How to Customize OS X (Leopard) Sidebar on your Mac

Customizing the Sidebar in OS X (Leopard) is one way to really personalize your Mac. By default, the Sidebar is the blue-gray pane (see photo) at the left side of every Finder window and variations of 'Open' and 'Save' dialog boxes. The Sidebar list has been overhauled in Leopard to show as many as four sections with collapsible headings. The headings show 'DEVICES' (every storage device installed inside or connected to your Mac), 'SHARED' (other file-sharing computers on your network), 'PLACES' (folders storing files, etc and/or icon-shortcuts for anything [except disks], clickable for easy access) and 'SEARCH FOR' (special 'folders' that are actually pre-programmed, instant searches). Follow along with the steps in this article to personalize your Mac by customizing the appearance and functions of Leopard's Sidebar.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer running OS X 10.5

1. 
    
   You only need to 'ask'...

   Explore the standard 'PLACES' and 'SEARCH FOR' lists. Clicking any item in the lists produces instantaneous results of all applicable icon-shortcuts, folders and files under the indicated category.

2. 
    
   Instant shortcut list

   Begin to personalize your Mac by adding any application icon to the 'PLACES' list. Want to keep your OS X Dock uncluttered? Here's an easy way to have shortcuts available to any application you choose by using the Sidebar. Just drag and drop the icon from the Application folder and an alias-shortcut is added to the Sidebar; click it and the app instantly opens.

3. 
    
   Close it up FAST

   Close open devices in the Sidebar. Every storage device (hard-drive, USB flash drive, iPod, CD, etc.) installed inside or connected to your Mac shows up in the 'DEVICES' list. Click the (⏏) to the right of any DEVICE to close; if the device selected is a drive containing other volumes (see photo), you'll be given the choice to close one or 'all' volumes.

4. 
    
   'What did I do today?'

   Learn to use the Specialized Search feature. Clicking one of the special 'folder' in the 'SEARCH FOR' list will help you quickly locate a folder, document, application, etc.; selecting 'Today' for example, will fill the main window with every item that you've changed 'today'. This is a quick way to get back to that 'thing' you just did but cannot remember what (or where) you did it!

5. 
    
   Define terms

   Create your own Unique Specialized Search; you're about to create a self-updating folder that will perform a search for your personally specified criteria the instant you open it. It's always up to date and lightning fast. Follow along to create a SEARCH example that CANNOT BE REPLICATED IN ANY OTHER OPERATING SYSTEM. Open a Finder window, select 'File' then 'New Smart Folder' and the window opens; select 'File' again from the toolbar then 'Find' in the drop down menu.

6. 
    
   'Find' 'what', 'when'?

   Define your Search Criteria. Inside the new 'Searching' window, find the 'Kind' and 'Any' drop down menus. Select 'Last opened date' from the 'Kind' menu; select 'this week' from the 'Any' menu. CLICK SAVE. Name the folder something like, "Where's that THING I lost?"; make certain the 'Add to Sidebar' box is checked then 'Save' again.

7. 
    
   Oh. Wow!

   Use your new, personalized search. From now on you can simply click the 'Where's that THING I lost?' folder (or whatever you've named it) to reveal all the files you've worked on for the last week. They will SEEM to be all in one spot, just waiting for you; in reality the files are scattered all over your computer and network.
   
   Learning to customize the OS X (Leopard) Sidebar will make you more creative, more efficient and it will free up a lot of 'Dock' space. Using the Sidebar also makes disk-ejecting (DEVICE closing) easy and really simplifies disk-burning tasks. Try it; you'll like it.

Tips & Warnings

• Think creatively and the Sidebar will obey!
• Extended exposure to OS X (Leopard) may be hazardous to your Windows PC

Resources

• Apple 'Find Out How' Information

[irussell]

on 3/30/2009 Before reading this article I was not sure what the OS X (Leopard) was. Well detailed steps.