Highlighting an icon and then choosing File→Make Alias (or
pressing 
-L), generates an alias, a
specially branded duplicate of the original icon (Figure 3-4). It’s not a
duplicate of the file—just of the
icon; therefore it requires negligible storage
space. When you double-click the alias, the original file opens. A
Macintosh alias, in other words, is essentially the same as a Windows
shortcut.
Because you can create as many aliases as you want of a single file, aliases let you, in effect, stash that file in many different folder locations simultaneously. Double-click any one of them, and you open the original icon, wherever it may be on your system.
Tip
You can also create an alias of an icon by
Option--dragging it out of its window. (Aliases you
create this way lack the word alias on the file
name—a distinct delight to those who find the suffix redundant and
annoying.) You can also create an alias by right-clicking a normal
icon and choosing Make Alias from the shortcut menu that appears, or
by highlighting an icon and then choosing Make Alias from the
menu.
An alias takes up almost no disk space, even if the original file is enormous. Aliases are smart, too: Even if you rename the alias, rename the original file, move the alias, and move the original around on the disk, double-clicking the alias still opens the original icon.
Figure 3-4. Top: You can identify an alias by the tiny arrow badge on the lower-left corner. Bottom: If the alias can’t find the original file, you’re offered the chance to hook it up to a different file.
Here are a few ways you can put aliases to work:
You may want to file a document you’re working on in several different folders, or place a particular folder in several different locations.
You can use the alias feature to save you some of the steps required to access another hard drive on the network. (Details on this trick in Chapter 14.)
Tip
Mac OS X makes it easy to find the file to which an alias
“points” without actually having to open it. Just highlight the
alias and then choose File→Show Original (-R), or choose Show Original from the
menu. Mac OS X immediately displays the
actual, original file, sitting patiently in its folder, wherever
that may be.
An alias doesn’t contain any of the information you’ve typed or composed in the original. Don’t email an alias to the Tokyo office and then depart for the airport, hoping to give the presentation upon your arrival in Japan. When you double-click the alias, now separated from its original, you’ll be shown the dialog box at bottom in Figure 3-4.
If you’re on a plane 3,000 miles away from the hard drive on which the original file resides, click Delete Alias (to delete the orphan alias you just double-clicked) or OK (to do nothing, leaving the orphaned alias where it is).
In certain circumstances, however, the third button—Fix Alias—is the most useful. Click it to summon the Fix Alias dialog box, which you can use to navigate your entire Mac. When you click a new icon and then click Choose, you associate the orphaned alias with a different original icon.
Such techniques become handy when, for example, you click your book manuscript’s alias on the desktop, forgetting that you recently saved it under a new name and deleted the older draft. Instead of simply showing you an error message that says “‘Enron Corporate Ethics Handbook’ can’t be found,” the Mac displays the box that contains the Fix Alias button. By clicking it, thus reassociating it with the new document, you can save yourself the trouble of creating a new alias. From now on, double-clicking your manuscript’s alias on the desktop opens the new draft.