Customize favorites shortcuts in the finder sidebar

trucmuche2005 · Mar 8, 2012

Hello everybody !

I'm new to mac : I bought my first MBP some days ago, but I don't regret it

English is not my native language so I'll certainly make many errors. Please forgive me, I try to do my best

Oh and by the way, I'm using Lion in french so I don't know the exact english words... I hope that you'll understand what I say...

In the Finder window, I created a shortcut to a folder in the favorite section of the left sidebar. But I would like to rename it. How can I do that WITHOUT renaming the folder itself ?

The reason of my question is simple... I have a folder named "2012" in many different folders (one folder per "client") and I would like to put in the finder the shortcut to different "2012" folders, which have the same name BUT not the same parent directory... And I don't want to have five "2012" identical shortcuts in the Finder...

Could you help me ?

Many thanks in advance !

Trucmuche2005

simsaladimbamba · Mar 8, 2012

trucmuche2005 said:
In the Finder window, I created a shortcut to a folder in the favorite section of the left sidebar. But I would like to rename it. How can I do that WITHOUT renaming the folder itself ?

Not possible.
But you could create an alias of one 2012 folder, rename it to whatever you like, store it wherever you like, and put that alias in the Sidebar.

In Mac OS X, what is an alias and how does it work?

Or not. I just tested it and as soon as I dragged the renamed alias into the Sidebar the Sidebar item got renamed to the original.
Seems you have to rename those 2012 folders itself.
I use 10.6.8 though.

Just tested it in 10.7.3, it doesn't work there either.

miles01110 · Mar 8, 2012

Make an alias and put it on the desktop. You can then rename the alias whatever you want and put it in the Finder sidebar.

trucmuche2005 · Mar 8, 2012

Waouw ! I didn't expect so rapid answers

Thank you very much guys !

I tried many many times what you suggest, but that doesn't work for me...
I didn't manage to drag'n drop an *alias* to the finder sidebar. I drag'n drop a normal folder to the sidebar without any problem, but the finder doesn't seems to accept aliases...

Thanks once more !

Trucmuche

EDIT. Oh, and for technical reasons, I think I cannot rename the 2012 folders... These are special folders which are managed by a program and I really think that I cannot rename those folders... So for me, the alias solution would be perfect... if it works :s

davidlv · Mar 8, 2012

You can try this:
1. Make a new folder, name it "Folders folder" or whatever you like, and put it in your home folder.
2. Make and alias for that new folder and drop it on the Desktop.
3. Make aliases to you various 2012 folders, rename them and drop them into the alias of that new folders folder on the desktop.

Now when you need quick access to those folders double click that alias.
I like to keep mine in Column view, but you may not.
This works well for me and I don't really feel the need to have that alias in the dock, but you can also try making another alias to the folders folder (or rename the alias) and try putting that in the dock.

The Finder's is still not super good at file management, having to do work-arounds like this shouldn't be necessary, but .....

- it's workable.

trucmuche2005 · Mar 10, 2012

Thank you for your answer !

But this is not the solution I'm looking for... With your solution, I get a folder where all my aliases are shown, ok. But this doesn't allow me to make one click in the finder to get into one of my "2012" folders...

It's a kind of solution since to get into one of the 2012 folders, I have 3 mouseclicks to do, but... this is not exactly what I'm looking for...

Actually, I'm quite surprised by the difficulty to make a simple operation like renaming a shortcut, because this shortcut mechanism is provided by Apple itself... Really strange, at my own opinion...

blizzrdof77 · Oct 31, 2013

Question Customize favorites shortcuts in the finder sidebar

That is pretty ridiculous. I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to add an "alias" to the Finder sidebar retaining it's alias title. I even tried creating a symbolic link, which will not retain it's symbolic name alias after dragging it to your sidebar either. These are the kinds of simple things that make me want to throw apples at the Mac developers.

alvint · Nov 27, 2013

I'm a bit late to this thread, but a workaround I've devised is to create a saved search which shows all files in the folder. Saved searches show up in Finder's sidebar (also under Favorites) and can be named whatever you want.

To do this, navigate to the folder you want to add to the sidebar, hit COMMAND-F to start the search, select the folder name instead of "This Mac" at the top, modify the search criteria to show all files (I use "File Size-is greater than-0 KB"), and hit the "Save" button. You will be prompted for a name.

An advantage to this approach (or possibly a disadvantage, depending on your needs) is that the search results are "flattened"--that is, files in subfolders also show up. Also note that the criterium "Kind-is-Any" doesn't work for some reason if it's the only search criteria, which is why I use "File Size-is greater than-0 KB".

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Customize favorites shortcuts in the finder sidebar

trucmuche2005

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miles01110

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trucmuche2005

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trucmuche2005

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alvint

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