How to Keep Files Handy on a Mac: A Shelf for Drag and Drop

October 29, 2026 · 6 min read

You found the file in one Finder window, but the place it has to go is behind three other windows, in an app running full screen, or in an email you haven't started yet. Or you need five files from four different folders for a single upload. Drag and drop works when the file and its destination are both on screen; the rest of the time, you juggle windows with the mouse button held down.

The fix is a shelf: a small holding area where you drop files on the way, then drag them out once you reach the place they go. macOS doesn't have one built in. Apps such as Yoink and Dropover add one, and Folia Files has its own, the Shelf, in three places: the right sidebar of its window, a drawer that slides out from the edge of the screen over any app, and a panel next to Open and Save dialogs.

The Folia Files window with the trip photos as icons and, in the right sidebar, the Shelf holding seven files from four folders, each with its folder under its name

What macOS lets you do without a shelf

A few built-in moves get a drag to a window you can't see:

Switch apps mid-drag. Keep the mouse button or the trackpad pressed, press ⌘Tab to bring the other app forward, then drop the file in its window.
Spring-loaded folders. Hold a dragged file over a folder in the Finder and the folder opens under the pointer, then the next one; press Space to open it at once.
The Dock. Drop a file on an app's icon in the Dock to open it with that app.
Copy and paste instead. Select the files, press ⌘C, go to the destination and press ⌘V for a copy, or ⌥⌘V in the Finder (Move Item Here) to move them. This guide to copying, cutting and pasting files covers the details.

None of these holds files for later. The usual workaround is the Desktop, but dragging a file there from a folder on the same disk moves it out of that folder, and the Desktop fills up with files you then have to put back.

What a shelf adds

A shelf keeps a list of files without changing them. You gather files from several folders one by one, carry them across windows, Spaces and full-screen apps, and drop them all at once where they belong. It's also handy for the few files you attach again and again, like a contract or a price list.

Third-party shelf apps work this way: Yoink appears at the edge of the screen as soon as you start dragging, and Dropover opens a floating shelf when you shake the pointer. This comparison of Folia Files with Yoink and Dropover lists what each one does.

The Shelf in Folia Files

Put files on the Shelf

Drag files or folders onto it, from a Folia Files pane, the Finder or any other app.
In a pane, select files and choose File › Add to Shelf (⇧⌘S), or right-click and choose Add to Shelf. The Shelf appears if it was hidden.
Click + under the list (Add Selection from Active Pane) to add what is selected in the active pane.
Text, pictures, web links and files promised by apps such as Mail, Photos or Safari aren't files yet: Folia Files saves them in your Downloads folder, then puts them on the Shelf.
From other apps, Share › Folia Files adds the shared files, and Shortcuts has a Put on Folia Files Shelf action.

What the Shelf keeps

The Shelf keeps references, not copies: adding a file moves nothing and takes no space. Each item shows the file's name with its folder underneath. If you move or rename the file, the item follows it; a file that no longer exists is dimmed and marked Not found. The Shelf holds up to 5,000 items and is still there the next time you open Folia Files.

Remove from Shelf (⌫) and Clear Shelf only take items off the list. As the confirmation says, the files aren't deleted, only removed from the shelf.

Take files off the Shelf

Drag items to another app, a Finder window, a Folia Files pane or a folder. Dropped in a folder, they follow the Finder's rule: moved on the same disk, copied to another disk; hold ⌥ to copy. In an email or an upload page, the app receives the file as usual.
Copy Selection to Active Folder and Move Selection to Active Folder, the buttons under the list, send the selected items to the folder open in the active pane.
Right-click an item for Open, Show in Enclosing Folder, Show in Finder, Preview, Copy Path and Remove from Shelf. Space shows it in Quick Look.

Items stay on the Shelf after you drag them out, so the same contract can go into three emails. Clear the Shelf when you're done.

One Shelf in three places

It's the same list everywhere: put a file on the Shelf in the window, pick it up from the drawer or next to an Open dialog.

In the window's right sidebar

View › Show Right Sidebar (⌥⌘E) opens the right sidebar, where the Shelf is one of the modules, with Info below it by default. The Modules button above the sidebar adds or removes modules; the Shelf can also sit under the left sidebar's list or fill a pane of its own.

Over any app: the drawer

Press ⌃⌥E from any app, or push a file you're dragging against the right edge of the screen: the Drawer slides out over the app you're in, without taking the focus from it. It shows the Shelf, the drawer's own favorites and the clipboard history; AirDrop and Search can be added. Drop a file on one of its favorite folders to file it there (⌥ to copy). A click elsewhere or ⎋ closes it, and the pin, Keep open when I click elsewhere, keeps it on screen.

The Folia Files drawer out of the right edge of the screen, next to the window: the Shelf with its seven files and its buttons, the drawer's favorites and the clipboard history

In Settings › Drawer, pick the Screen side (left, right, top or bottom), turn off Opens when I push a file against this edge of the screen, or turn on Opens when the mouse reaches this edge. The drawer page shows everything it holds.

Next to Open and Save dialogs

When an app shows an Open or Save dialog, the Folia Files assistant docks a panel beside it, with a Shelf section under its list of folders. In an Open dialog, a click on a file selects it in the dialog; a click on a folder takes the dialog there; in a Save dialog, a file takes the dialog to its folder. You can also drag items from the panel onto the dialog, or drop files on the panel to keep them. Settings › Open / Save hides or shows each section.

An Open dialog on the Invoices folder with the Folia Files panel docked to its right: the folders open in Folia Files, the favorites and the Shelf section

The assistant needs macOS's Accessibility permission. It's in the website edition; in the Mac App Store edition, it works through Folia Files Companion, a free app. The Shelf and the drawer are in both editions.

Already using Yoink or Dropover?

Keep it if you rely on what it does beyond holding files. If both appear at the same edge when you drag, move the drawer to another edge, or turn off Opens when I push a file against this edge of the screen: ⌃⌥E still opens it.

And if most of your dragging happens between two folders, you may not need a shelf at all: two folders side by side put the source and the destination on screen together.