# Mac finder window keeps opening up from a link

**URL:** <https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/mac-finder-window-keeps-opening-up-from-a-link/36299>\
**Category:** RapidWeaver Classic\
**Created:** [December 16, 2020, 2:20am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/mac-finder-window-keeps-opening-up-from-a-link/36299 "2020-12-16T02:20:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Proxima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Proxima](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/Proxima)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 2:20am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/mac-finder-window-keeps-opening-up-from-a-link/36299/1 "2020-12-16T02:20:50Z")

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A site published locally with RW8 will open up a Finder window (Mac), whenever I select a link from the home page. In the simulator its fine. Been trying to figure this one out for hours. ahhhhhGGGG!

Nevermind. Not being a web/server kinda guy (iOS clients) i missed that ever so humble setting “Tidy Website Links” which was clipping the index.html off the links.

And that seems to be the DEFAULT! For shame!

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**Author:** ![thang](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thang/32/303_2.png) [@thang](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thang)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/mac-finder-window-keeps-opening-up-from-a-link/36299/2 "2020-12-16T03:19:58Z")

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This post might help:  
This was the question:

> [@Local Publishing--Name of Folders](http://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/local-publishing-name-of-folders/28985/3):
>
> Hi there, I have a similar problem. I puplished my site locally in a folder (pagenames are correct). When testing it by opening the “index.html” file, my homepage pops up (Mac, Safari), but when I want to go to my linked pages (impressum etc.) the finder opens and just shows me the folder there, not the site. It works in preview in RW8. Now my question: does this change when I upload it directly to a FTP-Server or did built something wrong? Thank you.

And this is the answer:

> [@Local Publishing--Name of Folders](http://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/local-publishing-name-of-folders/28985/4):
>
> Webpages are designed to be served by a web server. Publishing all pages of a site to a local folder will produce all the files needed for a web server to use. By opening the file(s) directly with a browser, you’re skipping the very important web server step. Web servers like Apache, Nginx or IIS do quite a bit of “stuff” with these files prior to the end users browsers getting them. Thinks like PHP and “tidy links“ are handled. If you’re looking to preview your site locally prior to publishin…

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**Author:** ![teefers](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/teefers/32/8173_2.png) [@teefers](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/teefers)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/mac-finder-window-keeps-opening-up-from-a-link/36299/3 "2020-12-16T18:48:45Z")

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> [@Proxima](#):
>
> And that seems to be the DEFAULT! For shame!

Mike (@Proxima),  
Default settings picked by developers to make producing the best results for most of the users of a product. I see no shame in the default value, having tidy links turned on. This feature works fantastic for 99.9% of users. It reduces the URL size, making external links shorter, and that can help with search engine optimization along with increasing conversion rates.

> [@Proxima](#):
>
> A site published locally with RW8 will open up a Finder window (Mac),

RealMac designed RapidWeaver to produce modern web pages. You need a web server to serve modern web pages. Just because the finder will open a browser window when you select an HTML file doesn’t mean everything on the page will work.  
RapidWeaver has a web server functionality built in. If you want to test your site to see how it actually looks in a browser, you can simply Right-Click the page and select the browser you want. Not only will tidy links work, but other things link PHP will work.

 ![2020-12-16_11-31-01](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/realmacsoftware1/original/3X/d/8/d8850211a8e1217496d92b3164c42cab84bede9e.jpeg)

###### This is more than adequate for most users’ testing needs.

If you want to test a website published locally, use a local web server. OS-X (Mac OS) actually comes with an old version of Apache installed. Unfortunately, Apple makes it difficult to update, set up and use (a lot of terminal stuff).  
  
It’s much easier to install something like [MAMP](https://www.mamp.info/en/mac/) or [XWAMP](https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html) to facilitate local testing. Both work by running Apache, PHP, and a database (MySQL or MariaDB) locally from the Mac GUI. They both have free versions that will do what most RapidWeaver users need.

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**Author:** ![system](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/system/32/25301_2.png) [@system](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 4:48am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/mac-finder-window-keeps-opening-up-from-a-link/36299/4 "2021-01-16T04:48:51Z")

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