If you are anything like me you find yourself making the hidden files on your Mac visible in Finder several times a day for some reason or another.

I’ve written a simple Applescript App to speed up and simplify this process – available for download – (with Applescript source included in case you’re interested in it)

Why build the App when there are already two built in ways (that I know of) to do this ??

Both of the built in ways (detailed at the bottom of the post) are fairly easy to do, and if you only do this occasionally, both are perfectly good options.

If you do this several times a day however, these methods can start to become a bit tedious.

My App sits on my dock and allows me to change quickly and easily from one state to the other with just 2 mouse clicks.

Download it here and Have Fun!

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The build in methods of achieving changing the visibility of hidden files are:

1. At command line :
prompt$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
prompt$ killall Finder

(which of course later needs to be re entered with a NO argument to make the files invisible again when you are finished with them)

2.  Through the GUI :
Alter the com.apple.finder.plist file with Property List Editor
(It is usually found at /Users/username/Library/Preferences/) , change the AppleShowAllFiles value to either NO or YES as appropriate, then relaunch finder (via Apple Menu > Force Quit.)