Filed under: OS, Software, Productivity
Love your Finder: A keyboard shortcut for adding items to the sidebar
While the Mac web generally (and justifiably) has quite a few gripes with the long-disregarded Finder, it actually offers quite a few unsung features that make working with your files efficient and fun. The upcoming changes to the Finder in Leopard certainly do look nice, but I think it's about time we set aside our differences with the Finder, if only for a moment, and rekindled our love with its truly pleasant and useful features. Hence an unofficial new TUAW mini-series: Love your Finder (I call it a mini-series because a lot's changing in October when the new Finder finally arrives in Leopard).Take the File > Add to Sidebar (command-T) feature that I forgot all about until listening to Thursday's MacBreak Tech episode. The beauty of the Finder's sidebar is that you can drag anything you want into it, including folders (including those from networked volumes like an iDisk), files and even applications. Your customized sidebar is then available in every Open and Save dialog throughout Mac OS X, making it a great spot to quickly place and remove projects you're working on, apps you need for a short time and important folders in which you need to often save or retrieve things.
The sidebar gets even cooler, however, if you can wiggle that keyboard shortcut to your workflow. Got a file you need to remember later today? Cmd-T. A pictures folder you use for blogging that's buried deep in your Home folder? Cmd-T. A bunch of applications you're testing out for business or pleasure? Boom - that shortcut makes it easy to turn your Finder sidebar into a pseudo-cork board for all the stuff flying up and down your todo list, since all you have to do to remove an item is click and drag it off the Finder window to get that satisfying 'poof.'
Combine this trick with our Mac 101 tip for adding your own items to the Finder's toolbar and you can put together one mean, lean window that can let you browse your files faster than ever before.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rafe H. said 8:20PM on 8-12-2007
Do you deliberately put pictures like that next to your articles, so that we'll read the article over and over again, thinking we must have missed how exactly to implement that amazing feature shown in the picture?
;-)
So, how do you implement that amazing feature in the picture?
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David Chartier said 8:22PM on 8-12-2007
#1: Well, it is our policy to include an image in each of our posts, so it was either that or the Windows logo. :)
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Rafe H. said 8:32PM on 8-12-2007
That is, the ability to search within any folder in the sidebar, as shown in the picture?
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David Chartier said 8:37PM on 8-12-2007
OH! I see what you're saying. Picture updated with a new brush and more sloppiness to ensure I don't confuse anyone. :)
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Rafe H. said 9:00PM on 8-12-2007
Oh, that's too funny. Doh! Now I see! Well, for the sake of other readers we may as well delete this thread :)
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Rafe H. said 9:01PM on 8-12-2007
Thread = discussion, not article of course.
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Fernando said 9:57PM on 8-12-2007
Now I'm curious, what was the amazing feature? How to search within any folder in the sidebar?
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Abstraction said 10:13PM on 8-12-2007
I assume that the blob covering the home icon's name used to be rounded and search box-esque, giving people the impression that you could search files in each icon in the sidebar. I'm not sure though >
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Harbinger said 12:22AM on 8-13-2007
Anyone know where the sidebar is maintained for the OPEN and SAVE dialogs? I have an extra, unusable, DESKTOP icon in my sidebar. It only appears in the open and save dialogs though...
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David Chartier said 12:51AM on 8-13-2007
#8: Abstraction - yea, it was the result of the original screenshot I used where I covered my up Home folder user name with too round of a white circle, courtesy of Skitch. I redid the shot to avoid any confusion.
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Devin said 1:02AM on 8-13-2007
I know this has nothing to do with these comments but i was just checking out the visualizers in Itunes and i think there might be a major update there.
Check it out yourself.
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Adrian vG said 3:15AM on 8-13-2007
If the sidebar just could save it's size, with nice, big icons, and add a scroll bar if the items get too many or the window size changes. Maybe add a hierarchy like albums in albums in iTunes?
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Michael said 5:07AM on 8-13-2007
From the article:
"Finder ... offers quite a few unsung features ..."
I don't mind Finder, although there are far better file managers on other OSes, but I can't imagine wanting to _sing_ about its features. Love or death or high deeds any other of the traditional themes, yes, but software features, however useful, seem incurably _prosaic_ to me.
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Luna Lovegood said 10:26AM on 8-13-2007
"...I covered my up Home folder user name..."
Why?
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apd said 10:42AM on 8-13-2007
Can I create an alias of the Trash, and place it in the Finder sidebar?
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Twister said 11:14AM on 8-13-2007
Actually, yes.
Open the Trash, then press Cmd-I (Get Info, in the File menu). Go to Preview, then drag the Trash Icon into your sidebar. Done! You now have the Trash folder in your sidebar.
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PXLated said 3:50PM on 8-13-2007
You did know that one can drag any folder to the sidebar right...Don't have to do the Cmd-T thingy.
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apd said 4:18PM on 8-13-2007
thanks for the Trash tip. It works, too. I'm a born-again finder believer.
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Dale Cruse said 4:11PM on 8-13-2007
Why mess with a keyboard shortcut when you can drag and drop folders and files onto or off of the Finder sidebar?
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apd said 4:38PM on 8-13-2007
Actually, you can't drag-and-drop the Trash icon to the finder side-bar window, hence the question.
And it's very handy.
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