Get more out of Dropover

Drag files to the Dropover icon in the menu bar and release them there. Dropover will create a new shelf containing the dropped items.

This is useful when you want to collect files without shaking the pointer or using another shelf activation method.

On a MacBook with a notch, you can drop files directly onto the notch to create a shelf.

Drag files to the notch area, release them, and Dropover will show them in a new shelf. Make sure Drop to Notch is enabled in Dropover Settings → Shelf Activation.

By default, pressing ⌥⇧A opens a new shelf containing the current contents of your clipboard.

This is useful for quickly turning copied files, text, links, or images into a Dropover shelf without dragging anything.

You can edit Dropover's keyboard shortcuts in Settings. Learn more in the Keyboard Shortcuts guide.

You can use macOS Shortcuts to send the selected Finder items to Dropover.

1. Open the Shortcuts app.
2. Create a new shortcut.
3. Add Get Selected Files in Finder.
4. Add Dropover's Add Files to Shelf action.
5. Open the shortcut details and assign a keyboard shortcut.

Now you can select one or more files in Finder and press your shortcut to show them in a Dropover shelf.

You can download this example Shortcut here.

Use Terminal to create a Dropover shelf from files or folders:

open -a Dropover -- /path/to/file

You can also pass multiple items:

open -a Dropover -- file1.png file2.pdf ~/Downloads/example.zip

This is handy for scripts, build workflows, exports, or any task where files are generated automatically.

Dropover can watch a folder and show new files in a shelf automatically.

1. Open Dropover Settings.
2. Select Folder Monitoring.
3. Click Add New Folder.
4. Select your Downloads folder.

After that, newly added files in Downloads can appear in a Dropover shelf. You can also set filtering rules, such as only showing screenshots or certain file types.

When multiple shelves are visible, press ⌥⇧S to select the shelf you want to activate. Dropover will number the visible shelves.

Press the number shown on a shelf to give it focus. Once a shelf is active, it accepts keyboard shortcuts for actions such as performing an operation, hiding the shelf, or closing it.

You can edit Dropover's keyboard shortcuts in Settings. Learn more in the Keyboard Shortcuts guide.

When a shelf is expanded and the detail view is visible, hold Command while clicking items to select them individually. Selected items are highlighted so you can clearly see which files are included.

After selecting multiple items, you can drag only those files out of the shelf, or right-click the selection to perform an action on the selected files.

During drag operations, Dropover follows the same copy and move behavior as Finder.

• To force a copy, hold Option while dragging an item from a shelf to its destination. A plus sign appears to indicate the item will be copied.
• To force a move, hold Command while dragging the item to its destination.
• To always copy items when dragging out, go to Dropover Settings → Shelf Interaction → Advanced and enable Always copy items when dragging out.

Hold Shift while dragging items out of a shelf to keep the shelf open afterward.

This is useful when you want to drag the same items to multiple places, or when you are only moving part of a shelf's contents.

Pin a shelf when you want it to stay available until you decide to close it.

This is useful for project assets, reference files, or anything you need to reuse while moving between apps, folders, or workspaces. Custom shelf titles make pinned shelves easy to recognize and reopen from the menu bar.

Dock a shelf when you want to keep it available without leaving it floating over your work.

Double-click the edge of a shelf, drag it to the screen edge, or use the shelf menu to dock it. The shelf stays tucked away at the edge of the screen, and you can bring it back when needed.

To quickly remove all items from a shelf while keeping the shelf open, hold Option and click the shelf's close button.

This is useful when you want to reuse the same shelf right away without dragging everything out or closing and recreating it.

Dropover can run your own scripts from the shelf action menu. Scripts can receive the files in the shelf as input, making them useful for custom uploads, conversions, renaming workflows, or project-specific automation.

You can add shell scripts or Automator workflows from Dropover Settings. Scripts can also be tested before you use them, and shell scripts can copy their output to the clipboard when needed.

Learn more in the Custom Scripts guide.