A shortcut to reach hidden folders in Open/Save dialogs

Aug 12, '04 09:39:00AM

Contributed by: kevinp

Panther hides most of the "UNIX" folders and it's not obvious how to navigate to a file within them (I wanted to include a library in /usr/lib in a project I was building with Xcode). Here's one way to do it. Many of you probably know you can use the Finder's Go -> Go to Folder... menu to access hidden directories. Type the name of the hidden folder you'd like to reach, e.g. /usr/lib and hit Return. Once the Finder jumps to that location, drag the proxy folder icon at the top center onto the sidebar.

Since the same sidebar now appears in Open and Save dialogs, you can use it to navigate within that folder in programs such as Xcode, TextEdit or whatever you want. When you're done, you can optionally drag the folder off the sidebar again in a Finder window.

[robg adds: We've covered using Go to Folder to access hidden folders before, but putting them on the sidebar is a nice way to easily reach these hidden folders from Open and Save dialogs.]

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