The Finder’s sidebar to items you use frequently: Click on a sidebar folder, and the folder opens. You’ll find the same click-and-you’re-there convenience in every Open and Save dialog box. But it’s there I often notice a sidebar organizational problem. (“I need this new folder in the sidebar”; “This folder should be at the top now because I’m using it so much”; “I haven’t used that folder for weeks, it’s in my way.”)

Fortunately, the sidebar in an Open/Save dialog box is not merely a static reflection of the one you set up in Finder windows. Redesign the sidebar’s Places category from within a dialog box just as you would in the Finder. Add a folder by dragging it from the window’s list to a spot in the sidebar. Reorder items by dragging them up or down to new positions. Remove an item by dragging it out of the sidebar and letting go.

3. Save time by opening multiple items at once

You need to open three items in Microsoft Word, or two in Adobe InDesign, or any number in some other application. Unfortunately, you’re already in the Open dialog box and don’t want to switch into the Finder. No problem. If you can see the items you want to open, select all of them, and then press Return or click on the dialog box’s Open button to open all the files at once.

How you select multiple items depends on what (Icon, List, and Column) you’re using in the dialog box. (Change your view by clicking on the small buttons at the top of the dialog box, or by pressing Command-1, Command-2, or Command-3.) If you’re in List or Column view, you can click on the first item and then Shift-click on the last to select them and everything in between. Alternatively, Command-click to select noncontiguous items. In Icon view, you can also drag a selection rectangle around icons to select them, using a Shift-click afterward to add an item to, or remove it from, the selection.