Finder Windows as Tabs

Let’s take a look at how we can work with tabs in a window. With tabs, what we’re able to do is open up multiple windows into one window, we open them up as tabs. Let’s see what I mean. Let’s go to my Mac, let’s go and open up a window. I’m going to go down to my Finder here, and we have our window. It opens up to macOS Mojave. Let’s go and open up another window. I’m going to use a keyboard shortcut, Command N, and let’s open this up to my documents. Now I have one window open up to macOS Mojave, and another one opens up to my documents. Now I’d like to keep this a little cleaner and only have one window for these two folders; I can do this with tabs.

What I’ll do is I’ll create two different tabs in one window. One tab will go to my macOS Mojave, while the other one will go to documents. How do we do that? Right now, I have these two windows open. What I have to do is I have to go to window in the menu bar, and then you’re going to see merge all windows. When I select this, it’s going to combine all of my windows into one window so that I will have two tabs and one window. Select it, and now we can see we have my one window. I drag this around; it’s just one window.

If we look below our toolbar, now we have a couple of tabs. I have my documents folder, and then I also have macOS Mojave. When I click on this, I can see all the files and folders in macOS Mojave. I click on documents; I can see all of my documents.

We can add more tabs. To add another tab, we go over to the plus here on the right, and now I’ve just added a new tab. By default, it opens up to macOS Mojave because that’s how I have it set. Now what I can do is I can change the folder to downloads, and now I have my documents, I have my macOS Mojave, and I have my downloads. I can move files in between these tabs. If I wanted to move my animal’s document into my documents, all I have to do is drag it over there. Let’s do that. I click on it, and I drag it over, spring-loaded folders, and now I’ve just moved it over to my documents. When we go back over to my downloads, it’s going to be an empty folder.

We can also rearrange these tabs. To rearrange them, all I do is just click and drag. I want to have downloads next to my documents. I just click and drag, and now it’s next to my documents. To close the tab, we just click on the X. We do have to have our cursor above that tab. You’re going to see I have the X over here; this means I can close this tab. If I go over to macOS Mojave, then the X shows, and I can close it. Let’s go ahead and close it.

We wanted to break out a tab as a window, basically the opposite of moving a window into a tab. What I want to do is I want to make my downloads tab here now a window. The first thing we have to do is select the tab, I have it selected, and then what we do is we go up to window in the menu bar, and then we go to, move a tab to a new window. When I select this, it now breaks it out into a new window.

We can also separate a tab into a new window just by dragging it out of the current window. Let’s see what I mean. Let’s go back under window here, and what we’re going to do is we’re going to merge these windows into one window so then we have two tabs. What I want to do is I want to separate downloads back into its own window. As you’ve just learned, what I can do is I can go up under window and then go over to move tab to new window, but there’s an easier way of doing this. All I have to do is just drag this down out of the window. When I do that, it’s going to separate it into a new window or move it into a new window. I click and drag, and you can see we have a little silhouette, that’s my window. Now all I have to do is just place where I want, let’s just place it right here and I’ve created a new window. I have separated that tab into a new window. In addition to going up to window to separate a tab into a new window, we can also just drag it out of the current window. Let’s go and make them a tab again. I go back under window, and then we go to merge all windows.

We can also have multiple windows with multiple tabs. I’m going to go and create a new window. I’m going to move this over to the left here, and let’s go and create a new window. I’m going to go to new finder window. We have our second window here, and now what I want to do is I want to create a new tab in this window. We go up under file, and then you’re going to see new tab. I can also use Command T. When I do that; it will add a new tab to this new window. So now both of my windows have tabs in them.

We can also show the tab bar all the time. This is generally how I have it set. What I’m going to do is I’m going to close this window here, I use Command W, it closes the tabs, and then it closes the window, and then I go over to my other window. If we’re lucky, you’re going to see we have this tab bar here. When I close this tab here what it’s going to do is to close all of my tabs, I’m just going to have one window open, so it’s not going to show the tab bar.

Let’s go ahead and close this. I will use Command-W again, closes my tab, and then I can no longer see the tab bar. I like to show the tab bar all the time, so it’s easy to add another tab. To do that, what we do is we go up under view, and then you’re going to see show tab bar. When I select this, it always shows the tab bar, even if there’s just one folder. It only opens to the downloads folder, but I can still see the tab bar, which means I can go over to the + here, click on it, and open up another tab. I can use Command-T to open up another tab. I close these tabs, Command-W, I still have my tab bar.

I’ll give you a little tip; this also works with a lot of different applications. If an application has documents such as pages, you can also open up those documents and tabs. I’ll show you what I mean. I’m going to close this window, and now let’s open up pages. It’s opening up here. What we’re going to do is we’re going to go to my documents, and I’m going to go to lighthouses. Double click on it to open it up. It just opens up in a new window.

What I can do is I can open up a new document in a new tab. You’re going to see I have here view; when I select it, I can show the tab bar. Let’s go ahead and select it, and now you can see we have our tab bar. What do you think we’re going to have over on the right, a +. When I click on this, it opens up a new document. Let’s go with SA, and now we can see we have my untitled document because I haven’t saved it yet, and I have my lighthouse’s document. They’re showing up in one window, but they’re also showing up in tabs.

I can separate this window by going up to window and then selecting move tab to new window, just like with the Finder. Now I have my two windows. I want to merge them into a single-window using tabs, go up under window, and merge all windows, and I’m back with my tabs. In addition to using tabs in the Finder, we can also use them with various apps. These apps do have to have documents. It’s not going to work in the calendar app or the contacts app, but it will work and pages, numbers, keynote. It also works with various third-party apps.

That’s how we work with tabs on the Mac.