Since I added a Mac to my repertoire of workstations, I’m getting better and better about finding quick and easy ways to get around. Sooner or later, I’ll be just as efficient on my Mac as I am on my PCs.

One thing that I do to save a lot of time on the PC is to copy paths from the Explorer address bar, and paste them in on other places. I didn’t have a quick way to do anything similar on my Mac.

Today, I created a Service Workflow to help me out. (I’m not 100% sure about what makes something a workflow service yet, but this worked.)

From Automater, select New, and then select Service. Then, just make your settings like this:

You’ll probably need to click on the image to see it full-sized.

Then, chose Save, and name it something like “Copy Path to Clipboard.”

After that, you can right-click any file or folder, move the arrow down to the Services menu, and “Copy Path to Clipboard” is right there for you.

To do the reverse — open a box where you can type a known path — just use Command + Shift + G. I’m not nuts about having to memorize keyboard shortcuts, but I’m starting to get them, little by little.

Command + Shift + G even works in an “Open File” dialog in any app that you happen to be using. You don’t have to actually be in Finder itself.