Customize the Finder Sidebar: macOS Sierra

Finder Sidebar comes handy when you want to have quick access to folders, files or apps that you regularly use. While speaking of the quick access to often used items, of course, you will want to customize it to meet your needs.

There is a toolbar for the finder window on the top. You can update your preferences for the finder here. Here we will see customizing the sidebar at the left of the finder.

Hide/Show Sidebar:

Yes, you can even hide it when you want.
To hide the sidebar,

• From the toolbar, choose: View -> Hide Sidebar
• Shortcut: Option + Command + S

To show the sidebar,

• From the toolbar, choose: View -> Show Sidebar
• Shortcut: Option + Command + S

Resize the sidebar:

Drag the divider line on the right of the sidebar horizontally(left/right) to suit your requirement.

Decide what is in the sidebar:

From the toolbar, Preferences -> SidebarChoose, then select or deselect items. It will be something like this:

You can also drag in an item to add it or drag out to remove it. Don’t worry, the item will not be deleted from the storage, it will only be removed from the sidebar.

If you uncheck everything from a heading, let’s say Devices, it will be removed from the sidebar completely.

However, to add an application to the sidebar, you need to hold the Command key while dragging the app to your sidebar.

To rearrange item in the sidebar, just drag it to the new position. Other items will automatically make room for themselves. Shared section items cannot be rearranged.