Mac Tips & Lessons
-
macOS Classes5 Lessons
-
New in macOS Sequoia5 Lessons
-
Getting Started with the Mac13 Lessons
-
14+ Tips for Getting Started with a New Mac (and older Macs)
-
How to tell which macOS you are using
-
Getting Around your Mac
-
Working with Finder Windows
-
Accessing Folders and Navigating Folders
-
A Look a the Folder Hierarchy of the Mac
-
Using Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Notifications and the Notification Center
-
Searching with Spotlight Search
-
System Preferences Overview
-
Mac Quick Look Demystified: Preview Files with Ease!
-
Quickly access Mac system settings with Menu Bar or Dock
-
Learn Cut, Copy, and Paste on Mac
-
14+ Tips for Getting Started with a New Mac (and older Macs)
-
Menu Bar Lessons for the Mac4 Lessons
-
Dock Lessons for the Mac11 Lessons
-
Automatically Hide the Dock
-
Open Recent Documents from a Closed app with the Mac's Dock
-
Open an App's Recent Documents through the Dock on the Mac
-
Change the Position of the Dock
-
Working with Applications in the Dock
-
Documents and Folders in the Dock
-
Customizing the Dock
-
Add Printers to the Mac's Dock
-
3 Easy Tips for Organizing your Folders in the Mac's Dock
-
Unlock Hidden Settings for the Dock
-
How to Add Folders to the Mac Dock
-
Automatically Hide the Dock
-
Finder Lessons for the Mac24 Lessons
-
Opening an Enclosing Folder from a Finder Window
-
Adding a Folder to the Sidebar in a Finder Window
-
Cycle through your Open Finder Windows
-
Set What Folder A New Finder Windows Shows
-
Finder Window View Options
-
View Unopened Documents with Quick Look
-
Arranging Files and Folders
-
Actions and Tasks
-
Finder Windows as Tabs
-
Customizing the Sidebar
-
Customize the Finder Window Toolbar
-
Show the Path Bar in a Finder Window
-
Keep Folders on Top
-
Show the Status Bar in Finder Windows
-
Set what is searched in a Finder Window
-
Hide your Hard Drives from the Desktop
-
Add Documents to a Finder Window Toolbar
-
Resizing Finder Window Columns
-
Copy the location of a File or Folder as Pathname
-
Set what your Finder Windows Open To
-
Show the Mac's Clipboard in a Window
-
Create a PDF from Multiple Images with Quick Actions on the Mac
-
The ultimate guide to the Mac's Finder: 24+ tips included!
-
Need help Organizing Your Mac? Master Smart Folders Today!
-
Opening an Enclosing Folder from a Finder Window
-
Manage Applications on the Mac24 Lessons
-
Easily Open the Applications Folder
-
Apps and Significant Energy
-
Set which Applications Open at Login
-
Add the Applications Folder to the Dock
-
Close Windows when Quitting Apps
-
5 Ways to Find and Open your Applications on the Mac
-
Finding your Applications Folder
-
Switching between Open Applications
-
Hiding Open Applications
-
Launchpad and Applications
-
Opening Applications with Spotlight Search
-
Installing Applications
-
Removing or Uninstalling Applications
-
Applications in Full-screen Mode
-
Finding an App’s Preferences or Settings
-
Open Apps with the Launchpad Icon
-
Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Switch between Open Apps
-
Shrink Apps to Prevent the MacBook Pro Notch from Obscuring App Controls
-
Prevent In-App Rating & Review Notifications
-
How to Check App Version History on Your Mac
-
How to Use Multiple Desktops with Spaces
-
Switch between open apps with the Mac's App Switcher
-
Enhance your Mac experience by Installing iOS apps
-
Add a Signature to a Document
-
Easily Open the Applications Folder
-
Manage Files and Folders on the Mac30 Lessons
-
Selecting Documents and Folders
-
Working with Save Dialog Boxes
-
Deleting Files and Folders
-
Copying, Moving, and Grouping Files
-
Move Selected Files into a New Folder
-
Specifying Applications for Documents
-
4 Ways to Open a File on the Mac
-
3 Ways to Force Quit an App on the Mac
-
4 Ways to Edit Finder Window Sidebars on the Mac
-
Create A New Folder with Selected Files on the Mac
-
Using Spring-loaded Folders
-
Compressing Files and Folders
-
Convert and Compress Images with Quick Actions
-
Viewing Document Information
-
Renaming Files in Batches
-
Tagging Files and Folders
-
Set What App a Document Opens With
-
Open Windows Media or WMV Files
-
Tips for finding your Downloads Folder
-
See Folder Sizes in a Finder Window
-
Duplicate Documents with Stationery Pad on the Mac
-
Reverse the Print Order of your Document
-
Creating PDFs on a Mac: Two Easy Methods
-
Save Time and Effort: How to Select Multiple Files on Your Mac
-
How to Easily Zip and Unzip Files on Your Mac
-
Learn how to use Find and Replace on the Mac
-
Rename Multiple Files on the Mac
-
How to Manage Storage on Your Mac - Easy Tips & Tricks!
-
Ever Wondered How to Rename Mac Files? Top 7 Tips Here!
-
11 Easy Ways to Optimize Your Mac's Desktop Experience
-
Selecting Documents and Folders
-
General macOS Lessons21 Lessons|1 Quiz
-
Have your Mac Learn Spelling
-
Close Notifications with a Swipe
-
Working with the Today View
-
Using Siri
-
Using Mission Control
-
Add Virtual Desktops with Spaces on the Mac
-
Sharing Files with AirDrop
-
iCloud Options
-
Take a Screenshot of your Display
-
Add Emojis as Text
-
View All Open Windows as Thumbnails
-
Copy, and Paste and Match Style
-
Type Special Characters with the Keyboard Viewer
-
Set where Screenshots are Saved
-
Add a Timer to Screenshots
-
Hide all your open windows to show the Mac's Desktop
-
Turn on Do Not Disturb Temporarily
-
Using Split View
-
The Mac’s Magic Shortcut to Trashing Files and Photos Quickly
-
10 Little Known Tips for the Mac
-
Keyboard Navigation on the Mac
-
Have your Mac Learn Spelling
-
Preferences or Settings for the Mac34 Lessons
-
Organize and Hide System Preference Panes
-
General Preferences
-
Working with Printers and Scanners
-
Share Connected Printers with other Macs
-
A Quick look at Sound Preferences
-
A closer look at Internet Accounts
-
Creating User Accounts
-
Set an Animated Emoji for your Mac User Profile
-
Customize the Date and Time in the Mac's Menu Bar
-
Adding Parental Controls
-
Change the Cursor Size
-
Show the Date in the Menu bar
-
Change the Clock in the Menu Bar from Digital to Analog
-
Set the Scroll Bar to Always Show in a Window
-
Create a New user Account
-
Text Replacement
-
Quickly Look up Information with the Trackpad
-
Shortcuts for opening System Preference Panes
-
Rename your Mac
-
Searching your System Preferences
-
Set the Default Browser on the Mac
-
Reduce the Transparency in the Menu Bar and Dock
-
Open Preference Panes from the Dock
-
A closer look at Wi-fi Settings
-
Using Hot Corners
-
Select what macOS Updates you want to install
-
Create Keyboard Shortcuts for Menu Items
-
Use Keyboard Navigation to Move Focus
-
Enable Fast User Switching to Switch between User Accounts
-
Use Touch ID to Switch between Users on the Mac
-
How to Zoom into your Mac's Display for Easier Reading
-
How to Extend Your Mac Display to Your iPad
-
Disabling Showing the Notification Center from the Trackpad
-
Can Force Click Boost Your Productivity on your Mac? Find Out How!
-
Organize and Hide System Preference Panes
-
Troubleshooting Lessons for the Mac16 Lessons
-
Finding Help for your Mac
-
Backing Up with Time Machine
-
Restoring Files with Time Machine
-
Erase a Hard Drive
-
Force Quit an App on the Mac
-
Restart or Relaunch the Mac's Finder
-
Force Quit Apps from the Apple Menu
-
Putting it All Together
-
Automatically delete items in the Trash after 30 Days
-
Troubleshooting Bluetooth Connections
-
Manage Storage Space with macOS Monterey and Earlier
-
Reclaim Local Mac Storage Space by Removing iCloud Drive Downloads
-
Disable Unused Sharing Options on Your Mac If You’re Not Using Them
-
Forget Wi-Fi Networks that are Troublesome
-
View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac
-
Erase All Content and Settings on a Mac
-
Finding Help for your Mac
-
New in macOS Mojave12 Lessons
-
Dark Mode Appearance
-
Dynamic Desktop Pictures
-
View Recent Apps in the Dock
-
Gallery View for Files in Finder Windows
-
macOS Software Updates in System Preferences
-
Desktop Stacks for Files on the Desktop
-
Keep Desktop Folders on Top of Files
-
View File Metadata
-
Quick Actions and Markup Files
-
Continuity Camera from your iPhone or iPad
-
New Privacy Options
-
New Screenshot Options
-
Dark Mode Appearance
-
New in macOS Catalina19 Lessons
-
See which apps will no longer work with macOS Catalina
-
See which apps are 32-bit
-
Opening Recent Folders from the Dock
-
Reorganized System Preferences
-
New Window Management Options
-
New Screen Time Preferences
-
New Music App
-
New TV App
-
New Podcasts App
-
Manage your iOS Devices through the Finder
-
What's New in the Photos App
-
What's New in the Notes App
-
What's New in Safari
-
What's New in the Mail app
-
New FindMy App
-
New Catalyst Apps
-
New Security and Privacy Features
-
New Redesigned Reminders App
-
Use an iPad as a second Display with Sidecar
-
See which apps will no longer work with macOS Catalina
-
New in macOS Big Sur15 Lessons
-
What hasn't changed with macOS Big Sur
-
Notification Center
-
Allow Wallpaper Tinting in Windows
-
Filtering Mail Messages
-
New Control Center
-
A look at the Finder Window Toolbar
-
New with Desktop Pictures
-
Play Startup Sound
-
Drag and Drop Controls to the Menu Bar
-
Battery Usage Preferences
-
Change the Date & Time in the Menu Bar
-
Do Not Disturb location in macOS Big Sur
-
See what is Now Playing
-
It’s Time to Consider Upgrading to macOS 11 Big Sur
-
How to Reveal the Proxy Icon in Big Sur
-
What hasn't changed with macOS Big Sur
-
New & Updated in macOS Ventura12 Lessons
-
How to Manage your Open Windows with Stage Manager
-
New Setup Options and Filters in Focus on the Mac with macOS Ventura
-
View Forecasts and More in the New Weather App on the Mac
-
Add Multiple Stops to Routes in the Maps App with macOS Ventura
-
Create Templates for Reminders Lists with macOS Ventura
-
Maximizing Your Storage on macOS Ventura: A Guide to Managing Space
-
Discover the New Clock App on MacOS Ventura
-
How to Keep Scroll Bars Always Visible on Mac (macOS Ventura)
-
Manage App Store and Streaming Services Subscriptions through the Mac
-
Save time typing text and Emojis on your Mac with Text Replacement!
-
3 Ways to Remove the Background in a Photo
-
Stop Apps from Launching when your Mac Starts Up
-
How to Manage your Open Windows with Stage Manager
-
Favorite Features in macOS Sonoma9 Lessons
-
Make Your Favorite Websites Act Like Apps with macOS Sonoma
-
macOS Sonoma: Screensavers & Wallpapers
-
Click your Wallpaper to Show the Desktop
-
Add Widgets to your Mac's Desktop
-
My 3 Favorite New Features in Reminders with macOS Sonoma!
-
iCloud Passwords for Chrome: Seamless Access to Your Passwords
-
Make your next Zoom Presentation stand out with Presenter Overlays
-
Turn off Click Wallpaper to Show Desktop
-
Build your own Apple Passwords app in 5 minutes! A Step-by-Step Guide
-
Make Your Favorite Websites Act Like Apps with macOS Sonoma
-
New in macOS Monterey6 Lessons
Working with Finder Windows
Learn how to work with Finder Windows on the Mac.
In this lesson for macOS Mojave, I look at how you work with Finder Windows on the Mac. Finder windows are how you explore your Mac, as well as organize all your files and folders. It’s a crucial part of working with your Mac. See how this all works in the lesson on working with Finder windows on the Mac.
Video Transcript (video also has closed captions):
Introduction: Now that we have a basic idea of how to get around our Mac let’s take a step further and look at how we get around our files and folders through windows. We do this primarily through Finder windows. You’re going to find yourself working a lot in the Finder and through windows as you’re working on your Mac. So let’s take a closer look at how we work with these windows in the Finder on the Mac.
Finder Windows: Now the first thing we need to do is we need to open up a new Finder window. How do we do that? All we have to do is just click on this smiley face, the Finder in the Dock. Now I can also go up to File in the menu bar, and you’re going to see we have New Finder Window. We do have to be in the Finder for this to work. If you’re in another app, you will not see New Finder Window under File. So now, let’s go over to New Finder Window.
Sidebar: So I have my window here. If we look, you’re going to see we have a sidebar to the left of our window. The sidebar contains different folders, and we can change what folders are shown in this sidebar. I’ll show you how you do that later on in the tutorial. I just want to give you an overview of how we work with windows in this lesson. To switch to a different folder, we just click on it. So I want to go to my Documents folder. I’m now in my Documents folder. If you have an external hard drive, you can also go to those external hard drives connected to your Mac. And then, if you’re using iCloud, you can go to iCloud Drive. So to go to any one of these folders, we just click on it.
Toolbar: Now across the top of a window, we have our toolbar. Our toolbar contains various tools. Our first few options here are for the view. We can change how our files and folders are shown. Right now, it is set up for icon view. But if I wanted to see it in the list view, I just click on the horizontal lines here, and now I’m looking at it in list view. I can also change how they are arranged, and then we have various tools. If I have a file selected, let’s go ahead and select this File here. I just click on it one time to select it. If I click on it twice, it’s going to open it. I just want to select it. From here, what I can do is I can go and share this File. This is what we call the share icon. And then we also have tags. I’ll cover these in more detail later on in the tutorial, but I just wanted to get you started in how the windows work on a Mac. Over to the right, we have our search.
Resize Windows: Now we can resize a window by dragging any one of the edges or any one of the corners. If I go to the lower left-hand corner, you’ll see that the cursor will change. And from here, what I can do is I can just click and drag, and it resizes it. I go over to the right edge, the cursor changes, and I can resize it. I can even do this from the top. So we just have to go to anyone of the edges or any one of the corners, and then click and drag, and we can resize the window.
Multiple Windows: Now with most applications, we can have more than one window. Let’s go ahead and open up a new window. I go up to File, and we go to New Finder Window. So now I have two Finder windows open. You’re going to see they’re stacked on top of each other. Let’s go over to the corner here. You can see it a little bit better.
Moving Windows: To move a window, what we do is we just click in that toolbar area. So I’m going to click in this area and drag, and then I can move that window around. If I want to bring the other window to the front, we can see that this window is in the front because we have those colors for our dots. Also, this gray here is a little bit darker. If we go over to this window you can see it’s lighter, and the dots here have no color. To bring this one to the front, I click on it now that one’s in the front. I click on this window, it brings it back to the front.
Expanding and closing Windows: If I go to the three dots here, even though it’s in the background, you can see that they turn color. What are these three dots? The first one closes it, so it just closes the window. The second one minimizes it. When it minimizes it, what it does is, it moves it into the Dock. Let’s go ahead and minimize this. And now we can see it is in the Dock. So it’s a way of keeping it open, but it just puts it into the Dock so we can access it later. How do we open it up again? We just click on it, and it opens it back up. And then we have the green button which opens it up in full screen. I click on it, and now it’s full screen.
Full Screen: When we’re looking at a folder or even an app in full screen, right now we’re looking at the Finder in full screen, you’re going to see that the menu bar disappears. Where did it go? How do we get it back? Well, all we have to do is just bring our cursor up, and our menu bar shows again. Bringing the cursor down, it disappears. Bring it up, it shows. Same thing with the Dock. You’re going to see that the Dock is no longer located at the bottom. How do we get to our Dock? I bring my cursor down, and we have our Dock. I bring my cursor up, the Dock disappears. If you no longer want to work with this in full screen, you go up to the top again, and then we click on the green dot. When I do that, it brings it back to our window. Let’s go and open up another window. I’m going to go up to File here and New Finder Window. So now I have three windows open. We can see all three of them here. I click on any one of them to bring it to the front.
I can also go up to window in the menu bar here as long as I’m in the Finder. I go up to window, and I can see all of my windows. So two of them are set for recent. The other one is set for my Documents folder. So now, let’s go and click on Downloads. So now I have one folder that is Downloads, one folder that is recents, and one folder that is documents. When we go back up under window, we can see my Documents, Downloads, and Recents. And all I have to do is just select the window that I want to go to.
Let’s take a look at a window for an application. What I’m going to do is I’m going to open up my Calendar. I click on it, and now I’m looking at my calendar. So this is another window. You’re going to see I have my three dots again. Again, the red one will close it, the yellow one will minimize it into the Dock, and the green one will open it up in full screen. Now that I’m looking at my calendar, if we go up to the menu bar, you’re going to see I’m looking at all my menu items for the Calendar. So this is how I know which app is active or in the front. Whichever window you have in the front is going to be your active app. So now, if I click on this window here for the Finder, what do you think is going to happen? Now we’re looking at our Finder because the Finder window is in the front. So I want to go back over to my Calendar. I click on it. And now we’re looking at our Calendar. This is how we can see which app we are in.
What do you think is going to happen when I click on the desktop? Remember, the desktop is part of the Finder, so when I click on the desktop here, it brings us to the Finder. So that’s another way of getting to the Finder is by just clicking on the desktop.
So that’s how we use windows to get around our Mac.