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Drop Shelf

How the drop panel opens and how long the shelf keeps what you put on it.

While you drag a file, picture, text or link, a column of drop targets slides out. Each target is a macro, and the shelf holds what you drop on its tile.

What's here #

  • Use the Drop Shelf: the switch for the whole area. Off, Switchboard does not watch your drags, and the Shelf menu item goes away.

  • Open at the screen edge: Right, Left or Off.

  • Shake to open: shake the pointer left and right three times while dragging.

  • Close the shelf when it is empty: an empty shelf closes about a second and a half after a drag ends without a drop on it, or a few seconds after the pointer leaves it. A shelf with items stays until you take them out or press its close button (the x).

  • Where it appears: a small screen shows the drag target along the edge and where the column opens. Show on Screen flashes both on your display.

  • Clear the shelf: the shelf empties itself after sitting untouched for this long.

Tricks #

  • The drag target is a strip about 60 points deep, a little way in from the corners. A glow appears along the edge when the dragged item is within about 150 points and brightens as it gets closer, so the column opens before the pointer reaches the very edge and macOS switches Spaces.

  • The column and the shelf stay inside the part of the screen the Dock and menu bar leave, on the screen the pointer is on.

  • Esc closes the panel, and the shelf when it is the front window.

  • Shaking opens the column right next to the pointer, on the screen you are on; the edge opens it on its side.

  • Command-Delete clears the shelf. Files stay where they are; the shelf keeps a reference, and shows a Missing row if one moves.

  • File, New Drop Target makes your own target. The Drop targets group has four to start from.

More #