Tip If you’re in the List view, you can select and open multiple items that aren’t even in the same folder, as long as you can expand the folders to a level that displays all the items you want.

4. Take advantage of Quick Look

When you want to preview a file without opening it, nothing beats Quick Look. Luckily, you can use Quick Look when you’re in an Open dialog box. This is especially helpful if you need to see a file that the application you’re in doesn’t open, such as when you’re placing a document into InDesign or a graphic in a Word document.

In Leopard, you need a special Automator droplet described in . But in Snow Leopard, you can use Quick Look the same way you do in the Finder. Just select an item in the dialog box and then press the spacebar. If you select multiple items, the Quick Look window provides a slideshow option. But, as in the Finder, you don’t need the slideshow to easily see a sequence of files: use the Up or Down Arrow key to select the previous or next item in the dialog box’s list, and the Quick Look window updates immediately.

5. Customize the columns you see in List view