Hidden Mac Tricks Using Title Icons

Title Icons, also called Proxy Icons, allow you to drag and drop files directly from their document windows without needing to use the Finder. You can also use them in the Finder to drag the folder you are currently viewing without needing to go up a level.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you how to use the very useful Title Icons on your Mac. 
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So Title Icons are the little icons that appear at the top of Document windows on your Mac. For instance, here in Pages you can see the Title Icon right here. Here it is in Numbers. Now they used to be called proxy icons and you'll still find lots of references to that name. But Apple seems to prefer calling them Title Icons now which makes sense since they are right next to the title of the document in the Title part of the Document window. Now they only exist in windows that refer to a document that is a file that represents all the information in that word processing document, spreadsheet document, or whatever the app creates.
So you won't find them in apps like Safari, a web browser which is just accessing the internet or Mail which is just accessing an email server. Likewise apps like Notes, Calendar, Photos are accessing libraries of data, not creating specific documents. But you will find them in the Finder. Of course the Finder doesn't have documents. It deals with folders. But in this case the metaphor holds. The document for the Finder is a folder. You're always looking at a folder. In that case you'll find these Title Icons. However, if you look here you won't see them. Why? Well, they are hidden until you move your pointer over the title there and then you see they appear. Until macOS Big Sur they were always there. With Big Sur now they changed to just appearing when you move your pointer over them.
This is also true for 3rd party apps which actually have two conditions that need to be met for the proxy icon to appear. First the file has to have been saved. So here I've created a new document but I haven't yet saved it. Let me save it to the desktop. Now that it is saved if I move my pointer over the Title you'll see the proxy icon appear. The same here in Pixelmator Pro. There's no Title Icon and it won't appear until I at least save that document. Now I can move my pointer over there and it will appear.
Now if you would rather have the proxy icon always be there you don't need to move the pointer to it you can go to System Preferences and go to Accessibility and then under Vision click on Display. There's a check box for Show Window Title Icons. This is something new in macOS Monterey. So if you have Big Sur then you're stuck with it only appearing when you move the pointer over the title. Now you can see it is there in Pixelmator and it is there CotEditor.
Now let's look at what you can do with these. These Title Icons, or as I said they were once called Proxy Icons, do act as a proxy for the actual icon in the Finder. So here I've got the actual file. When I drag this to certain places, like to another folder, it will move it. The Title Icon acts as a proxy for that. So you can do the same thing with this icon as you can with this. For instance, let me create a new finder window here and then go into a new folder. Then I've got these two folders open. Now let's say I want to move this file from here to here. I could drag and drop it there. But I could also use the Title Icon. I can click and drag that, move it here, and then watch as it disappears from here and it is moved to there. Behaves just like the icon in the Finder. Which is handy if you don't happen to be looking at it. So, for instance, if I have this closed and I'm working with this document here and I decide I want it to be in this folder here, I don't have to find the location of the file and open a new Finder window to show it. I can just drag the icon from the Title right into a new folder in the Finder. So you could also use this in other ways you would normally drag the File icon in the Finder. For instance, let's say I'm working on this document and I want to send a copy to somebody. I can drag this down into the Dock to the Mail app and what will happen is the same thing that would happen if I dragged the file to the Mail App in the Dock. You could see it appears here in a new Mail composition window. The same thing would happen if I dragged it straight to the window. So I could already be writing a message here, decide I want to attach this file. I can then drag the icon into the message. Here's a file in the Finder and as you would expect I should be able to drag this file, which is an image, into Pages here or into Mail or into any other app I want to import the file into. But I can also have this file Open say in the default app Preview, not have the Finder window for it opened at all, and use the Title Icon to do it. I can drag the Title Icon here into Pages and it imports it in. I can drag it into Mail like that, and if I have Messages App open and I want to add this to a message I could use the Title Icon for that as well. So basically the thing to remember is it works just like the icon in the Finder. You can use this to drag this document just as if it was a file icon into anything.
That just gives you some idea of the versatility of this. There's all sorts of other ways it can work as well. Now in the Finder with the folder being the document really you can use this to drag folders to different places. So, for instance, if I were to go into this folder, Miscellaneous here, and say I want to move the Miscellaneous folder somewhere else. Say I have another window open and I want to move Miscellaneous folder into Notes. Well, I would normally have to go UP one level with Command Up Arrow and then find it. Or I could Command click on the Title and go up a level. Then be at the level above the Miscellaneous folder in order to then drag it. But I could use the Title Icon to actually drag the folder that I'm showing. So if I wanted to place it here in Notes I could drag it like that and now you could see that folder is now contained inside of Notes.
This is handy for dragging an entire folder to the Trash. So, for instance, if I go in here and I say, yeah I don't need any of this and I don't want the folder, I don't have to Select All, Command A, Move toTrash, and then go up a level and then move the folder to the Trash. I could take this and drag the whole folder to the Trash.
You could also use this to create Aliases. You could drag this here and holding down Command and Option I create an alias to this folder. But let's say I'm inside the folder. I can use the Title Icon, the same command and option will work on it, and now I've created an alias to this folder without having to go up a level.
You can also use this in Open Dialogues. So, for instance, here I am trying to open something in Pages. It's asking me for the document. Let's say I want it to be something in here. I want to see all the options in here. So I can drag this right to the Open window there and you could see how it changes the location to Miscellaneous. So the same thing I would do if I were at this level and I would drag the folder to it. It's just that I don't have to go up a level first.
Now there's one other place where Title Icons appear that are really useful. That is in Info windows. So say I select a file like this and I use Command i or File, Get Info. It brings up the Info window. There's a Title Icon right here. I could drag that to represent the file instead of the file itself which is handy if you no longer have this Finder window open. So, for instance, if I'm looking at this. Maybe I have several Info windows open, I could drag this to the Mail app to attach it or drag it into Pages to insert it. You could also use it to move the file. So, for instance, it's located now in the Miscellaneous folder but if I happen to be looking here and I decide the file belongs there I can drag it there using the Title Icon. I can also duplicate the file by dragging. Just like you would with a file hold the Option key down and now it will create a duplicate of it. So that's a new copy. This is still showing the Info for the other copy which is in a different folder.
Now Title Icons are one of those features where you really don't need to use it. Plenty of Mac users go their whole lives without using it even once or even knowing its there. But other Mac users live by it. They use it all the time constantly to manipulate their files instead of always going to the Finder window. Either way I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 7 Responses to “Hidden Mac Tricks Using Title Icons”

Jonathan L

2 years ago

Another great video. I confirm Pixelmator pro shows the proxy icon, but Affinity Photo doesn't which is where I need it. I suspect Affinity has not followed some Apple standards :( Excel for MAC also does not seem to support this.

Ernie Gibbs

Wow. How many times have I used ⌘S to save a document only to have it go into an unwanted location. Now I can rectify that easily instead of going back out into Finder, hunting for it and then moving it from there.
I was not even aware of Proxy, or Title Icons. Just another little Mac trick with big advantages.

Simon C

Thanks Gary. More great tips on how to speed up my processes when using my Mac. I also noticed that you finder window was opening in a new window instead of tab. I found how to set this so an added bonus.

Emmanuel SCERRI

Thanks Gary. Useful indeed.

Michael

Thanks Gary. Every time I watch one of your tutorials I learn something new and useful. The is a topic I knew nothing about. Regards Michael

Ilan Aisic

Very useful, thanks!
Regarding the comment Jonathan L made, for me Excel and the other Office apps, do have the title icons. I'm using Office 365 (and Excel for Mac ver 16.64).

Learning something new from your videos once again. I'm kind of new to Mac OS and come to Macmost website often and I'm always learning something. Thank you.

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Hidden Mac Tricks Using Title Icons

Comments: 7 Responses to “Hidden Mac Tricks Using Title Icons”

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