Oops. Lost downloads folder

Hello again,

I was moving stuff around on desktop and I accidentally grabbed the downloads folder from the dock and pulled it (somewhere) out of sight.

Now, every time I download an attachment(or anything), I have to go hunting for it - usually with spotlight. Spotlight locates the downloads folder for me - but I'd like it to be permanently back in the dock, as I use it a lot.

Any tips or ideas?

Thanks, CB

Macbook black, 2.4 Core2Duo, 4GB ram, 500 GB hdd@7200rpm - OS X 10.5.8

You deleted it when you mooooved it, cowbrain.

No big deal. Open your HD/Users/YourUserName folder. The actual Downloads folder is in there. Drag it to the right side of the dock. Now right click (control-click) on it and choose Display As Stack.

Folders in the Dock are called Stacks. They are not the real thing. They are like aliases or shortcuts, depending on your preferred terminology (or whatever is burned into your cowbrain).

If you drag anything off of the Dock, a little image of a puff of smoke appears when you release the mouse, and whatever you had in tow disappears. The same thing will happen to items in the Sidebar of your Finder Windows. The solution is the same: find the real deal, drag it back.

Fantastic!

Many thanks toMACsh, that worked a treat.

Much appreciated.

All the best, CB

toMACsh is "milking" your alias for all it's worth, cowbrain.

chas_m said:

toMACsh is "milking" your alias for all it's worth, cowbrain.

Click to expand...

Ha ha! I know. I got no beef with that. He did good.

Name comes from a short film we made.

If you have 8 minutes to spare and you don't mind weird stuff, watch it here:

YouTube - cowbrain

Thanks again to you all for keeping me Mac-happy.

Cheers, CB

toMACsh said:

You deleted it when you mooooved it, cowbrain.

They are like aliases or shortcuts, depending on your preferred terminology (or whatever is burned into your cowbrain).

Click to expand...

I am really slipping. I missed both of those references.

chas_m said:

toMACsh is "milking" your alias for all it's worth, cowbrain.

Click to expand...

I did the best I cud. Cheezzze!

cowbrain said:

He did good.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I wasn't trying to be Bossie.

Slydude said:

I am really slipping.

Click to expand...

Stepped on a cowpie, eh? At least it got past ur eyes, so to speak.

I'd herd it all before?

But, seems I was a bit hasty in my reply.

Yes, it all worked, and yes, thank you very much - I now have my downloads folder back in the dock BUT the downloads aren't going into it. I've no idea where they are going.

They are usually word documents which open in Microsoft Word for Mac. If I put the name of the downloaded file into Spotlight and click it, Word opens it direct. But I've no idea where it gets it from.

So, question is: How can I set the destination for my downloads?

Udderly grateful for help so far. Cheers, CB

Here's one method that might help you find the correct folder.
1. Put the name of one of your downloaded files into Spotlight
2. Do not click on the resulting file instead choose "Show All" at the very top of the list.
3. In the window that appears single-click the file and then choose "OPen Enclosing Folder". This should show you where the folder containing the downloads.

If you are using Safari you can set the Downloads folder in the General tab of Safari's preferences.

I'm not even going to try to be clever. But if you want to find where a file found by Spotlight is located, just hold the command key before pressing return or clicking it. Same goes for items in the Dock and several other places as well. That's a tad quicker than Slydude's method, I think, though his Safari tip is spot-on (and something you'll certainly want to check).

Thanks for that Spotlight tip. My other method is about as subtle as a bull in a china shop.

Thanks Slydude and nabl.

Very useful information. I think I'm on top of it now.

All help has been much appreciated, I hope I can return the favour someday.

Thanks again, CB