Mac Finder 3 Things I Wanted To Do

[Bones56k]

Hi All

I recently joined this forum and have learnt a lot reading its Posts.

I recently bought a MacBook Pro and am in the process of slowly learning the operating system and Apps.

I like to use a mouse or the Trackpad as much as i can.

So as a beginner i open "Finder" and play around creating Folders and copying and pasting files.

By Default Finder opens the Folder Recent

I wanted it to open a different folder


I want 2 Windows to Show


I want to Cut and Paste (Move) a file

With 2 Windows Open

Cheers

 

[IWT]

By Default Finder opens the Folder Recent

I wanted it to open a different folder

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

No problem: Open Finder. Click on the Finder icon in the top menu bar, far left next to the Apple icon . From the drop down, choose Preferences.

You are now in Finder Preferences (each app on the Mac has its own Preferences).

In the little window that opens, Click on General. At the very bottom, "New Finder windows show" - use the up/down arrowheads to select your choice. In my example, I've chosen Documents, which means that Finder always open Documents when clicked.



You can choose something else if you wish.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

To change what Finder open, select Finder in the Menu Bar. Then select Preferences, on the General tab see "New Finder Windows show". There you can choose any folder you want.

 

[IWT]

I want 2 Windows to Show

Do you mean 2 Finder Windows?

If so, Open Finder. A window appears. Now Click on File > New Finder Window.

Now you have 2 open; but to see them both, go to the far edge of the window on the Right side. Hold down Left Click on the Mouse and drag the edge to the left. You can see the new window underneath. Using the Left Click on the Mouse, you can size each widow to suit your convenience and can easily arrange them to sit side by side,

In fact, you can have any number of Finder Windows open and arrange their position as you want them

Ian

 

[toMACsh]

And with two windows open, you can drag a file from one to the other. As long as those two windows are of folders on your hard drive, the file will be moved.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I want to Cut and Paste (Move) a file

Besides dragging and dropping, if you like to use the menu commands, there are other options. You can right-click on a file and select "Copy" (or press COMMAND-C). Browse to the folder you want to MOVE the file(s) to. Now here, when you right-click, you normally see "Paste Item". Normally, that will simply copy the item here. But if you hold down the OPTION key, that menu item becomes "Move Item Here". You can then click that and you have done the same thing as CUT/PASTE. The normal keyboard shortcut for pasting is COMMAND-V, but OPTION-COMMAND-V will invoke the "Move" command instead. Basically, this is one of the hidden secrets in macOS. Holding down the OPTION key will change how certain menu items behave. You'll see this across the OS.

 

[Bones56k]

Thanks Guys
Tried all your suggestions and Finder is looking a whole lot better

Cheers

 

[Rod]

But wait! There's more! Of course there's always more but while in the Finder you will see down the bottom of the side menu bar there are "Tags", little coloured dots.
Any item (file or folder) can be tagged by right clicking (control clicking) and in the menu that appears you will see tags. Choose one for the file or folder and a coloured dot will appear in its title.
Say you tag everything related to your job with a Green tag. Now, no matter where you put those files or folders you can view them all by selecting the green tag in the finder side bar.

I'd just like to add that I think you are going about things in just the right way. Getting the finder organised and understood early in the learning process will make your life a whole lot easier. The Finder is really the core of the macOS operating system and once you understand that, everything else becomes much easier.

have a look at this article; Sort and arrange items in the Finder on Mac

 

[Bones56k]

Thanks Rod
I actually had Tags not showing in the Finder Sidebar as i had no idea what they were for.
Had to look up how to show them which was Finder/Preferences/Sidebar/Recent Tags.
Then did what you explained and gave five picture files a Red Tag.
Worked a treat Thankyou.

Cheers