10 Uses For Mac Finder Aliases

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's find out how you can use Aliases in the Mac Finder. 

So aliases are something you can create in the Finder that look like files but what they actually are, are Links to other files. Let's look how to create Aliases Let's look in this business folder here and I've got a file named Balances. I can create an aliases to that file many different ways. One is to simply select the file and go to File, and then Make Alias. You can also Control click, right click, or two-finger click on the file to bring up the Context Menu and you'll find Make Alias there as well. When you use either one of these it makes an alias file right next to the original just with the word Alias appended to the end. If we switch to Icon View we can clearly see the original file here has a nice icon reflecting the contents of the file. The alias uses the default icon for that file type and also this little curved arrow at the bottom left corner. That's an indicator that tells you this is an alias. 

Another way to create an alias is to drag the file from one location to another and then hold both the Option and Command key at the same time. Notice here how you've got that same little curved arrow as the pointer. You changed that to let you know that you're now making an alias, not moving or copying the file while the original file remains at its original location. It doesn't move. This is the first use for an alias that I want to share with you. It's simply placed an alias to the file on your Desktop. To get to this file normally I would have to go into my Documents Folder and then into this Business Folder and then find the file there. But if this is a file that I'm using all the time all day, I may want to have easy access to it on the Desktop.But I don't want to have the file itself on the Desktop. The file itself belongs in my Organizational Structure in this folder I've named Business. The alias allows me to access the file while keeping the file itself in the proper place. 

Now a quick tip here. If you ever have an alias and you want to go back to its original location and you don't remember where that is, you can bring up the Context Menu with Control Click, right click, or two-finger click and choose Show Original. You can also select it and choose File and Show Original here. Notice the keyboard shortcut is Command R. Selecting it and using Command R will open up a Finder window and not only take you to that location but select that file. Also remember this is a link to the file, not the file itself. This is the file and this is the alias that links to it. So you can delete the alias and it doesn't effect the original file at all. That means you're free to create aliases temporarily. If you need to access the file a lot today, for instance, you can create and alias to it just on the Desktop just for today or for this week and then if you feel you don't need to keep it around or only create an alias if you think you'll going to need it permanently. Just create an aliases and remove aliases as needed. 

Another tip is you can select an alias is to use Command i for Info or Command Option i to show Inspector and you'll see here the location of the original. You'll also be able to select new original. So you can use that to update an alias to use a more recent version of a file. 

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Now another reason you may want to create an alias is if you want the same file to appear to be in two places just for convenience. So for instance I'm going to go into this Projects File here and I've got three projects here. I also have a very important file that applies to all three of those. Team Overview. I can use Option Command to create an alias and put that same alias in all three places. So if I happen to be in Project Alpha I have quick access to my Team Overview File. But if I go to Project Beta I also have access to that Team Overview File. All three alias are appointed to that same file. I just have them in each of these project folders for convenience. You can have as many aliases to the same file as you want. You can also have aliases to Folders. This can be useful if you've got a folder that is really deep down, like here under Business I've got File and then I've got folders for each year. Let's say if I want easy access to this without having to dig all the way down here. So what I can do is I can create an alias for this folder. Let's go ahead and just use File and Make Alias. Then I'm going to drag this up to the top level here. So now I have a way to get directly to this folder but without having to dig down and find it. I can also put this here on the Desktop, if I like, and then there's a quick way to get right to that folder. 

Now placing an alias like this on the Desktop is very useful as a Drag & Drop aid. So with and alias there I can be somewhere else and decide I want something to be in this folder. I don't have to drag it to another Finder window or change the location of this window with keyboard shortcuts and that kind of thing. I can just drag to the alias. I can drop something in there and it will end up in that folder. You can get really creative with this. For instance I can create a new folder here on the Desktop and I can call it Drop Zone. Then I can put aliases inside that folder. So, for instance, I will create an alias to this and Drag & Drop it in there just holding Option and Command to create these. I'll do another one here and another one here. Now when I look in this folder I've got three aliases in there. If I wanted to Drag & Drop something to one of those folders I can drag it to the folder, wait a second for it to open, and then drop that file there. 

You can also use aliases to help you file things. So for instance let's go to the Downloads folder here. Let's say you download a lot of stuff. You can create aliases in the Downloads folder to other folders. For instance I can use Option and Command and create an alias in my Downloads folder directly to Business. I can also do the same thing for this PDF's folder here and maybe the Receipts Folder here. So now as I get items in my Downloads folder I don't have to a second window open to file them. I can easily Drag & Drop each of these into the folder where it belongs by using aliases. This iexample just uses the Downloads Folder. But you can have a filing system like this elsewhere as well. 

Another interesting aspect of aliases is that they don't have to have the same name as the original. You can change the name to whatever you want. So let's open this Business Folder here. You can see I've got a bunch of documents called Tax Info. Let's say i create an alias to this Tax Info.numbers file here and I'm going to save that at the top level. So hold the Option and Command key down that's at the top level. There's Tax Info's alias to that Numbers File. I can now rename that file, just press Return to do that, and after do Command A to select the entire thing. I don't need to have the extension there. I can call this Current Tax Info. Now this alias has that name. Yet when I double click to open you can see it opens up that specific file which means that next year I can delete this alias and create a new one toTax Info for that year. Name it the same thing and I get used to knowing that Current Tax Info is an alias to this year's tax info file. Before I showed you how to use Command i and select a new original. You can use that to assign the same alias to a new version of the file for a new year. 

You can also use aliases to gather together various files as a collection while leaving the actual files in place. So I'm going to create a new folder here in my Documents folder and call this Daily Check, things I need to check every day. What I can do then I can gather together aliases for various things, for instance this file here and I will Drag & Drop into Daily Checks with the Option and Command Key held down to create an alias to it. But I can also go ahead and say create an alias to this file in there and then maybe an alias to this file in there, and now I've got this one folder and I've got in there three files that all belong in their own folders. I don't want them together but I now have a different way to reference them using this folder here with aliases inside it. 

Now another use for this is to actually combine that idea with the Dock. You can gather together aliases to various different folders and then drag this folder, which is a regular folder, drag it to the right side of the Dock and drop it in there. You can Control Click, right click, or two-finger click on that Dock icon there and you can change the Short By, How it is Displayed, I'll change it to  be a folder, and how its viewed so I'll change it, for instance, to Grid. Now when I click on it I can see those three files there even though they don't exist in a folder together. The aliases to them do. But the great thing is I don't have to mess with the Dock anymore to update this. I can go and create another alias, add this to the Daily Check folder, or to whatever you want to call it, and now when I check in the Dock again you can see that one is there as well. You can use that same concept to gather together apps. The Dock, of course, has all of these icons for various apps. But let's say you wanted to have a group of apps together and have them accessed through one icon on the Dock. So here in your Documents folder or somewhere else in your Home folder create a new folder here. I'm going to call this one Graphic Apps. What I'm going to do with this is I'm going to Drag & Drop applications. So I'm going to go in this other Finder Window to Applications. I'm going to Drag & Drop applications into this and notice how the Finder assumes I'm going to be dragging Applications. I don't actually want to move the applications. I want to create an alias. I'm not actually holding Option and Command down. It will just create an alias automatically. So I can create an alias to that app in this folder. I can add an alias to this app in the folder. This one, this one, and any others that I want in here and you can see I've got these aliases while the Applications remain in the applications folder. Then I can take this Graphic Apps folder here, drag this to the right side of the Dock and I can customize it as I like. I'll set this one up as a fan and now I can click and choose an application to launch. I've got the five applications just contained in this one folder here. So it is great for organizing your apps.  

My final suggestion is to use aliases as an easier way to connect to a location on an external server or another Mac on your network. So, for instance, here if I want to connect to my MacBook Air from my Mac Studio I would use Go and then say Connect Server, Command K works, browse and I can find, there's the MacBook Air. I can go to the Home folder there. Local documents and say this is a folder I commonly want to access from this Mac. I can drag it, say, to the Desktop. It will copy the folder there but if I hold Option and Command down it creates an alias to it instead. So now if I want to access that network location I don't have to go through all of that which would include actually connecting to the server if I wasn't already connected. Instead I can just double click on this alias here and it opens it right up. Usually if you're not connected to the Mac or Server you will then do the connect so it may take a few seconds to do that to show you some progress dialogues and everything. Then, unfortunately, sometimes it just doesn't work and you have to revert doing the whole browse and connect to that Mac. But sometimes it does and when it does it saves you a lot of time. It is a shame it doesn't seem to be very solid today because in years past it worked really well. It still works often enough that you should have aliases like this to make it easier, at least most of the time. 

Now I want to finish pointing out there are several other features of the Finder that are like aliases but not exactly the same. For instance you can just place folders directly in the Dock. They are kind of like aliases but they are just aliases that exist only in the Dock here. You can also do the same for specific files. You just place the file on the right side of the Dock here to have access to that file. Also, folders you place in the Dock will work as Drop Zones as well. In addition you've got the left sidebar here of the Finder. You can place folders here under Favorites very easily and these will act as easy access to that location and Drop Zone. But note you can't really put aliases here in the left sidebar. The Finder will actually let you but they don't work in Drop Zones as you would expect. So they are not as useful.

One last place that you can add something that is kind of like an alias is you can drag something by holding the Command Key down. You have to have Command held down firsthand then you start dragging and then you can add a folder or a file in the Toolbar of the Finder. It will appear in all Finder windows. You can see it here and you can use it for easy access to a folder or easy access to the file by just clicking it. It also works as a Drop Zone when you have a folder up there. 

So there is a lot you can do with aliases and alias like features in the Finder, to have easier access to your files and folders. Easier Drag & Drop but without having to move files and folders out of your organizational structure. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.