Things you didn't know you could do on the Mac when saving files

You can do a lot more than enter a filename when saving a file or opening one on the Apple Mac. There are hidden features that you may not have discovered and functions you didn’t know existed.

The Save or Open windows that appear in applications has a lot more features than you realise and you can easily perform a variety of file management tasks that would normally be done in a Finder window.

Basically the Save and Open windows are powered by Finder, so tasks you normally perform in Finder often work in these windows too. Let's take a look at some of the things you can do.

Related: How to customise folder icons in Finder and on the desktop

1 Switch menu options

Many apps have hidden menu functions and the familiar TextEdit app is an example. Click the File menu and there is just a Save option with no Save As in sight. What if you want to save the document with a different name?

Hold down the Option key and some items on menus switch to provide alternative functions. In TextEdit Duplicate becomes Save As and the document can be saved under a different name.

Different apps behave in different ways, so try holding down the Option key and see what changes.

2 Hide a file when saving

The . (dot, full stop or period) character is special in macOS and it is used to indicate that a file or folder is hidden. If a dot is put at the start of the filename of the document, it will not appear in Finder, Open or Save windows. It is hidden.

Hide files from any app, not just TextEdit, but naming it .Secret-Document or whatever you want.

3 Show hidden files

After hiding a file, how would you open it if you cannot see it? Simply show hidden files. In the Open or Save window, press Shift+Cmd+. (dot/period). Invisible files or folders beginning with a dot become visible so you can open them.

Hide files again by pressing Shift+Cmd+.

4 File management tasks

Ctrl+click any file or folder in a Save or Open window and a menu is displayed with file management tasks. The item can be renamed, moved to the trash, duplicated and Quick Look used to view it.

Tags can also be assigned to files and folders from within Open/Save windows too. Ctrl+click the item and then click the tag to add.

5 Drag and drop

If you need to organise the files and folders in the Open/Save window, drag and drop works just the same as in Finder windows

You can even drag files and folders to items in the sidebar, such as your home folder, Documents, Downloads and so on.

6 Add tags to the file

You can, of course, use the Tags box at the top to add tags to the file being saved. In a previous tip the tags were applied to a file or folder selected in the window.

Is there anything else you can do in Open/Save windows?

7 Change the file/folder view

One more thing you can do is to add or remove columns in list view. Ctrl+click a column header, such as Name, and a menu is displayed showing all the possible attributes. Select an attribute to add the column.

Adding the Date Last Opened or Date Created could be useful when opening a file and you can't work out which one to open. Click a column header to sort the files and folders by that attribute.