Wednesday’s easy-peasy fix comes courtesy of reader Paul Sarlis, who writes:
With older versions of OSX I could grab a file that I saved to my Desktop and hold it over my hard drive icon. When I did that the hard drive would open so that I could place the file where I needed it. Is this option still available or is there a new way to do this?
Yes the option–called spring-loaded folders–is still there. In your case, it appears that it’s been switched off. To switch it on, choose Finder -> Preferences, click the General tab if it’s not already selected, and enable the Spring-Loaded Folders and Windows option. With the Delay slider below you can determine how long the Finder delays springing open a folder or volume after you’ve dragged an item to it.
Easy and peasy though this question and answer are, it’s a nice reminder of a feature that far too many people fail to use. If this spring-loaded thing is new to you, it works this way: Drag an item to a volume or folder and continue holding down the mouse button. The volume or folder will blink a couple of times and then its root folder will open. You can let go of the mouse button and the item will drop into this folder. Or, you can hold the item over yet another folder and, sure-as-shootin’, that folder will also blink and then open. Continue this process until you dig down into the folder you want to access.