.2 megabytes. Below that, I can see when it was created, modified, and last opened.

With metadata, we can also see different types of information. Since this is an image, I can also see what type of camera was taken with, the f-stop used, and the ISO used. To see this type of information, what we do is we click on Show More. When I click on this, we can see all of the different metadata for that file. In this case, being that it’s a photo, what I can do is I can see the aperture, the ISO speed, if the flash was used, the metering mode, as well as the type of camera. To show less again, what we do is we click on Show Less, and now I’m seeing less. Now the metadata will change depending on the file type you have selected.

When I go over to this PDF, I’m not going to see what type of camera was taken with because it’s not a photo. What I am going to be able to see is how many pages are in this PDF, how it was created, or what it was created with. Let’s go ahead and select it. We go back over to our preview, and we can see when it was created and modified. Once again, we have Show More. Being that this is a PDF, when I click on Show More, I can see how many pages it is, what version of a PDF is this, as well as the resolution and the content creator. I click on Show Less to show less again.

With a movie, let’s go ahead and select a movie here. What I can do when I click on Show More, there’s I can see the color profile, the duration, the audio channels, and the dimensions. I’m going to click on Show Less. Now we can customize what we see here. To select what we see here, we first have to select the file type we want to change. I’m going to go back over to the beach. What I like to do is I like to see what camera a photo was taken with. What I would like to do by default is I would like to add the camera model here. To do that, instead of clicking on Show More, what we do is we go up to View in the menu bar, and then we go over to Show Preview Options. Again, remember we’re looking at a preview, so I want to see my preview options.

You’re going to see we have a new window that opens up, and we have all types of different metadata that we can turn on and off. I like to know the device model, the camera model. I select it. Now when we go back over to our preview, you’re going to see it says iPhone 6.

I also like to see the resolution. I click on it, and now I can see the resolution. This only affects images. I’m going to go and close this. If I select my PDF here, you’re going to see it brings me back to my Created and Modified only. If you want to see what we can show here, what we do is we go back under View again, and then we go over to Show Preview Options. When I select this, our window opens up, but you’re going to see that the information has changed. Now it is showing options only for PDFs.

What I want to do is I want to see the version. I also want to see the pages. When I close this window, you can see I now have the version and the number of pages, and I didn’t have to click on Show More. I can still click on Show More to see all the other information, but now I can see the version and page numbers when I show less. When we go over to this PDF here, you’re going to see I can see the version and how many pages it is.

I go over to this image here. What am I going to see? What camera was taken with as well as the resolution. I want to see what options I have with movies. I go and select my movie, and then we go up under View. We go down to Show Preview Options. Our window opens up, and now I can select what information I want to see with movies. I’m going to close this.

That’s how we can view the complete metadata of a file in a Finder window in macOS Mojave.