HOW TO Create a simple Quick Action

Choose the type

Start Automator and then click the “New Document” button. When you are asked to choose a type for your document, click the “Quick Action” button.

Browse the library

The Library on the left contains categories of actions that can be performed. Quick Actions can use many library functions, but the one we want is “Move Finder Items”.

Save the action

We chose to move files to iCloud, which has an odd–looking entry in the “To” list, but it works just fine. This Quick Action only has one item and is done. Click File > Save.

Select the input

The Quick Action we are creating will work with files and folders, but they can work with many other things. Click “Workflow receives current” and select files or folders.

Add the action

Drag “Move Finder Items” to the main pane and drop it to add it to our list of actions. There can be many items in actions, but we only need one. Click “Desktop”.

Name the action

No folder/file browser window appears and there is no way to choose where to save the Quick Action. Just enter a name. This will be the menu text, so make it descriptive.

Pick an app

Quick Actions are simply actions performed within another app. Click where it says ‘any application’ and then you can select ‘Finder.app’ from the menu.

Select the destination

Our action will move files, but where? Click the “To” list for suggestions like Documents. Click “Other” to select any folder on the disk.

Try Quick Actions

Close Automator. Now Ctrl+click a file in a Finder window, hover over “Quick Actions” and select your action. Here, you can see a few others we made. You can have several.