Option One: Use the Context Menu

One way to change the sort policy in File Cabinet Pro is to right click on the background of the window to bring up the context menu. Then from the context menu hover your mouse over the “Sort By” menu item to open up the submenu and choose your desired sort policy.

Note: You can also sort in descending order using any sort policy from the context menu by holding down the Option key while the “Sort By” submenu is exposed. While the Option key is pressed down, the menu while show a downward arrow to indicate descending order.

Option Two: Use Hotkeys to Sort

You can also use hotkeys to change the sort policy in File Cabinet Pro. Below you will find a list of the key combinations you can use to change the sort order:

Sort Policy	Hotkey
Name	Control+Command+1
Name Descending	Control+Command+Option+1
Kind	Control+Command+2
Kind Descending	Control+Command+Option+2
Date Last Opened	Control+Command+3
Date Last Opened Descending	Control+Command+Option+3
Date Added	Control+Command+4
Date Added Descending	Control+Command+Option+4
Date Modified	Control+Command+5
Date Modified Descending	Control+Command+Option+5
Date Created	Control+Command+8
Date Created Descending	Control+Command+Option+8
File Size	Control+Command+6
File Size Descending	Control+Command+Option+6

Option Three: Click Column Headers in List View

Another way you can change the sort policy in File Cabinet Pro is to click the column headers in list view.

Clicking the same column twice will toggle between ascending and descending order. You can add or remove columns in List view by right clicking the column header and selecting columns to add or remove from the context menu.

Option Four: Use the “Arrange By” Button in the Toolbar

You can also sort files using the “Arrange By” pull down button in File Cabinet Pro’s toolbar.

When this button’s menu is showing, you can also hold down the Option key if you wish to sort in descending order.

If you do not see the “Arrange By” button in File Cabinet Pro’s toolbar, right click on the toolbar and choose the “Customize Toolbar” menu item. Then you can add the “Arrange By” button to the toolbar (see screenshoots below).

Finder uses the exact same keyboard shortcut.

If you purchased File Cabinet Pro from the Mac App Store, you may have noticed that you cannot open a folder alias directly within the app. If you double click an alias folder in File Cabinet Pro, it will say “Empty Folder” in the window even if the directory is not empty. It would be reasonable to assume that this is a bug in File Cabinet Pro, but it is not.

So why does this happen?
This happens because Apple requires all apps sold on the Mac App Store to be sandboxed. The sandbox, as of macOS 10.12.1, prevents an application from accessing the contents of a folder alias; this behavior may or may not be a bug in macOS (that is for Apple to decide).

If you want to workaround this restriction, follow the steps below:
1) Launch File Cabinet Pro and bring up the app’s main window.
2) Click the gear button in the bottom left corner of the window and choose “Settings” from the pop up menu.
3) In the Settings window, under the “General” tab, click the “Grant Permission for Alias Folders” button.
4) In the system provided panel that pops up, select a directory to grant File Cabinet Pro permission to access the contents of that directory. After you select a directory, File Cabinet Pro will be able to open a folder alias if the original folder the alias points to resides within the directory you chose in the open panel. If you want to grant the app permission to open folder aliases for folders anywhere on your Mac, choose your hard disk (typically named “Macintosh HD”) in the open panel.

You only have to do the above steps once.

Global Hotkey support was introduced in version 2.0. You can now open/close the File Cabinet Pro window without having to bring your mouse all the way up to the menubar. If you already bought File Cabinet Pro, you can update now for free. If you haven’t purchased File Cabinet Pro, you can buy a copy here.