How to customize os x’s finder sidebar
By William Rodriguez
Get more out of Finder with these easy sidebar tweaks
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What to Know
- To hide or show the Finder sidebar, go to Finder >View >Hide Sidebar or Show Sidebar.
- To customize the sidebar, go to Finder >Preferences >Sidebar and select changes.
- To add a folder to the Finder sidebar, go to Finder and drag the folder to Favorites.
This article explains how to show or hide the sidebar, add items to and delete items from it, and rearrange the items that appear in it in Finder in Mac OS X Jaguar (10.2) and later.
How to Hide or Show the Finder Sidebar
Beginning with OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) and subsequent releases of the macOS operating system, you can hide the Finder sidebar or display the sidebar for easy access to folders and locations. To hide or show the Finder sidebar, complete the following steps:
Open a Finder window by selecting the Finder icon in the Dock.
By default, the Finder displays a sidebar when it opens. If you prefer to hide the sidebar, in the Finder menu bar, select View > Hide Sidebar.
To reopen the sidebar after you close it, select View > Show Sidebar from the Finder menu bar.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut Option+Command+S to toggle between viewing and hiding the sidebar.
How to Customize the Finder Sidebar
To customize the items that appear in the Finder sidebar out of the box, complete the following steps:
Open a Finder window by selecting the Finder icon in the Dock.
Select Finder in the menu bar and choose Preferences.
In Finder Preferences, select Sidebar at the top of the screen.
Items in the Finder sidebar fall into four categories: Favorites, iCloud, Locations, or Tags.
Select or clear the check box, as appropriate, for each item in the list. The items you check appear in the Finder sidebar until you change the preferences again.
Close the Finder Preferences to save your choices.
How to Add a Folder to the Finder Sidebar
You can add your most often used folders to the Finder sidebar for easy access whenever you open a Finder window. To add a folder to the sidebar, complete the following steps:
Open a Finder window by selecting the Finder icon in the Dock.
Locate a folder in the main Finder window and drag it to the Favorites section of the sidebar. A horizontal line appears, indicating the location the folder will occupy when you release the mouse button.
If the Favorites section doesn’t appear in the Finder sidebar, select Finder > Preferences, select Sidebar, and then select the check box for at least one item in the Favorites section.
Release the mouse button to add the folder to the Finder sidebar.
When you add a folder, app, or disk to the Finder sidebar, you only create a shortcut to that item. The item remains in its original location.
How to Add an Application to the Finder Sidebar
The Finder sidebar gives you quick access to more than folders. You can create shortcuts to the applications you use most often, as well.
Depending on the version of macOS or OS X you’re using, you may need to change the Finder view to List before you can drag an app to the sidebar.
To add an application to the Finder sidebar, complete the following steps:
Open a Finder window by selecting the Finder icon in the Dock.
In the Finder menu bar, select Go and choose Applications in the menu.
Locate the application you want to add to the sidebar, press and hold the Command key, and drag the application to the Favorites section of the Finder sidebar.
Position the application where you want it to appear and then release the mouse button.
How to Rearrange Items in the Finder Sidebar
You can rearrange most items in the sidebar as you like. To do so, drag the item to its new target location. The other items in the sidebar rearrange themselves to make room for the item you’re moving.
How to Remove Items From Finder Sidebar
Like the desktop, the Finder sidebar can become cluttered. To tidy things up, you can remove folders, disks, or applications you’ve added by dragging the item’s icon out of the sidebar. It disappears in a puff of smoke.
If you don’t mind forgoing the dramatic puff of smoke, you can remove an item from the Finder sidebar by pressing and holding the Control key, selecting the item, and then selecting Remove from Sidebar.
Настроить панель инструментов и боковое меню Finder можно несколькими способами.
Настройка панели инструментов
На Mac нажмите значок Finder в Dock, чтобы открыть окно Finder.
Выполните одно из следующих действий.
Скрытие или отображение панели инструментов. Выберите «Вид» > «Скрыть панель инструментов», или «Вид» > «Показать панель инструментов».
Если скрыть панель инструментов, боковое меню тоже не будет отображаться на экране, а меню статуса переместится из нижней в верхнюю часть окна.
Изменение размера панели инструментов. Если у правого края панели инструментов есть кнопка «Еще объекты панели инструментов» , это значит, что окно слишком мало для отображения всех элементов панели инструментов. Увеличьте размер окна или нажмите кнопку, чтобы увидеть остальные объекты.
Изменение содержимого панели инструментов. Выберите «Вид» > «Настроить панель инструментов». Объекты можно перетягивать на панель инструментов или с нее, между объектами можно увеличивать расстояние, а также можно указать, показывать ли текст со значками.
Изменение расположения объектов на панели инструментов. Удерживая клавишу Command, перетяните объект в другое место.
Добавление файла или приложения. Удерживая нажатой клавишу Command, перетяните объект на панель инструментов Finder так, чтобы появился зеленый знак плюс.
Удаление объекта. Удерживая нажатой клавишу Command, перетяните объект за пределы панели инструментов.
Настройка бокового меню
На Mac нажмите значок Finder в Dock, чтобы открыть окно Finder.
Выполните одно из следующих действий.
Скрытие или отображение бокового меню. Выберите «Вид» > «Скрыть боковое меню», или «Вид» > «Показать боковое меню». (Если пункт «Показать боковое меню» недоступен, выберите пункт меню «Вид» > «Показать панель инструментов».)
Изменение размера бокового меню. Перетяните правую сторону разделительной линейки вправо или влево.
Изменение содержимого бокового меню. Выберите «Finder» > «Настройки», нажмите «Боковое меню», затем выберите объекты или снимите с них выбор.
Изменение расположения объектов в боковом меню. Перетяните объект в новое место.
Отображение или скрытие всех объектов в разделе бокового меню. Поместите указатель на заголовок раздела и держите его, пока не появится кнопка «Скрыть» или кнопка «Показать» , затем нажмите кнопку. Например, чтобы на время скрыть избранные объекты, поместите указатель на заголовок раздела «Избранное», затем нажмите кнопку «Скрыть» .
Добавление папки или диска в боковое меню. Перетяните объект в раздел «Избранное». Если раздел «Избранное» не отображается, нажмите «Finder» > «Настройки» > «Боковое меню», затем выберите хотя бы один объект в разделе «Избранное».
При добавлении объекта в боковое меню Finder создается ярлык объекта; объект при этом не перемещается из исходного положения.
Добавление приложения в боковое меню. Удерживая нажатой клавишу Command, перетяните значок приложения в раздел «Избранное».
Удаление объекта. Перетяните значок объекта из бокового меню, так чтобы появился знак удаления .
Ссылка на объект исчезает из бокового меню, но сам объект при этом остается в исходном положении на компьютере Mac.
Для изменения других настроек Finder выберите «Finder» > «Настройки». См. раздел Изменение настроек Finder.
Для настройки прокрутки в окнах Finder (и других окнах), выберите меню Apple
> «Системные настройки», затем нажмите «Основные».
The Finder on your Mac is the place to be. This extremely handy spot lets you access all of your stuff. So, making it work for you is key to its purpose.
The Finder Sidebar gives you a quick view of your folders, drives, and tags so that you can navigate easily. For this reason, customizing the Sidebar just makes sense. Put items there you use often, remove those you never use, and arrange it to fit your needs.
Here’s how to customize the Finder Sidebar on your Mac.
Open up Finder
To get started, open a new finder window. Click the Finder icon in your Dock or File > New Finder Window from your menu bar. Then, do the following.
1) With Finder open, select Finder > Preferences from your menu bar.
2) Click the Sidebar tab.
For each section; Favorites, iCloud, Locations, and Tags, check those items that you want to see in the Sidebar.
Then, close the Finder Preferences window and you’ll see your updated Sidebar immediately.
Arrange your Tags
If you marked the checkbox to see Tags in your Sidebar, you can arrange them in the order you want them.
1) With Finder open, select Finder > Preferences from your menu bar.
2) Click the Tags tab.
Check those Tags that you want to see in the Sidebar. To rearrange them, just click, drag, move, and release where you want them in the list.
Arrange your Sidebar items
Next, you can rearrange all items that you checked to display in the Sidebar. Click one of them, drag it to its new spot in the list, and release.
Add more items to the Sidebar
Along with those items you checked in the Finder Preferences window to display in your Sidebar, you can add more.
For instance, if you frequently access a folder, you can move it to the Sidebar as well. Select the item from its location like a new finder window or your desktop. Drag it to the spot you want it in the Finder Sidebar and release.
Wrapping it up
With a few tweaks here and there, you can make sure that the items you use the most are in your Finder Sidebar for quick access. Are you going to make some changes to your Finder Sidebar?
And for similar tutorials, check out how to customize the Finder toolbar or the “About This Mac” area of your computer.
If you use OS X, then you probably are acquainted with the Finder sidebar for frequently used shortcuts, drives, and other locations. You may not know, however, that the sidebar can be changed and customized in a number of ways.
When you open Finder for the first time, the sidebar sports its default appearance. The icons (as found in OS X Yosemite) are a mute gray and those that are displayed are the ones that Apple assumes you’ll use most, so you can get to your applications, documents, desktop, and so forth.
You can’t get to any places that contain system files, but we’ll show you how to add new shortcuts in a bit.
If you’re not happy with the items that are included in the sidebar, you can remove them by clicking and dragging them out of the Finder until the icon turns to a puff of smoke. Let it go and the shortcut will disappear until you re-add it. If you don’t want to remove it, simply drag it back before you release the mouse button and it will stay put.
Conversely, if your sidebar is lacking an important location, you can add it by dragging and dropping it from the Finder window.
For example, in the following screenshot, we drag the movies folder to the sidebar.
Once you’re happy with where you want the new addition, drop it there. You see now that we have a shortcut to the Movies folder in our sidebar.
You can drag any location to the sidebar though not all will have a fancy icon. If you drag a standard folder, it will bear a standard folder icon.
Remember also, you’re not stuck with the default order. You can drag and rearrange anything that’s already in the sidebar, and you can even change many of the icons.
Sidebar Preferences
There’s an easier way to add special locations like music and movies. First, open the Finder preferences (Command + ,).
Once in the Finder Preferences, click the “Sidebar” tab.
From the Sidebar options, you can add or remove sidebar items to your heart’s content.
You have other options as well. For example, if you simply don’t like the sidebar, then you can hide it. Just grab the pane between the sidebar and the finder window and drag it until it snaps closed.
You can also drag the divider to the right, thus making the sidebar wider if that is how you prefer it.
Changing to a Colored Sidebar
You can also change the Finder sidebar to colored icons such as the ones found in earlier versions of OS X. The easist way to do this is to use a free, open sourced piece of software called cDock. We’ve written about cDock before, which proves to be a tiny, yet versatile piece of software.
cDock is currently up to version 7.1 and has moved the options we want to the “extra settings.” Click the button labeled “View” to access them.
Once you have the extra settings open, you can see you want to select the “colored sidebar” option.
Click “Apply” to invoke your changes and they will then be reflected in the sidebar. Unlike the plain, gray, boring icons that come with OS X Yosemite’s sidebar, you now have bright, colored icons.
Once you’ve enabled the colored sidebar, you can customize it to your heart’s content with new icons, which will then be reflected throughout the system, so you can really let your imagination go wild.
While the sidebar may seem like a fairly simple aspect of the Finder (and it is), it’s also highly useful for pinning oft-accessed places be these special folders like Music, Movies, and so on, or locations that only you deem important.
Regardless, it’s one of those aspects of Finder you might take for granted, and perhaps never realized how customizable it is. To that end, we hope you found this article useful. We’d love to hear your comments and questions so please leave any feedback in our discussion forum.
Do you frequent certain files and folders on your Mac and want to save some time?
Customize the Finder Sidebar
Finder in Mac OS sports a sidebar on the left which provides you with shortcuts to frequently accessed locations on your Mac.
However, if you access a specific folder frequently or want to include other popular locations not listed you should follow the instructions below, where I show you how to customize the sidebar.
1. Click Finder on the Menu bar and then click Preferences from the menu that appears.
When the Finder Preferences window opens make sure that Sidebar is active.
2. Check the items you wish to show on Finder’s sidebar and uncheck those you wish to remove.
When you are done close the Preferences window and return to Finder to see the results.
When you open Finder the list of items on the Sidebar should reflect the selections you made in the Preferences window.
If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form below.
Software/Hardware used: Mac OS X Lion.
OS X’s Finder seems pretty simple by all outward appearances, but it’s actually got a lot of different parts that you have to know about to effectively use it. A good way to master the Finder is to take advantage of its preferences.
The Finder isn’t too terribly different from file system browsers on other operating systems such as it Windows counterpart, File Explorer. At the very least you should be able to immediately use the Finder to find things – locations, files, applications, and anything else stored on your system.
Mastering the Finder can take some time. You can lessen the learning curve, however, by using the preferences to tweak the Finder to your liking.
As with nearly all preferences throughout OS X, you can access the Finder preferences from its application menu, or by using “Command + ,”.
We’ve accessed the Finder’s preferences in other articles. For example, we’ve discussed in detail how to customize the Finder’s Sidebar, which has a great amount of flexibility and can be tweaked to your liking using the Sidebar preferences.
It’s easier to use the Finder preferences to add important locations to the Sidebar instead of rooting around the Finder. It’s also an alternative way to remove Sidebar shortcuts in addition to dragging them out of the Sidebar.
You can also use Finder Preferences for quite a bit of tag customization. You can add, remove, rename, recolor, and even add tags to your Finder favorites.
We covered this in a fair amount of detail when we discussed the range of what you can do with Finder tags in OS X. So those two tabs are pretty self-explanatory in their own right. What about the rest of the Finder Preferences?
General Finder Preferences
The two other tabs allow you to tweak the Finder even further.
It’s a little odd that these settings are located here, instead of in the System Preferences, but if you want to know how to add items to or remove them from the desktop, you do that with these General preferences.
When you open new Finder windows, you can decide where they open. There are several pre-defined locations, or you can choose “Other…” to open Finder windows anywhere you want.
You’ll also note the “Open folders in tabs instead of new windows” option, which means that every time you open a folder in a Finder window, it will create a new tab instead of a new window.
Finally, the last option on the General tab is to set whether folders and windows are spring-loaded, and how much of delay there is before they open.
Spring-loaded folders and windows mean that when you drag files or folders to another location, there will be a slight delay before that window or folder opens. If you perform this action and then hit the space bar, you can open the destination immediately.
Advanced Finder Preferences
Here are the Advanced Finder Preferences, which contain a bunch of stuff that really has no other easy place to put it.
OS X normally hides most filename extensions, which may be a little confusing for many Windows users who might be used to seeing them. Showing all extensions reveals every extension on OS X, even stuff like applications.
There are other options, which allow you to disable warnings when changing an extension on a filename (not recommended) and when emptying the Trash. You should probably leave that one enabled as well.
The fourth option forces OS X to securely erase items from the Trash. This is actually a good option to enable but keep in mind that if you erase a lot of files, it will take a little longer.
Finally, you can decide the default location for all new Finder searches. You can search your Mac’s entire contents, use the current folder you’re in, or use the previous search scope.
Again, these preferences cannot be found in the System Preferences.
No Finder preferences here, even though the Finder is part of the “System”.
Remember that anytime you want to add or remove items on the desktop, or turn off spring-loaded items, or set your default search behavior, open the Finder Preferences.
We hope you’ve found this article useful. If you have any comments or questions you’d like to add, we encourage you to leave your feedback in our discussion forum.
There are things we all take for granted, because we see them so often. One of those is the toolbar that graces every open window in OS X’s Finder. Did you know the Finder toolbar is customizable? Here’s how.
Here’s the OS X Yosemite Finder toolbar in its unadulterated default glory. Four buttons determine your view mode; an Arrange button lets you sort what you’re viewing; the Action button, which lets you quickly do things like create a new folder or get info about an item; the Share button; the Edit Tags button; and a search field.
You see it so often you might even forget it’s there. In fact, some users obscure it all together by clicking on the View menu and selecting Hide Toolbar (or holding down the command, option and T keys).
But the toolbar can be tweaked, and tweaked quite extensively. If you click on the View menu, you can also select Customize Toolbar. , and that’s where most of the magic happens (stay tuned for another cool tip further down).
Customize Toolbar pulls up a window overlay that will enable you to change up how your toolbar looks and what it does. You can rearrange the placement of buttons by clicking and dragging them to new locations, insert spaces to help space them out differently, and new features and functions that aren’t on the default toolbar, like creating a new folder, deleting files, using Quick Look to examine the contents of a file and more. Some third-party tools will offer a custom button too, like Dropbox.
What’s more, Apple’s included the default toolbar as a template, so if you mess up your custom toolbar too much you can simply drag the default template back into place to restore things to their original state. And if you can’t remember what each icon means, or if you prefer text to graphics, you can change the arrangement by clicking on the Show menu.
Once you’re satisfied with how you’ve set it up, just click on the Done button to save the new toolbar arrangement. Every time you create a new Finder window, your custom toolbar will be present.
That’s not all, though. The Finder’s own customization routines are a bit limited: only certain features and functions are accessible. So there’s another way to modify the Finder toolbar that I want to share with you which comes in really handy.
You can actually add links to any app, folder or file location in the toolbar as well. If you have a Finder window open and you’d like to modify the toolbar with a link to an app, file or folder you want to use, just hold down the command key, then click on the app, file or folder, and drag it into the toolbar. That way it’ll be instantly available to you wherever you’re working. (By the way, you can do the same thing to the sidebar on the left side of the Finder window.)
That’s all there is to it. Hopefully these tips will help you get the most out of your Finder toolbar, and help you spend less time in the Finder and more time actually doing what you need to. If you have any questions, let me know.
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There are things we all take for granted, because we see them so often. One of those is the toolbar that graces every open window in OS X’s Finder. Did you know the Finder toolbar is customizable? Here’s how.
Here’s the OS X Yosemite Finder toolbar in its unadulterated default glory. Four buttons determine your view mode; an Arrange button lets you sort what you’re viewing; the Action button, which lets you quickly do things like create a new folder or get info about an item; the Share button; the Edit Tags button; and a search field.
You see it so often you might even forget it’s there. In fact, some users obscure it all together by clicking on the View menu and selecting Hide Toolbar (or holding down the command, option and T keys).
But the toolbar can be tweaked, and tweaked quite extensively. If you click on the View menu, you can also select Customize Toolbar. , and that’s where most of the magic happens (stay tuned for another cool tip further down).
Customize Toolbar pulls up a window overlay that will enable you to change up how your toolbar looks and what it does. You can rearrange the placement of buttons by clicking and dragging them to new locations, insert spaces to help space them out differently, and new features and functions that aren’t on the default toolbar, like creating a new folder, deleting files, using Quick Look to examine the contents of a file and more. Some third-party tools will offer a custom button too, like Dropbox.
What’s more, Apple’s included the default toolbar as a template, so if you mess up your custom toolbar too much you can simply drag the default template back into place to restore things to their original state. And if you can’t remember what each icon means, or if you prefer text to graphics, you can change the arrangement by clicking on the Show menu.
Once you’re satisfied with how you’ve set it up, just click on the Done button to save the new toolbar arrangement. Every time you create a new Finder window, your custom toolbar will be present.
That’s not all, though. The Finder’s own customization routines are a bit limited: only certain features and functions are accessible. So there’s another way to modify the Finder toolbar that I want to share with you which comes in really handy.
You can actually add links to any app, folder or file location in the toolbar as well. If you have a Finder window open and you’d like to modify the toolbar with a link to an app, file or folder you want to use, just hold down the command key, then click on the app, file or folder, and drag it into the toolbar. That way it’ll be instantly available to you wherever you’re working. (By the way, you can do the same thing to the sidebar on the left side of the Finder window.)
That’s all there is to it. Hopefully these tips will help you get the most out of your Finder toolbar, and help you spend less time in the Finder and more time actually doing what you need to. If you have any questions, let me know.
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Hello I’m a Mac user who’s moved to PC after decades of Mac use. I do 3D computer graphics. I still do office communication & office work on a Mac laptop and share files via Dropbox. I’d like to customize my PC with various add-ons, but I’m afraid to this without a better understanding of what exactly I’m changing.
For example, I’m interested in this .webloc opener product:
It seems ok, but I really don’t know what it’s doing technically, and how it modifies the windows OS to accomplish this.
I’ve come across the following terms in my research: shell scripts, extensions & add-ons. I don’t know what they mean, what the distinctions are between them, and whether they’re system-wide or application/program specific.
I’m mostly concerned with customizations that could make my PC crash, create conflicts with other software, or reduce performance and speed. I’m also concerned they may compromise security, though that seems unlikely if I use a bit of common sense. On the Mac side there are startup items and control panels, and I have a fair idea of how they’ll modify the base system.
I’m reasonably tech savvy, but new to PC’s & Windows. Is there an online guide that explains customizing PC architecture for people like me? Most of the descriptions for these customization products are showing existing features or cosmetic stuff like custom backgrounds. The advanced setups assume people are PC power users familiar with these terms, not newbies from the Mac side.
FYI: The customizations I’m currently interested in are to match what I’m used to on the Mac:
· Moving selected items into a new folder (like OSX finder’s right-click)
· Batch renaming files (like OSX finder’s right-click)
· Customizing Windows File Explorer to show GB/MB instead of KB.
· Better Display of file paths inside an application or when I click alt-tab.
· Better previews (like OSX’s command spacebar).
· I’d also like to adjust hotkeys.
BTW, I have Windows 10 and an Alienware PC hardware with a NVidea 1080t GPU. I don’t have exact model numbers at the moment, but its a fairly modern setup, bought last August.
***Modified title from: Windows OS Customization questions from a long-time Mac usuer***
Add an item
Just follow the same procedure you would to add an item to the Dock. Simply drag the item from it’s location to the Sidebar. As you do this you will see a blue horizontal bar appear indicating the location where you are placing it in the sidebar.
In the example below, the Pictures folder will be placed below the Documents folder shortcut. Now you can easily access your Pictures folder no matter where you have navigated to within are in Finder, just click on it in the Sidebar.
Ensure that you see the blue horizontal line when you are placing an item in the Sidebar. If you see that an existing item becomes highlighted with a blue box, the item you intend to add to Sidebar will instead get added to the shortcut. In the image below, an image called test_image will be added to the Picture folder by simply placing it on top of the Pictures folder. If you place the image over the folder and hold for a while, Finder will automatically place a darker blue box around the item (just after a cool blink effect) and then switch to the folder as shown in the second image. Once you release, the item will be placed in the folder.
Remove an item
One way to remove an item is to drag it out of the Sidebar. Once you release as you drag, the item will disappear with a puff of smoke just as items removed from the Dock. As is the case with removing icons from the Dock, you have only removed it from the Sidebar and have not deleted it. Keep in mind that you are removing a shortcut and not the actual item such as the Pictures folder.
An alternate remove method is to right click (or control click) on the item and select ‘Remove from Sidebar’
- May 28, 2009 – content revision, image updates
