Customizing the Sidebar

In this lesson for macOS Mojave, I look at the different options there are with the sidebar in a Finder window on the Mac. The sidebar gives shortcuts to various folders, drives, and tags. We can customize what it shows in this sidebar including adding different folders and hiding categories altogether.

Rearranging the Side Bar
To rearrange the times in the sidebar of a Finder window, just drag them up or down. You can only move them within their section, so you can’t move a folder to tags, you can only move it within the folder section.

Selecting which items to show in the Sidebar
To choose which items you want in the sidebar, you need to go to Finder preferences. This is under Finder in the Menu Bar. A new window will open, select the Sidebar tab. You will see all the default folders you can have in the Sidebar. Just select the items you want in your Sidebar.

Adding Items via Drag and Drop
You can also add folders to the Sidebar by dragging and dropping. Just drag the folder you want in the sidebar where you want in the Sidebar.

Removing Items from the Side Bar
To remove an item, just drag it out of the sidebar. Once you drag it out far enough, you will see an ‘x’ under the cursor. When you see this, it will remove the item from the Sidebar.

Setting the Sidebar Icon Size
To set the size of the icons in the Sidebar, open the System Preferences under the Apple Menu. Select the General preference pane. From the dropdown next to Sidebar Icon Size, select the size you’d like the icons to be.

See this Lesson Action
To see this lesson in action, take a look at the video above.