How do I customize Finder toolbar with expanded 'view' options on Mac?

Yep — it's not you, Finder's just picky about space. The little segmented View control only expands into the four separate icons when there's enough room in the toolbar. So even if you set Customize Toolbar → Show "Icon and Text", a narrow window will still collapse it into the single dropdown.

What I do (when I want to avoid the extra click): use the shortcuts — ⌘-1 = Icon, ⌘-2 = List, ⌘-3 = Column, ⌘-4 = Gallery. Way faster than dragging the window every time. Otherwise you either make that Finder window wider (like ~60% of screen, as you noticed) or keep the dropdown and live with the click.

You can switch your Finder Window view mode from the keyboard, without needing to touch the Finder toolbar.

⌘1 - Icon view

⌘2 - List view

⌘3 - Column view

⌘4 - Gallery view

borped wrote:

Ahh.. this is it, the window has to be about 60% of the width of the screen and then it expands horizontally in the toolbar instead of being a dropdown menu. Does anyone know how to change this? I keep my windows at 50% so I can have two on the screen simultaneously..

Good catch! I normal run Column View in a long narrow strip, then run over and under when using a second.

Select Customize Toolbar... select Show "Icon and Text" click Done.

borped wrote:

Does anyone know how to change this? I keep my windows at 50% so I can have two on the screen simultaneously..

There's a minimum width. There has to be enough room to display all four icons.

Customize the Finder toolbar to show "Icon and Text". This will give you the expanded View option that you're looking for.

If you drag the Finder window to the right to make it larger you should see all four icons.

Just to be clear, hover the cursor over the right edge of the finder window so you see the arrows, then click & drag.

You could I suppose remove the "Actions" and "Group" icons to make more room.

You're welcome.

I believe Blaskowitz mentioned that in their post.

I strive to not be redundant, and here is a case where I did not read every single thread…

Yours was much neater and easier to read.