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- #How to make shortcut on mac desktop how to
- #How to make shortcut on mac desktop archive
- #How to make shortcut on mac desktop code
You can then move the alias (by dragging or copying/pasting) to almost any location you’d put a file or folder into, including your desktop or the special quick-launch area of the Dock beside the Trash. Type in a new name now, or just hit Return. Its name will be highlighted, which means that you can quickly rename it to anything you like. Once you create an alias, it will appear right beside the original item. Here’s what it looks like to make an alias using the right-click menu. Try them all out, and you’ll soon use whichever option you feel most comfortable with. Right-Click: Right-click an item in Finder or Desktop with your mouse or trackpad and select “Make Alias” from the list.Īny one of those three options will yield the same result.Keyboard: Select the file or folder and press Ctrl+Command+A on your keyboard.Menu Bar: Select the file or folder and choose File > Make Alias from the menu bar at the top of the screen.Once you’ve found it, there are three ways to make an alias: Open a new Finder window and browse to the location of the file or folder you’d like to make a shortcut to. First, click the Finder icon on your Dock to bring it to the foreground.
#How to make shortcut on mac desktop how to
RELATED: How to Create Desktop Shortcuts on Windows 10 the Easy Way How to Make a File or Folder Alias on a Mac When you open an alias by clicking it, the original item opens normally-just as you’d expect it to. An alias can point to a target on your local Mac or on a network machine.Īliases are handy because you can use them to quickly open a frequently used file or folder without always having to root through folders to find it. They’re also dynamic, which means that they will still link to the file or folder, even if you change the original item’s location. Aliases are similar to shortcuts in Windows and symbolic links in Linux. CFErrorRef error = NULL ĬFURLRef aliasFile = CFURLCreateWithString(NULL, CFSTR("file:///Users/msl/Desktop/Terminal%20Alias"), NULL) ĬFURLRef targetFile = CFURLCreateWithString(NULL, CFSTR("file:///Applications/Utilities/Terminal.On a Mac, an alias is a special type of file that points to a file or folder.
#How to make shortcut on mac desktop code
Here is the C code required to create a bookmark (you'll need to specify -framework CoreFoundation to the command line flags for the compiler if you are compiling from the command line, or otherwise add the CoreFoundation framework to your project in Xcode). Try that first and if that suffices, don't bother with the more complicated Alias Manager or CFURLCreateBookmarkData. In fact, you may even be able to just use the POSIX symlink to create a shortcut. If you want to make an alias, have a look at the Alias Manager reference, or if you are targeting 10.8 or later, you can use CFURLCreateBookmarkData instead. is similar to the Unix symbolic link, but with the distinction of working even if the target file moves to another location on the same disk However, as far as functionality goes, both should work as a way of placing a link on the desktop to an item in another location.įinally, take note of this distinction between the POSIX ln and alias before deciding if ln is suitable for your situation:.
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#How to make shortcut on mac desktop archive
Using ln, the created link is identified as "xar archive - version 1", whereas the UI alias creates a file which is "alias: data". if you use the ' file' command on the two.
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Note that the alias created with the UI is not exactly the same as that created by ln, as you can see when linking to a pkg (installer) file. So what you could do is create a symbolic link to the source item with a call to the ln function, which may be the same as the symlink function call.
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If you use the terminal and create a symbolic link to an item on the desktop, you'll see that it creates a similar 'alias'. As has been mentioned, by it's an alias that you would be creating at least, this is what the UI provides when you right-click on an item:.
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