More Mac 101, our series of tips for new Mac OS X users. Have you ever tried to open or save a file, and you want to quickly change from the directory (folder) you are browsing to another directory? It might be simpler than you think, and it doesn't require you to go searching for the directory from the dialog box!

When in an open/save dialog, drag a folder from any Finder window (including the Desktop) to the dialog. The open/save dialog will instantly show that directory. You can then type in a file name to save as, or locate the file to open. Using this method to change directories can often save time; it's also one of the Mac OS X features that can be confusing for switchers, as the Windows XP & Vista behavior is quite different (dragging items to a dialog will copy them to the displayed directory, instead of changing the target).

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section!

Well color me surprised - after trying a few convoluted methods for exporting some of my NetNewsWire feeds in a format that Safari could import (as RSS, not HTML links to real sites), I finally realized that either Brent Simmons and/or Apple have already done some of the heavy lifting. If you toggle Safari's Show All Bookmarks view from the Bookmarks menu (or simply use ??B), you can simply drag and drop one or multiple selected feeds from NetNewsWire into Safari's bookmark editing window. Unfortunately, you can't drop a Group of feeds from NetNewsWire, but this trick should satisfy most users who need to get some feeds into Apple's browser.

When you import feeds into Safari like this, it won't recognize them as true RSS feeds (or begin downloading headlines and displaying unread counts) until you visit them at least once. After that you're all ready to roll with a few (or all?) of your favorite NetNewsWire feeds in Safari.

If you use a desktop-based RSS reader other than NetNewsWire, be sure to let us know if this same trick works for your reader.

In OS X, you can always toss a file onto the command line instead of laboriously typing out a complete path name because Terminal supports drag and drop. Over at Murphymac, Murphy has posted a video showing you how to create a shell script using DES3 encryption to protect your files. It takes advantage of this drag and drop support so you can basically run the script and drop the file you want to encrypt. Even if you're not all that interested in encrypting your files, this videocast shows how to think about creating shell scripts with a particularly interactive OS X flare flair.

TUAW reader Chris Roberts was right: it's been far too long since our last post in The Little Things series, so I figured I'd pick up the slack with a really handy feature of Mac OS X: drag and drop. Sure, most OSes these days can drag and drop at least some things, but Apple has gone to great lengths to build this workflow-enhancing feature into so many facets of Mac OS X's experience, I don't really have time to cover them all (and there's no doubt that I don't even know about them all). Take my screenshot for example: I'm dragging an image of our puppy out of iPhoto on the left into iChat's icon well on the right. A simple gesture, sure, but a tiny example of how powerful this functionality can become. Try a few of these other drag and drop operations on for size:

• Drag a file onto an app's icon in the Finder or Dock; its icon should darken, signifying that it can handle whatever you're throwing at it. Hold the Command key to force an app to open a file if it isn't initially cooperating.
  
• Drag images from a browser (except Firefox and Camino) into a Mail message or iChat window to easily share them; no clunky 'right-click, Save, Open' workflows here.
• Pause a QuickTime movie, click on the video and drag out to the desktop to create an instant snapshot of the frame you paused on (this might only work in QuickTime Pro - can anyone verify?).
• Drag a file onto a Terminal window to instantly create a path.
• Highlight text in most apps, then click and drag it to the desktop to create a text snippet, or into another window (Mail, iChat and Yojimbo are great examples) for a drag 'n drop take on copy/paste.

I'm sure there's a ton more where this came from, so try it on for size or stay tuned to the comments on this post where readers can share their own tricks and tips for dragging and dropping one's way to productive bliss.

A while ago we found an Automator action that lets you drag and drop images to set them as your desktop background. No fuss, and no clunky System Preferences pane. I didn't notice it at the time, but TUAW reader Tice commented with a link to his little app, named Desky, that can do the same thing without any of the Automator setup work involved (sorry Tice!). Fortunately, Desky is finally getting its time in the TUAW spotlight, as I caught an update in my RSS feeds that adds the ability to set Desky as a button in the Finder toolbar, as well as Universal Binary goodness.

Desky is freeware and available from Tice's site.

Apple's most recent Pro Tip teaches us how to move the Dock with a simple click and drag (here's the abbreviated version: shift click on the Dock dividing line and then drag the Dock to the left, right, or back to the bottom of the screen). I'm not sure how that qualifies as a Pro Tip, but I am sure it is news to some people.

It did get me thinking about where people keep their Docks. I'm a traditionalist myself, I never feel at home unless the Dock is at the bottom of my Mac's main display. Where do keep your Dock? Let us know in the comments.

Ambrosia Software, those crazy kids with the Snapz Pro X and WireTap Pro, have unveiled the latest trick up their sleeve in the form of Dragster, an interesting approach to drag and drop file management and transfer. This utility, as you can see, lives in the Dock and is more or less like a drag and drop command center, allowing you to specify a number of locations you frequently need to move or send files to, such as remove servers, specific folders and more. These locations pop up when you drag items over Dragster's dock icon, allowing you to take care of your business right then and there, instead of rooting around in the Finder or tediously connecting and reconnecting servers. One feature I find a bit more interesting than its Dock icon abilities is the Contextual Menu that offers the same functionality. To me, this seems a bit easier to use and more efficient than dragging icons all around the display.

Either way, try it out for yourself. A demo is available, while a license costs $19. Dragster, as most other new applications these days, is a Universal Binary.

I don't know how long this secret affair has been going on, but apparently MacOSXHints caught a calendar event from Entourage sneaking over to iCal! Mmhm, that's right. Allegedly, it's possible to drag and drop *gasp!* a calendar event from Entourage right onto the iCal window.

While it sounds like the event will retain all of its information, I'm not sure if that includes an alarm, if set. The event will also default to being an hour long once dropped onto iCal, so depending on your workflow and your typical schedule, this might or might not be handy.

Drag and drop is one of the many wonders of graphical user interfaces, exponentially increasing productivity with an intuitive, common-sense approach that leaves you with a reaffirmed belief in the unquestionable brilliance of mankind. Exposé takes that to a whole new level: You can actually navigate Exposé while dragging a file/item, allowing you to easily locate and drop it into The Right Window.

Example: You're surfin' in Safari when you run across an image of Bob the Builder that would work perfectly as a title slide in your "Timmy's First Halloween!" home movie project in iMovie. But iMovie is buried behind iCal, Mail, and that Word doc of your thesis you've had open for five years designed to remind you that "one day...[you'll] get it to one day." What are your options? Well, you could save the image to the desktop, pop into iMovie, then import it that way. Or save it to iPhoto, and use the Media Browser to locate and load it in. Both options require extraneous and tedious steps, as well as an extra file you'll almost certainly never need again.

Instead, you could do this: Grab the image and, without releasing the mouse button, load Exposé (F9 is the default). Drag the item over the iMovie window and wait a few seconds (or hit spacebar) -- then pop the image into one of iMovie's media boxes, where it will be automatically imported into your project. The same kind of thing works for all sorts of items: Dragging files between Finder windows, text from one app to another, URLs across browsers, etc.

Cool, huh?

Update: Some readers made a great point, something I should've originally mentioned: Instead of having to use a second hand to hit the F9 key, just set an Exposé hotcorner and perform the drag-and-drop with nothing more than a swift motion of the mouse. I have my bottom-left corner set up for Exposé's All Windows option, and it's great for drag-and-drop scenarios. (Thanks Chadster and Rolphus.)

Since I don't actually own a printer, I find it ironic that I'm posting a tip about printing more efficiently on a Mac. Regardless, this is a handy little tip right out of Apple's Pro site for all you chronic printers out there: if you print a lot of documents throughout the day without necessarily needing to edit them, you can create a "desktop printer" onto which you can simply drag and drop a file to print it. No opening the document or Office, and no dialogs to click through. It's pretty simple: select your printer in the Printer Setup Utility, go up to Printers > Create Desktop Printer (cmd shift D) to create your very own printing secretary on your desktop. Now, if only OS X had a coffee option...