{"id":26873,"date":"2017-07-18T12:03:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/?p=26873"},"modified":"2017-07-17T11:02:59","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T15:02:59","slug":"finder-secrets-navigating-your-folder-hierarchy-with-the-path-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/finder-secrets-navigating-your-folder-hierarchy-with-the-path-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"Finder Secrets: Navigating Your Folder Hierarchy with the Path Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple is known for creating clever little features that do a lot more than most people realize. Learn these, and you\u2019ll be the master of your Mac. And more important, you\u2019ll get your work done more quickly!<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever noticed the Path Bar at the bottom of Finder windows? It may or may not be showing\u2014if not, choose View > Show Path Bar to reveal it. The Path Bar has two basic goals in life:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It wants to show where you are in your drive\u2019s folder hierarchy. As you navigate into nested folders, it\u2019s easy to get lost and not realize where you are. If you accidentally drag a file into a deeply nested folder, you might have trouble finding that folder later.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. It wants to help you navigate to and work with all the folders higher up in the folder hierarchy, so you don\u2019t have to open a new window and laboriously navigate to the folder you want.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To make sure we\u2019re all on the same page, here\u2019s a quick look at how the Finder is organized. The top level of your folder hierarchy is your drive\u2014call it Macintosh HD for the moment. Inside Macintosh HD are macOS\u2019s standard folders: Applications, Library, System, and Users. Your home folder is inside Users, and inside your home folder are more built-in folders: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Public. All the files and folders you create go inside those folders in your home folder. The screenshot below shows this in Column view.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    But what if you aren\u2019t working in Column view, or your window isn\u2019t wide\u00a0enough to show the full hierarchy? Look at the bottom of the window, where you see the Path Bar. It shows the same folder hierarchy: Macintosh HD\/Users\/Guest (paths are always written with slashes between the folders). Now check out this next window, which shows a folder of flower photos inside the Pictures folder.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Now that we\u2019re in Icon view, it\u2019s impossible to tell where in the folder hierarchy we are, or rather, it would be if the Path Bar wasn\u2019t showing our exact location. It even identifies the selected file.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s the thing even people who know about the Path Bar seldom realize: every item in it is live. Say you have another folder of photos sitting on your Desktop that you want to move into the Pictures folder. To make the move, simply drag that folder onto the Pictures folder in the Path Bar. Next, assume you want to open that other folder. Just double-click it in the Path Bar to open it. You can open any folder in the Path Bar this way.<\/span><\/p>\n

    There are three other things you can do with any folder in the Path Bar: open it in a new Finder window tab, show it in its enclosing folder, and get info about it. To carry out any of these actions, Control-click or right-click a folder in the Path Bar to get a contextual menu with those commands. (Similar commands appear if you Control-click a selected file at the end of the Path Bar, but it\u2019s better to Control-click a file directly because the Mac offers more choices that way.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Knowing how to use the Path Bar may not be necessary for managing files and folders on your Mac, but turn it on and keep it in mind\u2014you\u2019ll appreciate its convenient time-savers.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    Twitter:<\/b> Do you like learning clever Mac tricks so you can work faster? Check out this Finder tip!<\/span><\/p>\n

    Facebook:<\/b> Here\u2019s our favorite Mac trick of the week!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Apple is known for creating clever little features that do a lot more than most people realize. Learn these, and you\u2019ll be the master of your Mac. And more important, you\u2019ll get your work done more quickly! Have you ever noticed the Path Bar at the bottom of Finder windows? It may or may not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[66,39,80,5,60,196,79,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-blog","category-finder","category-mac","category-productivity","category-restricted-content","category-solution","category-window"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YLEm-6Zr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1664,"url":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/teleport-around-your-mac-with-the-sidebar\/","url_meta":{"origin":26873,"position":0},"title":"Teleport Around Your Mac with the Sidebar","author":"computeradv","date":"September 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you\u2019re having trouble getting to your frequently used folders on the Mac easily, a few minutes learning about the sidebar could make all the difference. Learn how on our blog.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Sidebar-Finder-window-1024x713.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Sidebar-Finder-window-1024x713.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Sidebar-Finder-window-1024x713.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Sidebar-Finder-window-1024x713.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25945,"url":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/understanding-desktop-and-documents-folder-syncing\/","url_meta":{"origin":26873,"position":1},"title":"Understanding Desktop and Documents Folder Syncing","author":"computeradv","date":"October 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In macOS Sierra, you can use Desktop and Documents folder syncing via iCloud Drive to create unified Desktop and Documents folders across all your Macs, and as an added bonus, you can access the contents of those folders from all your iOS devices. But you should be aware of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Folder syncing in Sierra","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DD-folder-syncing-photo-1080x675.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DD-folder-syncing-photo-1080x675.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DD-folder-syncing-photo-1080x675.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DD-folder-syncing-photo-1080x675.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DD-folder-syncing-photo-1080x675.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26871,"url":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/count-selected-items-in-a-folder-with-the-finders-status-bar\/","url_meta":{"origin":26873,"position":2},"title":"Count Selected Items in a Folder with the Finder\u2019s Status Bar","author":"computeradv","date":"July 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When you work in a Finder window on the Mac, take note of the helpful Status bar. It can tell you how many items are in a folder, as well as how many items you have selected. This latter bit of information is useful if, say, you need to move\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tcn.tidbits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Finder-status-bar-1024x789.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26578,"url":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/9-tricks-that-make-it-easier-to-save-files-on-the-mac\/","url_meta":{"origin":26873,"position":3},"title":"9 Tricks that Make It Easier to Save Files on the Mac","author":"computeradv","date":"May 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There\u2019s nothing sexy about the Save dialog in Mac apps. It\u2019s not pretty, you can\u2019t tweet from it, and Apple hasn\u2019t changed anything about it in years. But every time you create a new document in a Mac app, you have to save it. Once in the Save dialog, you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"MacBook Pro Sarasota FL","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Save-dialog-expanding-1024x429.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Save-dialog-expanding-1024x429.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Save-dialog-expanding-1024x429.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Save-dialog-expanding-1024x429.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1513,"url":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/use-quick-look-to-peek-inside-files-and-folders-on-your-mac\/","url_meta":{"origin":26873,"position":4},"title":"Use Quick Look to Peek inside Files and Folders on Your Mac","author":"computeradv","date":"May 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you\u2019ve ever found yourself opening file after file, looking for the right one, you\u2019ll be pleased to learn that there\u2019s a better way: OS X\u2019s Quick Look feature. 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