Creating and using droplets

Droplets are small, independent applications that automate a task you do often. You save an action and its settings into a droplet, and from then on dragging files onto the droplet’s icon processes them with exactly those settings, without opening A Better Finder Attributes or choosing anything. A typical droplet sets the file creation date of dropped photos to their shooting date.

Creating a droplet

1. launch A Better Finder Attributes
2. select the action you want to automate and set its parameters
3. instead of Perform Changes, click Create Droplet… (also in the File menu)
4. read the information dialog, click OK, and choose where to save the droplet

The droplet is ready. On macOS 15 Sequoia and later the first launch of every new droplet is blocked as “damaged”; the approval takes a minute and is described on droplets on macOS Sequoia.

Using a droplet

Drag files or folders onto the droplet icon in the Finder or the Dock. The droplet applies its saved action to them and quits. The Process: settings for files, folders and subfolders are saved with the droplet, so a droplet made with Subfolders and their contents ticked processes whole hierarchies.

Droplets are ordinary applications: keep them in a folder of their own, give them descriptive names, and put the ones you use daily in the Dock.

Changing a droplet

Double-click a droplet to open it in edit mode and change its settings; see editing droplets.

Droplets from older versions

Droplets contain a copy of the program, so after a major update they can be out of date. Migrate Droplets to Latest Version… in the File menu finds your droplets and rebuilds them with the current version while keeping their settings.