Faster Find and Save

Use Default Folder X to power up your Mac’s Open and Save dialogs

REQUIRES

OS X 10.10 or later, Default Folder X

You will learn

How to access and save documents even more quickly on your Mac

IT WILL TAKE

15 minutes

There is nothing inherently wrong with your Mac’s Open and Save dialogs — they do the job. They even support keystroke shortcuts that you’re probably not using, so you can press Cmd+Shift+O (the letter O) to jump straight to your Documents folder, or Cmd+Shift+I for your iCloud Drive, among others. But Default Folder X offers something better still — a kind of “pro” take on this aspect of working with your Mac. Mostly, this involves providing fast access to useful options and saved files, boosting your efficiency.

Much of this happens by way of a frame Default Folder X adds to the aforementioned dialogs. Once you’ve installed the app, ensure you’re using the expanded version of a dialog box — click the Default Folder X icon to do so. You’ll then find all manner of new menus and options, some of which we explore in the three walkthroughs here.

That said, Default Folder X moves beyond these dialogs. It provides buttons to make it easy to reopen recently closed Finder windows in particular, enables you to create system-wide keyboard shortcuts to access any folder on your Mac, and gives you hierarchical menus for blazing through your Mac’s file system.

To get started, grab a free 30-day trial of Default Folder X from stclairsoft.com. If you like it, a single-user license costs $34.95. CraigGrannell