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Mac 101: Folder shortcuts in the Finder

by Robert Palmer Jul 31st 2008 at 9:00AM

Another quick tip in our Mac 101 series for beginners: Some special folders on your computer have keyboard shortcuts that you can press to instantly navigate to that folder when using the Finder.

For example, to open your Applications folder, click on your desktop and use the shift (?) and command (?) keys to type ? ? A. Voilà! Your Appplications folder appeareth.

Other folders have shortcuts too:

  • Your computer: ? ? C
  • Your home folder: ? ? H
  • Your desktop: ? ? D
  • Computers on your local network: ? ? K
  • Your Utilities folder: ? ? U
  • Your iDisk: ? ? I

You can also bring up a dialog box to specify a path to a specific folder on your hard disk by typing ? ? G.



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Another quick tip in our Mac 101 series for beginners: Some special folders on your computer have keyboard shortcuts that you can press to...
 

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Hans

You should write "^" instead of "⇧".

August 10 2008 at 8:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
niclet

I should have write "combinations" instead of "combinaison"
;(

August 01 2008 at 12:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
niclet

Is there any way to shortcut the Documents folder with keys combinaison?

BTW, you should write "voilà" instead of "voíla" ;)

July 31 2008 at 11:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
James

Inspired by curiousity, I checked out all the letter combinations on the keyboard, and this is what the full list comes to:

⇧ ⌘ A - Applications Folder
⇧ ⌘ B - Bluetooth File Exchange
⇧ ⌘ C - My Computer Folder
⇧ ⌘ D - Desktop Folder
⇧ ⌘ E - N/A
⇧ ⌘ F - Search
⇧ ⌘ G - Path to a Specific Folder
⇧ ⌘ H - Home Folder
⇧ ⌘ I - Connect to iDisk
⇧ ⌘ J - N/A
⇧ ⌘ K - Networked Computers
⇧ ⌘ L - Google Search for whatever you selected (default: Users/[yourusername]/Desktop)
⇧ ⌘ M - N/A
⇧ ⌘ N - New Folder
⇧ ⌘ O - If you select something, it opens slowly
⇧ ⌘ P - N/A
⇧ ⌘ Q - Quit All Apps and Logout
⇧ ⌘ R - N/A
⇧ ⌘ S - Speaks the Title of Whatever You've Selected
⇧ ⌘ T - N/A
⇧ ⌘ U - Utilities Folder
⇧ ⌘ V - N/A
⇧ ⌘ W - N/A
⇧ ⌘ X - N/A
⇧ ⌘ Y - Stickies
⇧ ⌘ Z - N/A

July 31 2008 at 9:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ChrisM70

I noticed that all of your shortcuts were Shift-Command and a letter. (Example: ⇧ ⌘ A = Applications folder)

With that logic, I thought perhaps ⇧ ⌘ L would get you the Library folder. NOPE.

But what it DOES do, is that if you highlight a phrase or a word in Safari, Simple Text, and then type ⇧ ⌘ L, it will open up a new browser window and do an automatic Google Search! Pretty cool!

July 31 2008 at 2:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to ChrisM70's comment
diode

When I first read the thread I thought "pfff. Here we go, another shortcut list" Then Bam! shift-apple-U? lifesaver, and then it gets even better with yours. Thanks Chris. That's a great tip.

July 31 2008 at 3:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Josh

Too bad no shortcut for Documents folder. Especially in save diags.

July 31 2008 at 12:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Randy

As a recent Switcher, Thank you. This is very useful.

July 31 2008 at 10:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
delight1

something to note is that making use of one of these when you already have a window open, uses that window's size/layout. personally, when i want my applications dir in finder, i use quicksliver so i can have my one really big window. great for save dialogs though.

btw, how the hell do i change my tuaw comments password?

July 31 2008 at 9:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to delight1's comment
Stephen

If you click on your name in the comments, you will be redirected to your Profiles page. You can change your password there.

July 31 2008 at 10:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
john russell

I too use Quicksilver for all of my folder opening needs. I've just assigned them to the pretty much unused F13–F16 and a combination of Cmd, Opt, Ctrl, and Shift. Works pretty well and it's customizable, might I add.

July 31 2008 at 4:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joseph Crawford

This is a nice little trick that I was unaware of, thanks for the tip :)

July 31 2008 at 9:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
riddlu

Two questions:
* How to access Downloads?
* How to bring back "Shared" item in Finder’s sidebar? I "po-oh"-ed it a while ago but it’d be useful to me now.

July 31 2008 at 9:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to riddlu's comment
delight1

it sounds to me as if you dragged it out of the side bar?

you can drag items into it, and almost all default home folders have unique sidebar icons ^_^

July 31 2008 at 10:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
riddlu

Yes. I know I can drag folders to "Places" but how to make "Shared" appear again? What should I drag?

July 31 2008 at 3:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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