10 Cool Finder Tricks for Mac You Should Use – It’s simple to think about Mac’s discoverer similarly as a file manager, however in all actuality, it is a lot more. The blue-and-white happy mac symbol joins a plenty of tricks underneath its continually smiling face. So whether you are a Mac newbie or a professional user, I have you secured. Today, I’ll tell you about 10 Finder tricks for Mac you ought to know:
[ad type=”banner”]1. Text Clippings
Picture the situation when you have to save a quote you’re perusing on the web. Your first instinct is select and copy the content, joined by pasting some place in a word processor and saving it. Why experience so much bother when you can simply choose and drag the content to any Finder window or desktop? Yes, it’s natural to the point that you consider how could you have not known it.
You can also save pictures from the web utilizing a similar drag and drop trap. The expansion of the saved picture would be the same as that of the web picture. On account of content, the expansion would be “.textClipping”. It might appear like a fancy extension, however it’s only a plain content file actually.
2. Folders on Top
This time, there was no inbuilt approach to sort folders on top when sorting by name in Finder. This may appear to be inconsequential, yet drove a large number of people crazy. At last, with macOS Sierra, you can keep folders on top, followed by files sorted by name.
Navigate to “Finder” (in the top menu-bar) -> “Preferences” -> “Advanced” and check the option where it says “Keep folders on top when sorting by name“.
To be honest, it feels a little uncomfortable to acknowledge that it took Apple so long to finally provide this setting. Anyway, now that it’s there, you have to start using it.
3. Lock Files or Folders
Let me tell you what this is not about: Locking your files with a secret word. Rather, it’s about locking a record or folder to prevent coincidental moving or cancellation.
To lock a file/folder right-click on it and click “Get Info”. Check the box where it says “Locked”. Your file/folder will now display a small lock icon to indicate that it is locked.
Now, if you try moving or deleting this file, it’ll ask you for confirmation.
This enure you do not accidentally delete any important files. To unlock a file, just uncheck the same box in “Get Info”.
[ad type=”banner”]4. Merge Open Finder Windows
If you have a great deal Finder windows open around, your workspace could turn into a mess pretty soon. Fortunately, there’s a choice which can re-organize all your open windows into tabs in a single window.
This is what it looks like with three Finder windows opened:
Now I just click on “Window” from the menu bar -> “Merge all Windows“.
This is how it looks like now. Pretty clean, eh?
5. Quickly Jump to a File Path
Windows creates it super-easy to directly navigate via a file path with the breadcrumbs feature as shown below:
macOS has a similar functionality, though not in a very obvious way. In macOS, single tap with two fingers on the topmost window icon.
From here, you can directly navigate to any location in the file path. The below image should create it perfect.
6. Remove Items From Trash After 30 Days
This feature is the result of Apple’s push to carry better storage management with macOS Sierra. As its name suggests, when this small setting is checked, macOS naturally erases files from your trash in 30 days. This can help to clean up every one of the records that have been lying around in the trash. Tragically, you can’t change the number of days, starting at now.
Navigate to “Finder” -> “Preferences” -> “Advanced” and check the box where it says “Remove items from Trash in 30 days“.
7. New Folder With Selection
Usually, when you have to move different files, you select the files, cut them and paste in another folder. macOS makes it two stages less demanding, taking out the need to make another folder and pasting in it. Select the files you need to move. Right tap on any of them and select “New folder with choice”.
[ad type=”banner”]So there you have it, a single step process for moving files to a new folder.
8. Smart Folders
“Smart folders ” is a fairly underrated feature in macOS. These folders are really virtual folders which save a pursuit in another Finder tab. It can be valuable to organise your files and see them in one place. For instance, here I have saved a search to discover all my MP3s files. This Smart Folder demonstrates to me all the MP3 records I’ve put away anyplace on my Mac, in one place.
To set up a Smart Folder, go to Finder’s menu bar, click on “File” -> “New Smart Folder”.
Click on the “+” button next to the “Save” button. Type in any search criteria you want. It could be the file type, filename, filesize, date created or just about anything.
Look at some of the filters you can set-up:
You can include as many search criteria as you like, using the “+” icon. Next, click on the “Save” button to save your configuration.
9. Rename Multiple Files
macOS offers a robust solution for renaming different files. Select the multiple files, right-click on any of them and click “Rename X items“.
From here on, you get almost every possible choice to rename those files. You could include text, replace text or format it using your own naming scheme. It gives a whole lot of control on what and how to rename the files to.
10. Keyboard Shortcuts
It’s no secret that using keyboard easy routes can dramatically develop your workflow. Apart from the usual Copy (Cmd+C) and Cut (Cmd+X), Here are some useful keyboard shortcuts you can use in Finder:
- Option+Space : Opens an automatic slideshow of all the selected items.
- Cmd+F : Search for files.
- Cmd+Z : Undo the last operation.
- Cmd+[ : Go back in finder.
- Cmd+] : Go forward in finder.
- Cmd+del: Trash a file/folder
- Switch Finder views (Icon, list, column, cover flow) : Cmd+1, Cmd+2, Cmd+3, Cmd+4 respectively.
- Cmd+T : Opens a new tab.
- Cmd+W : Closes the tab.
You can find an exhaustive list of keyboard shortcuts over at Apple’s site.
[ad type=”banner”]Ready To Use Out These Finder Tricks?
According to me, these are some of the best Finder tricks. Finder is an integral part of macOS and I hope you make the most out of it with all these cool tricks.