Favorites

The Favorites feature, which was introduced in the first release of Mac OS X, enabled you to add frequently accessed items to a Favorites submenu under the Go menu, in Open and Save As dialogs, and in a Favorites folder in Finder window toolbars. In Mac OS X 10.3, Apple began phasing out the Favorites feature, encouraging users to take advantage of the Sidebar instead.

If you're already using the Favorites feature and don't want to give it up, read on to learn more about how it works.

Tips

• If you're brand new to Mac OS X or you are not already using Favorites, my advice is to skip this section. It's never a good idea to start using a feature that's being phased out.

• The Favorites feature works with aliases, which are discussed on the previous two pages.

• To take full advantage of Favorites, consider adding your Favorites folder to the Sidebar (Figure 32) or Dock (Figure 33) to make its contents more accessible. I explain how to add items to the Sidebar and Dock in Chapter 6.

  Figure 32. Adding the Favorites folder to the Sidebar is one good way to make Favorite items easily accessible.

  
  
  

  Figure 33. The Dock is another good place for the Favorites folder.

  

  
  

To add a favorite item

1.	In the Finder, select the icon for the item that you want to add as a favorite item (Figure 34). Figure 34. •Select the item that you want to add as a favorite item.
2.	Hold down and choose File > Add to Favorites (Figure 35), or press . Figure 35. Hold down and choose Add to Favorites from the File menu. The item is added to your Favorites folder (Figure 36). Figure 36. The item is added as an alias to the Favorites folder inside the Library folder in your Home folder.

Tip

• Favorite items are stored in the Favorites folder in the Library folder inside your home folder (Figure 36). You can learn more about your Home folder in Chapter 3.

To remove a favorite

1.	Open the Favorites folder in the Library folder inside your Home folder (Figure 36).
2.	Drag the item that you want to remove out of the window.
3.	Close the Favorites folder window.

Tip

• Once you have removed an item from your Favorites folder, you can delete it if you no longer need it. Remember, it should be an alias to another item on disk. Deleting it does not remove the original.