ForkLift 1.5 Beta: Refreshed for Leopard

If you aren’t satisfied with the Finder, you have other choices. While some choose Adobe Bridge as their default file manager, others swear by ForkLift and even Pathfinder.

The ForkLift 1.5 Beta was just released, and boy are we in for a ton of treats. The biggest feature is of course, compatibility with Leopard.

After opening up the .dmg (disk image), you’ll notice one big difference. ForkLift has now been endowed with a brand new icon. In my opinion, the icon gives the appearance of a more mature app, which it really is, considering how far it has come since its beginning. Note that the icon is available with 512 pixels of goodness, so it really shines in Coverflow mode.

Right, enough about the icon, let’s run this app, shall we? After starting up, longtime users will notice the transition from the use of drawers to a unified interface. I think this new look makes things more organized and also helps reduce screen real estate. In the past, using ForkLift on my MacBook meant filling the entire display with both columns as well as both ‘Favorites’ and ‘Info’ drawers.

ForkLift now has QuickLook integration, so you can quickly preview your documents without having to fire up the respective apps. You can also add Groups; these are little containers that you can store stuff, kinda like Smart Folders on steroids. For example, if I want to keep all my blogging-related files together, I simply create a Group, and then drag into it. When I need a blogging-related file, I know where to look.

One final point I need to make is the speed. In the past, it would’ve taken me at least several minutes to upload an entire Wordpress directory on my internet connection. Now it’s just roughly 30 seconds. After speaking with developer Mudi Dandan, I learned that they redesigned the FTP handling system, making it one of the fastest I’ve ever used.

All in all, this is a really nice update. You can try the ForkLift 1.5 Beta, ForkLift 1.2 for 15 days, or purchase it for just $29.95. Bulk discounts available.