Copying and pasting the path within Finder

Question

I've recently moved to the Mac from Windows as my primary machine. One feature I'm really missing is the ability to quickly navigate between folders. I used to do this under Windows by copying the path from one Explorer window and pasting it into a file open/save dialog or another Explorer window.

I can't work out anyway of doing this with the Finder and am getting frustrated by the reduced efficiency of navigating the interface. The best I've been able to do is make Finder show the path on a window, but that still doesn't let me copy and paste it into a dialog.

I did try the app Path Finder but that doesn't seem to do it either and also doesn't seem to integrate with the file open/save dialogs.

Does anyone know if this is a possibility or another way I can more easily navigate around?

Answer 1

FileUtils is a contextual (right-click) finder plugin that, among other things, allows one to copy the path of items to the clipboard.

Then you can press command-shift-G to have a "Go to folder" dialog appear where you can paste. This shortcut works in any standard open/save dialog on the Mac.

You can also drag a folder to the open/save dialogs (so the cursor has a green + symbol), which will change the dialog to that folder. This also works with the little icons in the Finder window title bar (called "Proxy icons" often), and is probably going to be faster than copy-pasting paths.

Answer 2

This may not directly answer your question, but I find these useful:

• You can drag and drop the folder icon next to the folder name in the Finder. You can drop it in an Open/Save dialog
• Command-click the icon in the Finder window to get a list of all the folders "up" the tree
• Enable the Path Bar (in the view menu)

And you might find this a good page describing how best to use the Finder. In general, I think that it's best to not treat it like the Windows Explorer. It can do much of the same stuff but it does work differently.

Answer 3

Typing a / character into the Open and Save dialogs displays a dialog to enter a path.

Answer 4

Drag a file or folder into terminal and the path appears.

Answer 5

By far the easiest way I have found is to right click on the folder/file that you wise to copy the path from and hold the command key whilst still holding right click down. You will see in the context-window a new option: Copy (item name) as Pathname

So to recap Right Click + OPTION

Answer 6

I'm the curmudgeonly old unix guy on a mac.

I spend most of my time in Terminal (or shells within Emacs). If there's something I want to look at in Finder, I type "open ." which opens the current directory in Finder.

There's also some magic you can do with the column view. See How to Quickly Navigate Column View for a description and video.

Answer 7

You can try pasting your path on the address bar of Safari and this will open up the directory for you. (as long as it exists.). Just make sure to precede your path with "file:///". i.e "file:///Users"

Answer 8

Try muCommander, it's a free cross platform file manager (OSX, Windows, Linux) with dual panes displaying the folder path above each pane which can be copied, or right click a file and select "Copy Path".

Used in conjunction with the command-shift-G "Go to folder" in dialog boxes and you're back to quickly navigating between folders.

(ps. works in Lion)

Answer 9

WORKS FROM WITHIN DIALOGS:

1. Get path name: right click then press option to show 'copy [file or folder] as pathname'

then 2. cmd+shift+G for 'go to folder, paste the path there. BOOM

Answer 10

Default Folder X allows you to "command up/down" arrow from within open and save dialogue windows to the last several locations accessed. It's brilliantly fast and I get extremely frustrated when I switch to a Mac that doesn't have it. --really should be incorporated into the OS by now...