Make Finder more productive

Learn about the shortcuts that can speed you around OS X’s file manager

Finder fades into the background to the point you often forget it’s an application. Yet chances are you use OS X’s file manager very regularly, in order to access files and folders, browsing your Mac’s drives as you go. On that basis, it makes sense to ensure that Finder is as efficient as possible.

In this tutorial, we’re providing a plethora of tips, showcasing many of Finder’s shortcuts and features that can speed up workflow. But there are a couple of things we didn’t have space for elsewhere, which we’ll cover right now.

In Finder’s preferences, two important defaults can be set. In General, ‘New Finder windows show’ has ‘All My Files’ as the initial selection, but you can change this to any folder on your Mac. If, for example, you live in Dropbox, it would make sense to select that folder, which would then be displayed as soon as you open a new Finder window. Advanced has a similar option: ‘When performing a search’. This is set to ‘Search This Mac’, but can be changed to search the current folder or use the previous search’s scope, depending on what you most often do.

Now read on for many more tips about how to get the best out of the humble Finder. Craig Grannell

It makes sense to ensure that Finder is as efficient as possible, boosting your productivity