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Need Date/Time in Mojave Finder, not "Yesterday" or "Today" in Column view

On a newer Macbook Pro running Mojave. Is there a terminal command or something to change how the date/time shows in the Finder? Now that I'm working from home, I often must copy files down to my desktop to work, then copy back up. I would like to see the exact dates and times (especially Modified) in the Finder, so I can at-a-glance verify that I did indeed copy up the latest-greatest.


I always use Column view, which just says "Yesterday" or "Today". We work at a very fast pace, so the exact date/time matters. If I switch to List view, it will give me the time but not the date (e.g. "Yesterday at 12:44 pm"). That isn't real helpful either, as sometimes I need screen captures showing the date/time. I end up having to Cmd-I and screen capture THAT.


I do see "Use Relative Dates" checkbox under Finder>View>View Options, but this is per-folder, and sometimes it isn't there for certain folders, especially on our network. Never used to have this problem with older OS. Is there a terminal command to change this for all for both local and mounted drives? I really don't know why Apple thought it helpful to force-switch to relative dates.



MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 30, 2020 9:47 AM

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Posted on Apr 30, 2020 10:50 AM

There are no Terminal commands to configure Finder interfaces. Apple continues to revise the Finder user interface, and functionality with each major operating system upgrade — proving that past is not prologue.


You can use Finder's Preview mode in Column view. Here is the Preview options panel open selecting creation and modification dates which are displayed in the right-hand window location:



and in List view, you can click and grab existing headings to better positions (e.g. filename, created, modified, etc.). Control-click/Right-click on any heading name and a list of available headings appear on a secondary menu. Here is my list view setting:


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Apr 30, 2020 10:50 AM in response to iamquoz

There are no Terminal commands to configure Finder interfaces. Apple continues to revise the Finder user interface, and functionality with each major operating system upgrade — proving that past is not prologue.


You can use Finder's Preview mode in Column view. Here is the Preview options panel open selecting creation and modification dates which are displayed in the right-hand window location:



and in List view, you can click and grab existing headings to better positions (e.g. filename, created, modified, etc.). Control-click/Right-click on any heading name and a list of available headings appear on a secondary menu. Here is my list view setting:


Apr 30, 2020 2:28 PM in response to iamquoz

If you select a document in Column View and then select Show View Options from the View menubar options

you will get a pop up menu where you can select Content Created and Content Created, this will list the actual date of the documents creation or modification, not just today, see screenshots below. depending what kind of files you work on the list of Preview Options may differ, but if you want to see more than Created: today at 14:30, activate the Content Created field

and you will get todays date written out.

Also screenshots by default should have the date and time in their title.



May 1, 2020 5:17 AM in response to iamquoz

Another possibility is using an Automator Quick Action that is enabled in System Preferences : Extensions : Finder:



Where this particular Quick Action is a custom solution saved from Automator with that name string. Here is the Automator screenshot behind this QA:



and the pertinent output when one uses it on a file in list or column mode showing Today for creation and modified dates:



And the pertinent AppleScript source found in the Quick Action:


set display_format to " -t '%b %e, %Y at %l:%M %p' -f 'Name:       %N%nCreated:    %SB%nModified:   %Sm%n'"
	
set date_stats to (do shell script "stat " & display_format & space & (POSIX path of input as text)'s quoted form)
set date_tilde to (do shell script "sed -E \"s|(Name:[[:space:]]+)($HOME)(.*)$|\\1~\\3|g\" <<<" & date_stats's quoted form)
display dialog date_tilde with title "Created and Modified Dates"



Quick Actions can also be accessed from their secondary menu (control/right-click) sub-menu, or from the Finder Preview panel's actions. They can also be assigned a non-conflicting keyboard shortcut too.

Apr 30, 2020 11:24 AM in response to VikingOSX

Hi VikingOS. Here's where I'm confused. Your first screen capture shows Created and Modified dates of "Today, 8:39 AM". The "Today" is what I'm trying to get rid of. I need April 30, 2020.


Your second screen capture (List view) doesn't show "Today" or "Yesterday", but then none of the dates are April 30 or April 29, 2020...


Does that make sense?

Apr 30, 2020 1:53 PM in response to iamquoz

The Finder does not grant control over the date formatting in the Finder Preview panel. For those files that display Today in their date, you need to perform an additional Finder Get Info on that file to show the full creation/modification date.


Both list and column view will show Today in the creation/modification dates.


It might be possible to cook up an Automator Quick Action that can present the full dates for you in a dialog by right-clicking on the filename in either of these Finder views. It would also be available to you in the Finder Preview panel's actions too.

May 1, 2020 2:13 AM in response to VikingOSX

Yes I think I said in my initial post that the Preview Options available will differ for different file types.

The original poster has not revealed what file types they are using so it is difficult to give a targeted response.

As you can see from my screenshots the Content Created and Content Modified is available for some file

types.

We can only wait for a response from the original poster to see what file types they are using and see if the Show

Preview Options will allow him/ her to select Content Created and Content Modified.

Need Date/Time in Mojave Finder, not "Yesterday" or "Today" in Column view

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