Summary
Apple takes a “less is more” approach with a lot of its software, and the macOS file browser is no exception. But there’s one useful feature you might want to turn on: the path bar.
How to Enable the Path Bar and Path Icon
To enable the path bar, open a new Finder window and navigate to View > Show Path Bar. A new element will appear at the bottom of the Finder window, which shows the path or directory structure for the current folder you have open.
In addition to the path bar at the bottom of the page, you can also add a path icon to the main Finder toolbar at the top of the page. To do this, right-click in a blank space anywhere in the toolbar section and select “Customize Toolbar.”
In the panel that appears, find the “Path” icon and drag it into the toolbar in a place of your choosing. You’ll be limited in terms of where you can place it. Remember that you can add spacers if you want to separate it from the rest of your icons.
Click “Done” and test out the icon. Clicking it will reveal the current path, allowing you to quickly navigate back up the directory structure.
You might not realize it, but Finder has been able to do this all along. You can right-click the current folder name at the top of the window to see the enclosing folder and any location above it.
Why Use the Path Bar and Path Icon in Finder?
Perhaps the simplest reason to use these tools is to get a better understanding of your Mac’s directory structure. This can be particularly helpful for Windows users, who are used to seeing the directory structure laid out. ThemacOS directory structure has more in common with Linuxthan Windows, and Apple seems to obscure it which can feel unintuitive when you’re trying to find a folder.
The path bar in particular has a number of useful features. You can double-click any of the locations you see to quickly jump to that directory (then hit “Back” at the top of the screen to get right back where you were).
On top of this, you can drag and drop files and folders into the path bar to move things around. Holding Option will copy a file rather than moving it, holding Command+Option willcreate an alias instead. You can even drag and drop the folders that appear in the path bar as well.
You also get a bunch of useful shortcuts on the right-click menu. Right-click on any location to reveal options for opening that folder in a new tab, opening the enclosing folder with your destination already highlighted, and copying the path to the clipboard so that you can paste it, like this:
On top of this, you can quickly speed up command line interactions using the “Open in Terminal” shortcut.
Lastly, the path bar works when performing searches on your Mac too. So if you initiate a search you can click on any file to see where it is located on your drive using this feature. This is also good for locating file locations whenusing smart folders to perform saved searches.
A Better Path Forward
Finder’s full path bar is useful, especially when performing searches or dragging and dropping files and folders.Find out what other Finder features you should already be using.
