Finder is a powerful app that you probably use every day on your Mac, but did you know that you can make it even more useful? By customizing Finder's toolbar, you can create shortcuts to your most used apps and folders or add useful buttons, so you have them all in one place. And the best part is that it will only take you a few clicks.

The toolbar is the row of buttons that appears at the top of every Finder window. Let's look at how you can customize the toolbar in Finder to make the app even more useful for you.

How to Add Apps and Folders to Finder's Toolbar

After you learn the basics of Finder, you'll probably want to start using the app to its full potential. After all, we all have many apps and folders on our Macs, but you probably want to keep your favorites close by for when you need them. And that's where Finder comes in. You can add different folders or apps to Finder's toolbar to access them whenever you want.

To add apps or folders, you'll first need to open Finder. You'll usually find it on your Dock, but you can also use your Mac's Spotlight Search to open it. Next, find the folder or app you want to add to your toolbar and press and hold the Command key. Finally, drag the item to the toolbar at the top of the Finder's window. Release the folder or app once you see a green plus icon.

Mac Finder open with folder on its toolbar

How to Change the Buttons on Finder's Toolbar

Besides adding apps and folders to your toolbar, you can also change the action buttons you see at the top of Finder. This is what you need to do:

  1. Open Finder on your Mac.
  2. Click View at the top of your screen.
  3. Go to Customize Toolbar.
  4. Finally, drag all the items you want into Finder's toolbar. Likewise, you can remove any item by dragging it out of your toolbar.
Customization menu for the Finder toolbar in macOS

As a final tip, you can also change the appearance of the items on Finder's toolbar. All you need to do is click the dropdown menu next to Show at the bottom of the window and select Icon and Text, Icon Only, or Text Only.

Menu for customizing Finder's toolbar on your Mac

How to Rearrange the Items on Finder's Toolbar

Adding different items to your toolbar is easy, but you can take it one step further by rearranging them however you want. To rearrange your items, all you need to do is press the Command key and drag the item on your toolbar to the left or right side. Once it's in the place you want, release the app or folder.

Mac Finder toolbar with icons rearranged

And that's it! If you want, you can also drag any app, button, or folder out of the toolbar and release it to get rid of it.

How to Go Back to the Default Finder Toolbar

If you don't like how your toolbar looks, you can go back to the original look by opening Finder and going to View > Customize Toolbar. Next, drag the default toolbar near the bottom of the window into your current toolbar.

Customize Finder However You Want

As you can see, there are many ways to customize Finder's toolbar on your Mac. You can add your favorite apps and your most useful folders, or completely change how your toolbar looks.

Of course, that's just the beginning. There are many other ways to completely customize Finder on your Mac.