Click through the columns — each selection opens the next one
Column View (Browser)
/ NSBrowser · NSBrowserCell /
also called browser view, Finder column view, Miller columns, hierarchical browser
A column view is a hierarchical browser where every selected branch opens its children in the next column to the right. Finder's Column view is the familiar example: several ancestry levels remain visible at once, so the path is spatial rather than only textual. AppKit's native control is NSBrowser; NavigationSplitView is only an approximate SwiftUI composition.
Anatomy — every part, named
- 1Path column
NSBrowser“Each folder opening in a new column” is a path column in an NSBrowser.
- 2Branch indicator
NSBrowserCell.isLeaf“The little arrow at the end of a folder row” is the branch indicator for a non-leaf cell.
- 3Selected path
NSBrowser.path“The highlighted row in every column” is the selected path through the browser.
Prompt — paste into your agent
Build a Finder-style Column View with NSBrowser and NSBrowserCell: selecting a non-leaf row reveals its children in a new column immediately to the right, preserving the visible hierarchy path. Do not substitute a flat list or a single sidebar-detail split.
In code
The exact names this thing goes by in code — each row is one framework’s word for it. Use the row that matches your project (or paste it into your prompt).
| AppKit | NSBrowser | |
| AppKit | NSBrowserCell | |
| SwiftUI | NavigationSplitView | approximate; no direct equivalent |