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Bookmark local folders in Safari for fast Finder access Web Browsers
You can easily add any folder on your hard drive to the bookmarks menu of Safari, and it will open in the Finder when selected. Handy if you want to drag a picture from Safari to the Pictures folder or when you want to open your downloads folder without having to switch to Finder first. And very cool ... the bookmark menu will display the icon of the folder, even if it's a custom icon.

For example, for the top level of the hard drive, you would type 'file:///' and then drag the link to the bookmark bar. For your Documents folder, you would type 'file:///Users/yourname/Documents' and then drag it to the bookmark bar.

[Editor's note: The original hint specified using just ":///" as the URL, but I couldn't make it work unless the command started with 'file.' Also, do not hit return after typing the URL, as that will open the specified folder and then (at least on my two machines) blank the URL bar! Just type out the address, and drag the completed address to the bookmark bar.]
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Bookmark local folders in Safari for fast Finder access | 17 comments | Create New Account
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File as Bookmark in Safari.
Authored by: macfeller on Jan 14, '03 11:28:14AM

I get "Can't find file. No file exists at..." At first I of course tried my most used folder. Nope. I then tried to duplicate the example given in the Hint. Nope. The only difference is that my drive is partitioned, but shouldn\'t putting the name of the particular partition first in the path do the trick?

mf



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Test with something on boot partition?
Authored by: robg on Jan 14, '03 11:34:39AM

What happens if you try with a folder that is on the boot partition? Or just the root level itself, with file:///?

-rob.



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Test with something on boot partition?
Authored by: macfeller on Jan 14, '03 11:42:53AM

Did just that when I tried to follow the example in the Hint. Just now I tried file:///partion name. Same thing. I *know* it's gotta be something stupid!

mf



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Solution
Authored by: beepotato on Jan 14, '03 12:19:46PM

Try this:

file:///Volumes/partition_name

Also note that the icon in the address bar changes dynamically as you're typing... this way, you know when you got it wrong (it is a blank document icon then).



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Get me all excited, and then ...
Authored by: macfeller on Jan 14, '03 01:23:28PM

it sorta works. That is, it behaves nice with all partitions except the boot volume! Now that is either extremely weird or still something dumb on my part. I tried it a million different ways.

A very nice thing about this is you can type the space and it will become the %20 in the URL.

mf



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Works Here...
Authored by: Enkerli on Jan 14, '03 01:56:52PM

Typing "file:///" shows the drive's icon so I drag that link to the bookmarks and it works as expected (i.e. it opens the root directory in the finder).



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Yeah, but...
Authored by: macfeller on Jan 14, '03 02:05:29PM

I got partitions. Putting Volumes into the path worked for all but the boot volume. That's a bumfuzzler.

mf



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Thanks Beepotato
Authored by: karmaworld on Jan 14, '03 03:58:08PM

Worked like a charm thanks to your hint. My download folder is on one of 3 partitions on another internal drive, not the boot. Custom icon appears in bookmarks list, but not in toolbar. Any ideas on how this could be done, i.e. like the bookmarks icon



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Thanks Beepotato???
Authored by: panicX on Jan 14, '03 05:19:17PM

and me, I dont get any thanks?? ... being da original provider of the hint
hahahaha, I am all sad now! :P


well, hope you all enjoy it anyway!
its kinda cool right?
Keep on rocking in the free world

see ya all

:)



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Another Way - Open File
Authored by: TedCD on Jan 14, '03 11:44:15PM

Use Safari's "Open File" command to open a document within the desired folder. Save the result as a bookmark, and then edit the bookmark to delete the file name.



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Boot volume figured out - D'oh!
Authored by: macfeller on Jan 15, '03 10:12:54AM

To find files on other volumes you do have to begin the path with Volumes/volumename. On the boot volume, no name whatever. Set the path as if you don't have partitions. A case of trying to make it more difficult. Apparently when I first tried to replicate the original hint I just did something stupid - not the first time, certainly not the last.

Thanks for all the help.

mf



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"On My Mac" Bookmark Folder
Authored by: readparse on Jan 15, '03 11:17:45AM

This is a really good hint, even though I'm having a hard time getting myself to use Safari (wasn't it kind of rude of Steve Jobs to interrupt our love affair with Chimera so suddenly?). I would hope that tabbed browsing will make its way to Safari by popular demand, which will make it easier (since I'm now addicted to that manner of browsing).

Anyway, for somebody like me who is almost ALWAYS in a web browser, I found it useful to expand on this hint by creating a bookmark folder called "On My Mac" (for lack of a more original name), which includes bookmarks to all the usual Finder suspects (Documents, Home, Applications, Pictures, etc). Love it, love it. It's stuff like this that eventually WILL get me using Safari, I'm sure (but that doesn't mean I'll give up on demanding tabbed browsing).



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"On My Mac" Bookmark Folder
Authored by: jiclark on Dec 06, '03 12:28:45AM

Huh?

Safari has done tabs for a <b>long</b> time now!!! Am I missing something, or is it you???

;-}

John-o



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next feature
Authored by: zedwards on Jan 15, '03 11:25:05AM

Fantastic hint! I would be perfect to be able to drag a file from Safari into the folder, instead of opening up the folder to do that.



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Bookmark local folders in Safari for fast Finder access
Authored by: bluehz on May 01, '03 12:01:14PM

I wish there was a way to tell Safari - instead of opening the
Dir... I would prefer a dir listing. Much like Apache will do if you
turn allow dir listing. I'm sure we've all seen them at some
time. Very basic listing, simple icons, click to open files.



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This also works with iCal as well.
Authored by: smedly on Dec 05, '03 04:13:11PM

I began searching for a way to link to a specific folder pertaining to a project in iCal when I came across this thread. This was a great tip that I thought might just solve my problem, and it does. You can type the path to a folder in the "url" tab and link to the project folder from within your project info in iCal.

Brilliant.
Thanks guys.



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Bookmark local folders in Safari for fast Finder access
Authored by: Calion on May 11, '14 02:37:48PM

So it looks like this hint has stopped working sometime in the intervening years, I presume for security reasons. The file:/// URL scheme won't do anything in Safari (5.1.10, Snow Leopard), no matter what I try. Chrome will, at least, download the file or view the folder within the browser, but flatly refuses to use the Finder.

Is this tip just completely dead, or is there any way remaining to accomplish this? This would be really useful for me.



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