MaBaSoft
Table of contents

# Use the Special menu

With the Special menu you can browse volumes, folders, and documents, preview images, songs, and movies, eject and mount disks, and more.

## To show the Special menu:

Click the yellow button in the menu panel or menu bar or, if you have enabled it, press the Special menu keyboard shortcut.

Use the menu panel to display menus
Show Application Wizard in the menu bar
Use keyboard shortcuts to display menus

Special menu items are described below. To add or remove items from the Special menu, open the Application Wizard pane in System Preferences and click Menus. Click the Customize Menus button and click Special.

Customize the Special menu

Volumes

Volumes let you browse disks, open items, preview documents, and view information about files. You can choose what types of volumes (hard disks, external disks, removable media, connected servers, inactive disks) appear in the menu.

Volumes also allow you to eject disks, partitions, or servers and mount ejected disks.

Eject and mount disks

Home, Documents, Desktop, and Downloads

These submenus let you quickly access the items in your home folder and in the Documents, Desktop, or Downloads folder.

Library

This submenu lets you access the items in the Library folder in your home folder. The Library folder contains files used by macOS and your applications, including your preferences, and is hidden.

Note: If you have added the Home item to the Special menu, you can also open or browse the Library folder by holding down the Option key while displaying the Home submenu.

Recent Folders

This submenu lets you quickly access the folders you have recently opened or browsed using the Special menu and the folders you have recently opened using the Finder.

The Finder recent folders are listed alphabetically, while the Application Wizard recent folders are listed from the most recent one to the oldest one.

To change the number of the Application Wizard recent folders, use the Number of Application Wizard Folders/Number of Folders submenu at the bottom of the Recent Folders submenu.

To clear the Application Wizard recent folders, choose Clear Menu from the Number of Application Wizard Folders/Number of Folders submenu.

To hide the Finder recent folders, choose Hide Finder Folders from the Recent Folders submenu.

Recent Documents

This submenu lets you open documents that you have used recently.

By default, recent documents are sorted alphabetically. To list them from the most recent one to the oldest one, choose Sort Chronologically from the submenu. To change the number of recent documents, use the Number of Documents submenu at the bottom of the Recent Documents submenu.

To clear the Recent Documents submenu, choose Clear Menu from the Number of Documents submenu. Clearing the Recent Documents submenu also deletes documents from the Recent Items submenu in the Apple menu.

Recent Servers

This submenu lets you connect to servers that you have used recently.

By default, recent servers are sorted alphabetically. To list them from the most recent one to the oldest one, choose Sort Chronologically from the submenu. To change the number of recent documents, use the Number of Servers submenu at the bottom of the Recent Servers submenu.

To clear the Recent Servers submenu, choose Clear Menu from the Number of Servers submenu. Clearing the Recent Servers submenu also deletes servers from the Recent Items submenu in the Apple menu.

Contacts

The Contacts submenu allows you to look up contact information, create email messages, view social network profiles, invite contacts to a chat, copy mailing labels, map addresses, and create vCards.

Access your contacts

Aperture Library

This submenu lets you browse your Aperture projects, preview photos, view metadata and keywords, and copy photos to the Clipboard.

Browse your Aperture library

iPhoto Library

This submenu lets you browse your iPhoto library, open albums, preview photos, view ratings, keywords, and metadata, and copy photos to the Clipboard.

Browse your iPhoto library

Folders, smart folders, and files

You can add frequently used folders, smart folders, and files to the Special menu, so that you can quickly access them.

System Memory

This submenu lets you check system memory usage.

You can view physical memory allocation, swap space, and virtual memory statistics and open Activity Monitor to learn more about the processes running on your computer and their memory usage.

Uptime

This submenu lets you view the time elapsed since you last restarted your computer.

Quit Finder, Launch Finder, and Relaunch Finder

These commands let you quit, launch, and quit and automatically relaunch the Finder.

To force the Finder to quit, hold down the Option key while displaying the Special menu.

Relaunch Dock

This command lets you quit and automatically relaunch the Dock application.

To force the Dock to quit and relaunch it, hold down the Option key while displaying the Special menu.

Lock Screen

This command lets you lock your screen while you are away from your computer, keeping your applications and documents open.

Sleep

This command lets you put your computer to sleep.

Restart, Shut Down, and Log Out

These commands let you restart or shut down your computer, and log out of your account immediately, without displaying a confirmation message.

Note: Windows will be restored or not when you log back in depending on whether the ”Reopen windows when logging back in” checkbox was selected or deselected when the confirmation message was last displayed. To show the confirmation message, hold down the Option key while choosing Restart, Shut Down, or Log Out.