How to Organise your apps

1 Finder’s toolbar

Click Finder’s icon in the Dock, then choose View > Customize Toolbar. From the pane that opens, drag an item onto Finder’s toolbar. Repeat for other items. Choose a presentation style from the Show pop-up, then click Done.

2 Set up Mission Control

Go to > System Preferences and click the Mission Control icon in the top row of the window that opens). If you want to arrange desktops and full-screen apps manually, clear the ‘Automatically rearrange Spaces…’ option.

3 Add sidebar folders

Folders, even if they’re stored on a remote server, can be added to the sidebar in Finder. Just drag the folder from a Finder window into Favorites in the sidebar. To delete a shortcut, ≈-click on it and pick ‘Remove from sidebar’.

4 Remove sidebar defaults

Switch to Finder and choose Finder > Preferences. Click on the Sidebar tab and then uncheck the items you don’t want to see in the sidebar in Finder’s windows. Don’t forget to review Shared items, Devices and Tags below.

5 Use Split View

You can view two windows side by side by clicking and holding on the green full-screen button on one, then, when it shrinks, dragging it to the left or right. On the other side of the screen, click a window to make it fill that half.

6 Change a folder in the Dock

Add any folder to the Dock by dragging it to the area right of the line. ≈-click it and pick ‘Display as Folder’ or ‘Display as Stack’ to set its icon style. The ‘View content as’ options set the display style for when the folder is opened.

7 Set up a Smart Folder

In Finder, choose File > New Smart Folder. The contents of Smart Folders are dynamic. In the search bar, type your search term and choose whether matches should have it in their name or another suggested attribute.

8 Add more options

Click the + under the search bar to add criteria. Set each one’s condition using the menus in its row. When done, click Save, then choose where to save the Smart Folder and whether to show it in Finder’s sidebar.