Many months ago I wrote a piece about my favorite Finder replacement tool Path Finder. I even talked about the wonders of Path Finder back in May over at the Digital Production Buzz. The developer Cocoatech has just released version 5 and it makes this tool even more of a must have.

I had been testing many different Finder replacements when I settled on Path Finder and one big thing that was missing from Path Finder was a “dual window view” where you could view 2 different folders side by side. Sure you could always bring up a second Path Finder window but the ease and elegance of the dual window view was one of the biggest features missing from earlier versions of Path Finder IMHO. I had contacted the developers and they said they didn’t really see a need for that particular feature. I guess that opinion has changed as it has been added! Just click the new Dual Browser button:

and Path Finder will split the current window into 2 panes for side by side viewing:

There’s a lot more features new to Path Finder version 5 besides the Dual Browser view and this screencast covers a number of them. Add these new features to everything else Path Finder has to offer, like the Drop Stack, drawers, searching and selecting capabilities, an application launcher, and there’s no reason to still use the Finder. And at $39.95 (upgrades are $19.95) it’s a realitive bargin considering how much time you’ll save over the years of use … at least until Apple makes a better Finder.