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10 Essential Tips for Using the macOS Finder More Efficiently

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Apr 12, 2001
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The Finder is a classic Mac system component that's ever-present on your desktop, ready to help you find and organize your documents, media, folders, and other files. It's the smiling icon known as the Happy Mac logo on your Dock, and includes the Finder menu bar at the top of the screen.


A lot of hidden power resides in every Finder window. In this article, we've highlighted some of our favorite Finder tips and tricks to help you work more efficiently with files and folders on your Mac.


Click here to read more...

Article Link: 10 Essential Tips for Using the macOS Finder More Efficiently
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/guide/top-tips-macos-finder/
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“The easiest method is to right-click (or Control-click) the folder name and icon in the window header.”
“...you can make the path appear by default in the window header.”
“If you no longer want the path to appear in each window header...”

Since 1984 this has been called the Title Bar. Maybe the next MacRumors tutorial should review names for basic screen objects.
 
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chabig said:
“The easiest method is to right-click (or Control-click) the folder name and icon in the window header.”
“...you can make the path appear by default in the window header.”
“If you no longer want the path to appear in each window header...”

Since 1984 this has been called the Title Bar. Maybe the next MacRumors tutorial should review names for basic screen objects.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've changed these instances to title bar.
 
thank you for this, I'm a relative newbie to Mac.

few of these I had discovered already and few are handy tools.
 
Wow, I learned something. Cool!

My favorite tip wasn't included. You can easily rename a whole bunch of files in one go by selecting them all and doing Right Click -> Rename X Items.

This will open up a dialog that allows you to set a common name for all the files followed by how you want the numerical indexing to work. You can group a bunch of images together and rename them something like "My_Vacation_2018-1.jpg, My_Vacation_2018-2.jpg, My_Vacation_2018-3.jpg" and so forth.
 
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Since Mt Lion we lost the ability to always open in a new window without holding the command key when the side bar is visible.
If you hide the sidebar then the finder restores this function.
Also lost is the ability of a finder window to span two monitors.
And how do you set the default to search by name and not by content?
Also there is a way to add a "quit" menu using tinkertool.
I always set my finder to show all hidden files.

This is the logo that Apple should use when booting. System 8 logo.It's based off a painting.
 
chabig said:
Awesome. Thanks for doing that. I gave you grief, but it really is better to use the accepted words.
Click to expand...
So it isn’t called, “That thing at the top of the window. Right there!!!”?

Good to know. :)

On topic, thanks for the tips! Learned some new tricks today! :)
 
Very useful keyboard shortcuts to navigate in finder:

Cmd + up arrow -> go to enclosing folder
Cmd + down arrow -> open selected item (works with folders and files)
 
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Step one’s:
double-click the bottom of the column divider

Should read, ‘anywhere on the column divider’

Also, why does the divider have thickness; it’s been 1px for years now. I sometimes see this old version kick in in random places but only rarely.
 
It's funny because over time, Apple has chosen to hide most of these efficient features for the clean look. I use most of these on a daily basis.
 
Xavier said:
It's funny because over time, Apple has chosen to hide most of these efficient features for the clean look. I use most of these on a daily basis.
Click to expand...

In my opinion this is why the Finder needs a major redesign. I always get jealous looking at other file managers like Files from Gnome 3, Dolphin from KDE or Pantheon Files from Elementary OS. They are very feature rich but still have a basic but efficient design.
 
If only there was a way to rename your favourites shortcuts in the sidebar without it actually renaming the folder itself
 
DrNevs said:
If only there was a way to rename your favourites shortcuts in the sidebar without it actually renaming the folder itself
Click to expand...

Workaround:

1. create an alias
2. rename it to the name you want in your favourites bar
3. drag the alias to the favourites bar
4. use termine to hide the alias
5. profit
 
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DanielDD said:
Workaround:

1. create an alias
2. rename it to the name you want in your favourites bar
3. drag the alias to the favourites bar
4. use termine to hide the alias
5. profit
Click to expand...


Genius workaround DanielDD :)
 
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