dragging icon from top of window DOESN'T make an alias?

T

timetostopmac


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okay...

i have a powerbook G4 running 10.4.11

somewhat noobish mac user, but still thought I was smart enough to avoid deleting important folders.

today i had my Music folder open in the finder and i noticed that i was able to drag the small icon from the top of that window to the desktop which left me with another folder called music (with a note on top of it). I thought, "Oh cool, that's another way to make an alias"

So I drag the folder to the trash, then empty the trash, and IT STARTS TO DELETE THE STUFF FROM THE CURRENT MUSIC FOLDER I HAVE OPEN

So it's not an alias? Dragging the icon from the top of the window actually physically MOVES the folder even though you are still looking at all of its files in the Finder window?

Is this correct? If so, what kind of feature is that for an OS to have?!??!?!?!

Thank god I back my stuff up.
 
hughvane

hughvane


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I've just replicated what you did - bar deleting - and NO, it is not an alias. What you (and I) did, in effect, was to drag the original folder to the desktop. Lesson learned. :)
 
T

technologist


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timetostopmac said:
okay...

i have a powerbook G4 running 10.4.11

somewhat noobish mac user, but still thought I was smart enough to avoid deleting important folders.

today i had my Music folder open in the finder and i noticed that i was able to drag the small icon from the top of that window to the desktop which left me with another folder called music (with a note on top of it). I thought, "Oh cool, that's another way to make an alias"

So I drag the folder to the trash, then empty the trash, and IT STARTS TO DELETE THE STUFF FROM THE CURRENT MUSIC FOLDER I HAVE OPEN

So it's not an alias? Dragging the icon from the top of the window actually physically MOVES the folder even though you are still looking at all of its files in the Finder window?

Is this correct? If so, what kind of feature is that for an OS to have?!??!?!?!

Thank god I back my stuff up.
Click to expand...
The icon in the title bar of an open folder works exactly like the icon for the closed folder. It's meant to be an easy way to "grab" the icon of whatever you have open, without having to close it or move it aside to find the parent folder.

What you did was:
1. Move your Music folder to the Desktop
2. Move your Music folder to the Trash
3. Empty your Trash.

It works exactly the same way it would in Windows, or any other OS. The fact that you had the folder open in a window wouldn't make any difference on either system; it would go straight into the Trash when you put it there.

Aliases are indicated by a small curving arrow, just like shortcuts in Windows. I'm not sure why you'd think what you had on your Desktop was an alias.
 

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