Today I discovered an easy way to share files between Mac apps

Apple has made macOS very environment friendly at dealing with drag and drop. For instance, I usually pull a picture straight from the Pictures app or Safari and drop it into iMessage or Slack. One factor that has all the time slowed me down, nonetheless, is shifting extra conventional recordsdata, like PDFs or different paperwork.

However then I discovered that many apps, together with many built-in apps, have a fast shortcut to entry the file you are viewing. Utilizing this shortcut (which is formally known as the proxy icon), you may simply add a PDF file you’ve got opened in Preview to Google Drive with out having to seek for the file in Finder. This is the way it works:

The trick is to make use of the title bar, which is the world the place Apple locations visitors light-style window controls and the identify of the file you’ve got open in addition to different buttons, relying on the appliance. For those who hover over that filename for a second, you would possibly discover {that a} small icon seems to its left. (Some apps do not require the hover.) That is what permits us to do our magic. For those who click on and drag this icon, you’ll primarily click on and drag the precise file as in case you had been utilizing the file supervisor.

To be clear, this is not a brand new function within the newest macOS beta or something. I am fairly certain I’ve heard of it when somebody talked about it within the context of options which have been round for thus lengthy that younger whippersnappers like me have not even heard of it. So yeah, I am slightly late for the occasion right here. However now that I’ve lastly discovered it, I exploit it on a regular basis.

Considered one of my most typical use instances is after I have to learn a PDF for work after which add it to DocumentCloud so I can embed it in an article. I used to do that by minimizing the preview, then discovering the doc on my cluttered desktop, utilizing Fast Look (the factor that previews a doc whenever you hit the spacebar) to make it possible for I wasn’t downloading the unsuitable factor. Now I can simply drag and drop the factor I am studying straight from Preview, very like I do within the GIF above.

I additionally discovered many different methods to make use of the function. If I’ve Finder in some mode, I can use it to shortly copy the trail to the folder I am in in Terminal. (Bonus tip: For those who drag and drop a file or folder into Terminal, macOS will simply insert the trail.) I’ve even used this function on QuickTime to create the screen-recorded GIFs you have seen on this article.

Whereas this does not essentially apply in case you’re simply utilizing this function to share recordsdata between apps, I do have a caveat in case you, like me, are pondering “wait, what if I do drag the file from the title bar to a Finder window?” The reply is that it is effective motion the file from the place it at the moment is to the place you dropped it. It is a affordable default I suppose, nevertheless it may very well be complicated in case you assumed it could copy and paste the file slightly than minimize and paste it.

Sadly, that is not one thing each app can do. I have never discovered a strategy to get better recordsdata from Obsidian or Photoshop, for instance, though the latter is not actually stunning. However there are a good variety of apps I have been ready to make use of it with, together with Pages, Blender, Logic Professional, Nova, and even Microsoft Phrase. If there may be an app the place you regularly test recordsdata, it is value checking to see if it helps this function. you by no means know when it is going to come in useful.

However wait, I’ve one final bonus tip in case you keep within the titlebar – though I am being sincere, it is a bonus as a result of I have never come throughout any conditions the place it could be useful. Along with having the ability to drag the file icon, it’s also possible to right-click it to see what folder that file is in (and what folder this folder is in, and so forth and so forth). From there, you should utilize the checklist to shortly open a Finder window navigating to that folder.

Whereas discovering this technique wasn’t a surprising revelation that boosted my productiveness 10x, it did assist scale back the time I spent on the lookout for recordsdata I had already opened. And that is effective as a result of having to try this can, satirically, be an actual drag.