Breadcrumb Navigation is a navigation technique used within an interface to give the user a sense of where they are located in a structure. Within a file navigation system, breadcrumbs give the user direct feedback into where the current working location is. This tutorial shows how to enable and use this navigation tool.
Breadcrumb navigation is now a strong, available feature in OS X 10.5 Finder.
For example, if you just see that you are in the “image” folder, you really never know if you are in your main image folder, your buddy’s image folder, or even the image folder of some application. Breadcrumbs show where you are in the path… and allows you to back navigate easily.
Here is the default Finder without Breadcrumbs (or Show Path as it is called in Leopard) enabled.
To Enable Breadcrumbs:
1. Click View in the Finder Menu
2. Click Show Path Bar
Breadcrumbs or the Show Path Bar is now enabled…
In the simple example above, the breadcrumbs doesn’t add much information because the path is simple. However, look how helpful it becomes when the path gets complex like the example below…
To use the breadcrumbs, you can click on each of the sections in the Show Path bar. This will take you directly to the folder which you selected.