How to Create Desktop Shortcut on Mac

• Desktop shortcuts offer a convenient way of accessing your files and opening your applications. Shortcuts are like a “short” path for you to access the contents of a file or a program. macOS provides you with several easy ways to create desktop shortcuts on Mac, and we’re going to talk about those steps here in this article.

• The shortcuts contain links to a specific file. They point to a particular file’s location on your computer and contain pieces of information that request the system to open the related file. You can therefore access the content of this file directly from the desktop screen rather than doing so through the Finder.

 

How to Create Desktop Shortcuts on Mac?

• You have a couple of different ways to create desktop shortcuts on a Mac computer. Both of these methods are carried out by interacting directly with the main file/program.

By Making an Alias:

You have the option to “Make Alias” of a particular file or a program. Doing this will create a shortcut for that program. You can then rename, copy and paste this shortcut file on the desktop screen.

1.     Open Finder.

2.     Navigate to the location of the file you want to make a shortcut.

3.     Then, right-click that file and Make Alias.

4.     Alternatively, you can highlight that file and choose File > Make Alias from the Finder menu bar.

5.     Once you select this option, you’ll see a shortcut/alias of that file on that same location.

6.     Right-click on the shortcut file and rename it if you want to. Else, hit Copy.

7.     Then, go to the desktop screen.

8.     Right-click on an empty space and select Paste Item. You now have a desktop shortcut for this file. Also, you can follow these same steps to create a shortcut for anything you want to.

Through Option + Command Key  

The Option + Command key combination is like a hotkey to create a shortcut for any file. The core idea revolves around you holding these keys while you simultaneously drag and drop a particular file to the desktop screen.

Here are the exact steps you can follow:

1.     Open Finder in windowed mode.

2.     Navigate to the location of the file you want to make a shortcut.

3.     Hold Option + Command and select that particular file.

4.     While holding these keys, drag and drop that file on the desktop screen.

5.     Release the keys.
You’ll now see the shortcut on the desktop screen.

6.     If you want to, you can right-click on the alias and rename it as well.

How to Save a Web Shortcut on Mac?

On a Mac, you can also make a shortcut to a particular webpage and save it to the desktop screen. Once you do so, you can directly load that particular webpage without entering any web addresses. Hence, this method offers you a quick way to access your favorite websites. However, you’ll always need an internet connection to load that page.

No matter which browser you use, the process to do so is relatively similar. And here are the steps:

1.     Open your browser.

2.     Go to the webpage you want to save as a shortcut on your desktop.

3.     Right-click anywhere on that page and select Save As.
Some browsers have this option as Save Page As as well.

4.     On the pop-up tab, enter a name for this shortcut.

5.     Besides Where choose to save it on Desktop.