How to sort by name in Finder?

Question

I cannot sort by name when I simply open a finder, and select a folder. See the image below:

I know that I can do Cmd-J to bring up the menu for defining the sort and arrange by, but this seems rather complicated (as does customizing the toolbar).

So how can I easily sort the files and folders to be in alphabetical order in Finder?

Answer 1

If you're just looking for headers that you can click on to sort your items by name, date, size, etc then you're probably wanting to use the List view instead. This allows you to sort items by clicking on the headers (e.g. clicking on the Name header will choose between an ascending or descending sort).

If you're wanting to manually sort items regardless of the view you're using, you can use the Arrange button in the Finder's Toolbar. This looks like:

By clicking on this you can arrange your items by any of the following options:

Perhaps an option that will interest you is the fact you can customise your Finder's Toolbar. To do this, within Finder go to View > Customise Toolbar...

From here you can add/remove buttons, opt for the default set, and choose whether you want to see icons only, text only, or icons and text in the Toolbar.