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Mac Tips & Lessons

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  1. macOS Classes
    5 Lessons
  2. New in macOS Sequoia
    5 Lessons
  3. Getting Started with the Mac
    13 Lessons
  4. Menu Bar Lessons for the Mac
    4 Lessons
  5. Dock Lessons for the Mac
    11 Lessons
  6. Finder Lessons for the Mac
    24 Lessons
  7. Manage Applications on the Mac
    24 Lessons
  8. Manage Files and Folders on the Mac
    30 Lessons
  9. General macOS Lessons
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    1 Quiz
  10. Preferences or Settings for the Mac
    34 Lessons
  11. Troubleshooting Lessons for the Mac
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  12. New in macOS Mojave
    12 Lessons
  13. New in macOS Catalina
    19 Lessons
  14. New in macOS Big Sur
    15 Lessons
  15. New & Updated in macOS Ventura
    12 Lessons
  16. Favorite Features in macOS Sonoma
    9 Lessons
  17. New in macOS Monterey
    6 Lessons
Topic 14, Lesson 15
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How to Reveal the Proxy Icon in Big Sur

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You may not have known that every document window in macOS has long had a proxy icon in the title bar, next to the filename. The proxy icon is not just cosmetic, they are very useful. You can drag it to Mail to attach the document to a message, to a Web browser to upload it, or to any other location you can drag a document’s icon in the Finder (top screenshot, below, showing Preview in Catalina). You can also drag proxy icons from Finder windows to Open and Save dialogs to navigate to the location of the proxy icon and even pre-fill the filename when saving. this is someting that I use on a daily basis. Alas, in macOS 11 Big Sur, in at least the Finder and Preview, Apple chose to hide the proxy icon and the drop-down menu that lets you rename, tag, or move files using controls on the title bar (middle screenshot, below). Plus, the new title bar design tends to truncate file names. The good news is you can still mouse over the filename to expand the name. It then reveals both the proxy icon and the drop-down menu (bottom screenshot, below). Apple’s desire to reduce onscreen clutter makes usage more cumbersome than before, but all the functionality is still present.

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