Two random macOS tricks I had never heard about

TidBITS Talk
1

Maybe it’s just me, but I recently (by accident) learned two different little tricks that make macOS more useful and I realized I had never heard about this. Apologies if everybody already knew about these.

  1. If you’re in an app’s Preview’s open dialog (in column view) and you double-click on a folder, the app will open every file in that folder that it can.

  2. In Safari you can use the exact same modifier keys on your favorites in the Favorite Bar as for any link on a webpage. Opt-click will download source, cmd-click will open in a background tab, cmd-shift will open in a foreground tab, and opt-cmd-shifty will open in new window (the latter will depend on your choice in Safari > Settings > Tabs).

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2

#1 does not work for me. It just opens the folder and shows what’s inside it (tried it in Pages & Keynote)

3

Interesting. Seems to be Preview only.

4

Hmm. Doesn’t work for me in Preview, either.

5

Nor for me. And why on earth would anyone implement such a thing? Double-clicking a folder in the Open dialog has opened the folder in that dialog since the dawn of time (well, 1984).

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7

It works for me, in Preview. But only if the Open dialog is in Column View.

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8

There is another view? :laughing:

9

#1 does works for me as described. Very strange behaviour and very annoying. It opens also files in subfolders.
Preview: Version 11.0 (1056.5.1) on Sonoma 14.4. Default Folder is also active (if that might have something to do with it?).
I’ve not tried #2 yet.
@Simon: which MacOS and which version of Preview?
Kind regards, Peter

10

macOS 14.4 and Preview 11.0

11

Aha! Works for me in Column View (14.4 / 11)

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