Mac OS X: Drag and Drop Into File Dialog
Drag and drop works with file dialogs!
Posted on 2005-04-07 16:10 by Jørn Støylen [permalink]
A handy tip: The file (‘Open’, ‘Save As’) dialogs in OS X support drag and drop. Drag any item from Finder and drop it in a file dialog: If it’s a folder, you’ll navigate there. If it’s a file, the file will be selected in ‘Open’ dialogs, and in ‘Save As’ dialogs the file name will replace whatever is in the file name text field.
I discovered this while running a Photoshop action that requires me to find a file to open. There’s no way to avoid using the file dialog—which I don’t like very much, since it takes too many actions (mouse clicks and/or keystrokes) to navigate. I prefer double-clicking files, or selecting them with the keyboard and using Cmd+ArrowDown, or—if it has another application associated—drop it on Photoshop’s Dock icon.
But that’s not an option with actions. You have to use the file dialog. On a whim today, I tried dragging the file I wanted from its containing folder’s Finder window, since it was sitting there in plain view anyway. And it worked! I love it when things you expect to work actually does, in the exact way you expect. (For some reason I’m thinking of the song “All My Exes Live In Texas” from GTA:SA now…)
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