Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

App for collecting file/folder shortcuts in menubar?

macstatic

macstatic

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 21, 2005
2,033
168
Norway
Is there an app which lives in the menubar which allows quick access to files/folders you're working with?

It would be nice if I could drag a file or folder to somewhere in the menu-bar, a "tray" or something would pop out and you'd drop it there, which would create a shortcut. Furthermore, it would be great if I could somehow organize those shortcuts by putting them in categories etc.

Since I work on many projects at once using my Mac, this would be ideal for gaining access to stuff without messing up the desktop, and also for keeping track of which projects you need to attend to.

Unclutter appears to be close to what I'm looking for, except it moves the files/folders to a specific location instead of just creating a shortcut (this is an issue because backing up the computer will always take a long time when moving around files/folders like that whereas a shortcut wouldn't do that).
It also doesn't allow for any organizing.

Are there any apps which do this sort of thing (or something even better)?
I'm on OSX 10.9.5 so it would be preferrable to work with this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0002378
Thanks, but are there any free or trial versions of similar apps available?
I'm not able to try out the above as they're all from the App store.
 
I use DefaultFolder for this. It's not cheap, but it does so much. It's the first thing I've installed on any new Mac I use since the days before Mac OS X.

It will allow you to assign keyboard shortcuts to folders that work in any app dialog box, and in the Finder itself. And yes, it does have a menubar icon to allow access to files & folders, as well as a button for Finder Windows.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg of what DefaultFolder can do. I suggest you give the trial version a run through.

If you're just looking for a simple freebie, try Apptivate. (Be warned: Apptivate works perfectly with Sierra, but it hasn't been updated in a long time, and not sure it ever will be again).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Michaelgtrusa
Or use the tabs feature of Finder (but not sure if osx10.9 has this). Create a project folder and open a tab to that folder. You can then drag files (or aliases with Command Option drag) to a tab and, later, click on that tab to access all the files.
 
  • Like
Reactions: organicCPU
Believe it or not, I wrote an app that does exactly this ! I call it Drawer. It lives in the menu bar. It contains shortcuts that can be organized into "compartments". The shortcut can point to anything - any kind of file/app or even folder. Clicking on an item will open it in its default application.

Unfortunately, currently, the dragging and dropping part is not done. I configure my shortcuts in a config file, and the app loads items from that file.

If you're really eager about this kind of app, let me know, and I will try to finish it. It shouldn't take too much more work to get it working the way you want it to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Michaelgtrusa
maculateConception said:
Believe it or not, I wrote an app that does exactly this ! I call it Drawer. It lives in the menu bar. It contains shortcuts that can be organized into "compartments". The shortcut can point to anything - any kind of file/app or even folder. Clicking on an item will open it in its default application.

Unfortunately, currently, the dragging and dropping part is not done. I configure my shortcuts in a config file, and the app loads items from that file.

If you're really eager about this kind of app, let me know, and I will try to finish it. It shouldn't take too much more work to get it working the way you want it to.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a great app! I would love to see this make into production. How soon can you have it? Can it be tested now?
 
Michaelgtrusa said:
Sounds like a great app! I would love to see this make into production. How soon can you have it? Can it be tested now?
Click to expand...

I think it would take me a few days to finish it. The other thing is ... it was originally written in Swift v2.0 on an older OS X version. To work on it now, I would have to first upgrade it to Swift v3.0. It shouldn't be too much work, but ... yeah.

Let me take a look at it and see what I can come up with. I'm working on a couple of other (much larger) projects too, so I don't know how much time I can devote to this, but ...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Michaelgtrusa
maculateConception said:
I think it would take me a few days to finish it. The other thing is ... it was originally written in Swift v2.0 on an older OS X version. To work on it now, I would have to first upgrade it to Swift v3.0. It shouldn't be too much work, but ... yeah.

Let me take a look at it and see what I can come up with. I'm working on a couple of other (much larger) projects too, so I don't know how much time I can devote to this, but ...
Click to expand...
Ok thanks.
 
macstatic said:
Is there an app which lives in the menubar which allows quick access to files/folders you're working with?

It would be nice if I could drag a file or folder to somewhere in the menu-bar, a "tray" or something would pop out and you'd drop it there, which would create a shortcut. Furthermore, it would be great if I could somehow organize those shortcuts by putting them in categories etc.

Since I work on many projects at once using my Mac, this would be ideal for gaining access to stuff without messing up the desktop, and also for keeping track of which projects you need to attend to.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but you can check out my app, File Cabinet Pro. You can try File Cabinet Lite on the Mac App Store for free.

Edit: Sorry, I just realized you said you are on 10.9.5. FCP requires 10.10 or later right now. You might want to check it out anyway though!
 
Last edited:
Doesn't live in the menu bar, but here is how I deal with that in my dock.
- Create a folder named something like Apps, e.g. at users -> shared
- Fill the folder with aliases for files and/or folders you like (Command + Alt + Drag'n'Drop)
- Place the folder at the dock next to the Downloads folder (make sure to right click the folder and choose -> display content -> list)
- Enjoy fast navigation
 
Several good suggestions and nice apps there. Thanks guys!
But none of them seem to work for me unfortunately.

OrganicCPU's suggestion above ended up as the simplest and most effective solution. I want to add to the above instructions that I created some new subfolders for the different project categories which I further filled up with aliases. That keeps things neat and also allows me to just fill in aliases of the files/folders I actually need to use most often -not aliases to the entire projects (which is just too much).

May I ask why you suggested I put the folder inside /Users/Shared ?
I've never used the "Shared" user folder and frankly don't know what it's for.
 
macstatic said:
May I ask why you suggested I put the folder inside /Users/Shared ?
Click to expand...
Actually you add the alias folder to whatever location that makes sense to you.
To add that folder to 'shared' makes it easily and hassle free accessible for all other users of your Mac, too (including guest users). This setup should be ideally for families sharing stuff or if you have more than one user account. From the security perspective and in a business or public place setup, that behavior probably isn't desired and you may want to place the alias folder at your specific user folder or at some other location that only you or the person(s) you want to share your shortcuts with can access.
 
That's cool MacGizmo!
I just tried out Xmenu and by right-clicking in its menu-bar icon I selected "Open folder in Finder", then created an alias of everything in the folder I already had created for this purpose. So now I have access to all my often used folders and files both in the menu-bar and the dock! Excellent!

OrganicCPU: thanks for explaining the Shared folder. Sounds useful, but I just need to access those files/folders myself, so I've put the new folder (with its sub-folders (for categorizing) and all the aliases) in my documents folder, which works great for my use. Makes life a whole lot easier!
 
  • Like
Reactions: organicCPU
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back