Make a Finder "Start Folder"

Recently, I stumbled up the idea of a Finder homepage. You see, when I open up a new Finder window, there's only a few folders I actually want to get at. Now, if these few folders were in my Home folder, that would be fine. However, they aren't. So, instead of manually going to those folders every time, I decided to find a better way, and I did: a "Start Folder"

What I did is I made a folder full of aliases to Folders and Documents that I wanted to access. I used my ~/Library/Favorites folder instead of creating a new one. An advantage to this that I hadn't thought of is that you can use Cmd-Shift-T to add a file to your Start Folder without manually dragging it.

If you want to do the same thing as I did, here are a few things you should do.

1: Add your Start Folder to your Finder window sidebar.

Why? Because if you don't, it'll look like this:



But if you do, it'll look like this:



Also, you can then easily access it from Open/Save dialogs.


2: Use Aliases

This makes sure that your files stay in one place. Also, if you move your Desktop to your Favorites folder, you're going to run into some major issues.

To easily add an alias to your Start Folder, Click and drag the file to your Start Folder, but before you drop it on, hold Cmd-Option to make it drop on an alias.

If you're using your favorites folder, you can just select the item and hit Cmd-Shift-T.


3: Make Your Start Folder The Start Folder

Go to Finder's preferences (Cmd-,). Click on the General tab and change the "New finder windows open:" menu to your Start Folder.




4: Ideas of stuff to add.

If you're reading this, then you probably have an idea of what you would like to add to your Start Folder. Here are two suggestions:

/Volumes/

This one can be really handy if you try to keep your fingers on the keyboard. To add it, open a new Finder window and hit Cmd-Shift-G (or click on the Go menu and select "Go to Folder...") Then, type in "/Volumes/". Finally, add that folder to your Start Folder.
The idea behind using your Volumes folder is that this lists all the volumes connected to your computer, thus making it easy to access them without taking your fingers off the keyboard.

Your Hard Drive

This one may only apply to a small number if people, but it's really nice to be able to access your entire boot HD quickly. To add this one, hit Cmd-Shift-C to jump to your Computer and then Cmd-Option drag your boot HD to your Start Folder.



These are just some ideas of what you can do with a Start Folder. Here are three other things you might want to read if you plan on doing this:


Another use for your Favorites folder.
Why you should use column view. (Especially for your Start Folder.)
If you decide to use Column view, here's how to make it permanent.