Du Vien Trang is a Freelance Web Designer / Developer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. This is his portfolio, blog and his digital playground.

There are many hidden files that Mac prevents the user from seeing as most of these files store essential data. There aren't any way to set them on in the preferences, however you can still view them using the Terminal or 3rd party programs. These hidden files has a period at the beginning of a file (ie, .login, .profile and etc).

Reason why Mac prevents the files from making it visible to a user is so they don't accidently delete them. It doesn't even allow you to change the file extension to a hidden file on your desktop.

If you are developer, at times it is necessary to view hidden files to edit them. For example, you might want to edit a .htaccess file from your local disk.

Here are 2 simple ways:

- Using the Terminal - use the command: ls -al

- Use TextWrangler or BBEdit - Go to 'File' and select 'Open Hidden'