Finding a clearer perspective

Scan your drive

Prettier apps exist to examine your Mac, but few are more usable than GrandPerspective (Free, grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net). Go to File > Scan Folder to scan your Mac’s entire drive and give you a graphical overview.

Select items

Click an item to highlight it. You’ll also see how it sits within any group of associated files (such as Applications, or tracks in iTunes). The Focus buttons (top left) move the selection up and down the hierarchy.

View item details

Whatever the selection you make, the path to the item will be shown in the status bar at the foot of the GrandPerspective window — along with the crucial value that tells you how much space it is taking up.

Perform actions

Ctrl-click a selection and you can perform actions on it using the contextual menu — notably, previewing the item using Quick Look, or viewing it in Finder, prior to you potentially deleting it.

Beware of deletion

In GrandPerspective’s preferences, you can decide whether the app can move files to the trash, and whether confirmation is required to do so. If unsure, turn off this capability of the app and delete files using only Finder.

Resc an & repeat

GrandPerspective doesn’t provide a live view of your Mac’s drive. If you delete items, they’ll still appear in the app and simply be greyed out. Therefore, for ongoing pruning, make several changes and then rescan your Mac with the app.