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The Shelf

The Shelf is a small floating window that holds files. You put things on it during one drag and take them off during another, which solves the problem of needing a file in an app you have not opened yet.

Put something on it

Drag a file, hold ⌃, and release toward Shelf. The window appears with your file in it.

Add more the same way. The Shelf grows to fit, up to ten items without scrolling.

Take something off it

Drag it straight out of the Shelf and into wherever you want it: a mail compose window, a chat, a Finder window, an upload field in a browser.

Dragging one file out takes that file. The window itself stays put.

Why it exists

The usual reason is an attachment. You are writing an email and the file you want is in a folder four levels down. Without the Shelf you either open a Finder window and arrange it next to the mail window, or you go hunting through the attachment dialog.

With it you shelve the file whenever you happen to come across it, and attach it whenever you get to the email.

The other reason is collecting. Files from six different folders, gathered one at a time, then dragged out together as one selection.

Moving and closing it

Move it by dragging the window's background — not one of the files, which would drag that file out instead.

Close it with the close button on the window. Closing empties it: the next time you shelve something you start from nothing, rather than finding last Tuesday's files still sitting there.

The files themselves are untouched by any of this. The Shelf holds references, not copies — shelving a file does not duplicate it, and closing the Shelf does not delete anything.

Next

Tools, not conversions — the ⌥ ring.