We all create and download files every day. But despite our best housekeeping efforts, keeping track of those files remains alogistical headache. MacGizmo aims to make the task simpler, by showing the contents of just about any file selected intheFinder.
Clicking on a file will slide open the MacGizmo window, a large (and expandable) pane that shows a full preview of the file in question. It can show the contents of practically any image file, such as Jpeg,Tiff and Gif, but it can also show native Illustrator and Photoshop documents. In addition, if you select a movie or a music file, then it will play automatically in the preview window.
MacGizmo can also display HTML files, such as web archives; clicking on a link within the HTML page will load the linked page directly into the MacGizmo preview pane, behaving like a standard browser.
MacGizmo will also show the contents of text files, complete with all fonts and styling - including Microsoft Word documents fully formatted, complete with tables. It will display single and multi-page PDF documents, with arrows to step through the pages and a zoom button to allow you to view the entire page within the preview window, or to read a document in close-up; a search field allows you to find text within any PDF or text document.
As an added bonus, selecting a font file will show the name of the font in its own typeface, with the ability to zoom the font size for a clearer view. If a family contains more than one weight of a font, then all thevarious instances are displayed with theirown names.
Any image, text, PDF or font displayed inMacGizmo can be printed direct from thepreview pane, without opening the document in another application first. Two expandable tabs show the location of the file on your hard disk in a hierarchical format, and provide information about the file - the kind, size, creation and modification dates. Ifa folder rather than a file is selected, MacGizmo will display the size and number of files contained within it.
MacGizmo can be customised to appear on either the right or left of the screen, to 'sleep' using a hot key, and - to save it popping open when you don't want it - to appear only when the Option key is held while an item is selected. It can also force unsupported document types to be read asplain text.
At present, MacGizmo is unable to display the contents of Excel and PowerPoint files, and cannot show the contents of files selected within a Spotlight search window. But as a tool for previewing the contents of just about any text or graphic file, it's unrivalled in its ease of use and cleanness of interface. It appears when you want it, and disappears when you don't. All-in-all, we have no qualms in highly recommending MacGizmo.
Author: Steve Caplin
MacUser Online