Issue: The Desktop can become crowded with icons. Which one is a PDF file? Which one is an image? Where's that file I just downloaded? I don't know! Help me!

Solution: Right-click (or control-click) in the Desktop background, then select “Show View Options”.  The options for “Show Icon Preview” and “Keep Arranged By Kind” are especially useful.  In Snow Leopard, the “Keep Arranged by Kind” option has been replaced with “Arrange by Kind” (with a pull-down menu listing available sorting categories). In Lion, the “Sort By” and “Clean Up By” options have been split, but can still both be set to “Kind”.

OS Version Compatibility: Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, Tiger

Update Status: 03 December 2009