Tidy Up Instantly: The Mac Shortcut You Didn’t Know You Needed

In this episode of the AppleVis podcast, Siddarth shares a quick and efficient way to organize multiple files into a single folder on a Mac using a simple shortcut. He demonstrates how to use VoiceOver to select documents around a specific topic—like “Holistic Education Development”—and instantly group them together by pressing Control + Command + N.

This episode is perfect for anyone wanting to simplify file management and save time when handling numerous documents. Listeners will gain practical tips to boost productivity with organizing documents, audio, and video files for easy access on their Mac.

If you’re looking to optimize your digital workspace, this episode offers invaluable insights. Tune in to learn and master this handy feature!

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Siddarth: Have you ever stuck in the situation where you have a lot of folders related to one particular topic or a concept and you wanted to group all those in one folder on your Mac? You might be coming across if you're not yet. In Mac, I have discovered an amazing feature that we can quickly create a single folder by selecting

Siddarth: the required files and upload it with one shortcut or one key. For example, if I have a subject called accessibility or if I have documents and audios and videos related to accessibility and I want to, instead of creating a folder and copying it and pasting it, I just want a quick handy way to just put all in the folder or an all in one folder. So,

Siddarth: I'll show you how can we do that on Mac with VoiceOver. Let's get started. Right, I'm on my desktop. I'll go to Documents, Command-Shift-O. So... All right.

Siddarth: So now here I have a lot of documents which I wrote for my University, my class test and all. So now I have a couple of documents here which has the name called head. That's HED. It calls holistic. Education development. So I want instead of copying all those or creating a separate folder and copying them and pasting it instead of doing that. I want to create. I want to just select those all.

Siddarth: files related to HED and put it in one single folder so that it will be easy for me to access it whenever I need. So how can we do that? Let me interact here. Okay, I'll go Vivo down arrow.

Siddarth: I have a document here. Let me just select it with Vivo command enter.

Siddarth: right let me leave the command key and vivo down arrow i have again head test let me press again with the i'm not leaving my vivo keys i'm just uh holding my vivo keys and i just lifted my finger after selecting the command key let me press command and again i perform the same thing vivo command enter

VoiceOver: Two items selected.

Siddarth: Again, I leave the key.

VoiceOver: Add test pages document.

Siddarth: This is a pages document. So let me select this.

VoiceOver: Add test pages document. Added to selection three items selected.

Siddarth: I'm pressing down arrow here.

VoiceOver: Add test 01022025 Microsoft Word document.

Siddarth: OK. I also select this.

VoiceOver: Add test 01022025 Microsoft. Add test 01022025 pages document.

Siddarth: This is a pages document.

VoiceOver: Five items selected.

Siddarth: Now if I go one more down. This is the last document. I'll also select this, the sixth document.

Siddarth: And if I go down again. No, I don't want this. So now I have almost six files, which starts with head, H-E-D.

Siddarth: Now I lift my keys from Vivo and I'll hit one magical key. That's Control Command N. So let us hit. Let's see what will happen. Control Command N.

VoiceOver: No folder with selection. Six items.

Siddarth: Wow. So we heard it. New folder with selection. Six items. Right. So let us navigate here with Vivo down arrow and up arrow. What we get.

VoiceOver: Second new folder. Letter. New folder.

Siddarth: Okay, new folder with items folder. This is the folder. So I'll just quickly hit enter on it and I'll just change.

VoiceOver: I'll just type H-E-D. H-E-D.

Siddarth: Right. So if I just interact here or if I just... All right. Let me find it.

VoiceOver: Head folder.

We don't have any H-E-D test 2025.

Siddarth: No, no files here.

VoiceOver: H-E-D folder.

Siddarth: if i hit ctrl option space table list view and let's see all the files

Siddarth: Amazing. So we have all these six files. So I thought it's pretty interesting instead of copying and pasting, so we can just copy whatever files we need. For example, if I'm having any tutorial from an XYZ person on using Keynote on Mac instead of creating, or if there are files like 30, 40, 50 files, I can just simply select them, add it to my selection list, and hit that magical key command

Siddarth: Control Command N and boom that will put all your selected folders into one single folder and you can just rename it and yes that's it hope this is useful and do let me know what you felt about this and I hope you have learned something through this short demonstration thank you so much Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.