Meet the Finder

Finder is the application you use to browse files, folders, disks, network locations, and connected devices. It is always running — you cannot quit it. Click its face icon in the Dock to open a window, or press Command-N inside Finder for another one.

The sidebar

The sidebar gives quick access to your home folders, iCloud Drive, disks, and tags. Choose what appears there in Finder → Settings → Sidebar.

Adding a folder to the sidebar creates a shortcut. It does not move the folder. Drag any folder you use daily — a projects folder, a client folder — into the Favorites section and it is one click away from every Finder window.

Watch where you drop, though. Dropping between sidebar items (you see a horizontal insertion line) adds a shortcut. Dropping onto a folder already in the sidebar moves your item into that folder. If a folder seems to vanish during this, check inside the sidebar item it was dropped on.

Four views

Switch between icon, list, column, and gallery views from the toolbar or with shortcuts:

Command-1   icon view
Command-2   list view
Command-3   column view
Command-4   gallery view

Each view answers a different question. List view is useful when you need to compare names, dates, kinds, or sizes — click a column header to sort by it, click again to reverse. Column view shows the path you took through nested folders, which makes deep project trees much easier to navigate. Gallery view gives large previews, good for photos and PDFs.

Try this now: open your Downloads folder, switch to list view with Command-2, and sort by Date Added. The file you downloaded most recently jumps to the top. That one habit replaces most “where did my download go” searches.