Finder list-view option of visible columns

The AppleScript Finder dictionary contains the following list-view column property:

“visible (boolean) : is this column visible”

However, the following script doesn’t work:

tell application "Finder"
	tell list view options of front Finder window
		set visible of column id modification date column to false
	end tell
end tell

I thought perhaps this property was meant to be read-only but even that doesn’t appear to work.

I googled this and others have reported a similar issue and suggested GUI scripting as an alternative, which is not an option for me. I suspect that this just isn’t going to work, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to check here.

Thanks.

I’m seeing the same thing. I’m also seeing that the Finder windows for many of my folders have more than one name column (according to AppleScript)! In one case:

tell application "Finder"
	tell front Finder window
		tell its list view options
			name of columns
		end tell
	end tell
end tell
--> {name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, name column, modification date column, creation date column, size column, kind column, label column, version column, comment column}

Also, the Finder’s AppleScript implementation doesn’t recognise Date Added or iCloud Status columns. It looks like a bug (or several). More likely, given past and ongoing performance, someone at Apple can’t be bothered to update the Finder’s scripting implementation.

Nigel,

I appreciate your response. I’ll accept that the visible property isn’t going to work and won’t spend any more time on it.

I tried the name-of-columns script and received the same results as you–with numerous name columns returned for some folders and omitted columns for other folders.

Fortunately, my script is a very simple one that will do its job without the above.

Thanks.