An alias is a link to any file or folder on your Mac that you access via the Finder. It retains the icon of its original with a curly arrow applied to the bottom left corner. Aliases are one approach to getting quick access to those items while maintaining a preferred organization in your file system.

Make Alias

The primary way to make an alias of an item is to select the item in the Finder and choose Make Alias from the File menu. Prior to macOS Mojave, the keyboard shortcut was Command+L, and it is now Control+Command+A.

Rename the resulting alias item if you wish and drag it where you want it to be. Open the alias to open the linked file or folder as if you had clicked the original.

Make & Move

Alternatively, you can make an alias while dragging an original to the preferred place. Just hold Command+Option before dropping the item.

You’ll see the cursor change to a curly arrow, just like the one on the resulting alias.

Best Practices

If you commonly store files on the Desktop but feel they might be better organized in the Documents folder, try putting an alias on the Desktop to one or more items you frequently open.

When an item is no longer “important,” you can trash the alias without a thought because the original is still safe where you stored it.

The Dock is another place to keep links to files and folders that you commonly access. However, unless you give Dock items different icons, they are often impossible to differentiate until you mouse over them to see their names.