Question on creating shortcuts

[opeepingtomo]

How do you do it?

Im new to owning a mac, just a few days in, and ive search online and help on the computer itself and cannot seem to find how to make a shorcut on the desktop to a specific location on the computer.

I find it funny that i figured out sharing a folder on the computer to windows over the network with no problems at all, but i cannot do something as simple as make a shorcut.

What im lookin for is the equivalent in mac of windows "send shortcut to desktop" when right clicking pretty much anything in windows.

 

[119576]

"Make Alias"

 

[tjevans]

As tiredhorses alluded, a "shortcut" is called an alias on the mac. There are two (probably more, but that's all I'll cover) methods. First, right click on the file, and select "make alias." The alias will appear in the same folder as the original file, and you can then drag it to the desktop. (the alias will have a "shortcut" icon like in windows).

The other method is a little quicker. Open the folder containing the original file in finder. Drag the file to the desktop, but at sometime before you release the mouse button, press and hold the command and option keys.

 

[opeepingtomo]

ill try the second way, yea i thought that is what alias was but wanted to make sure, but when i right click it doesnt even give me the option, i was doing this on the main dir of my profile

so i was clicking on the directory named my username inside the users folder
which is "opeepingtomo"

but it never gives me this alias option

 

[tjevans]

That's because it's your home folder (in the mac lingo). Bad, bad things happen if that is renamed or moved. The mac is trying to protect you from yourself, so the context menu has many options removed when you right-click on the home folder.