🎯 macOS Quick Actions Finder Power User Guide (2026)

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🎯 Built-in Quick Actions work on macOS Mojave+. Background removal requires macOS Sequoia (15+).

macOS Quick Actions live in the Finder right-click menu, ready to save you hours weekly. Most Mac users never discover them. Here's the complete 2026 guide — built-in actions, custom shortcuts, and power-user automation apps.

🎯 Built-In Finder Quick Actions

Rotate Left / Right (images)

Built-inRight-click any image

Right-click any image in Finder → 'Quick Actions' → Rotate Left/Right. No need to open Preview. Saved file rotation.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: anyone managing image collections

Mac Photos Books →

Convert Image (HEIC → JPG, PNG)

Built-inQuick

Right-click image → 'Quick Actions' → Convert Image. Choose JPG, PNG, HEIF, plus image size. Useful for sharing screenshots.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: web designers, content creators

Image Tools →

Create PDF (right-click any document)

Built-inUniversal

Right-click any document → 'Quick Actions' → Create PDF. Apple's built-in PDF maker — no third-party app needed.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: document workers

PDF Tools for Mac →

Markup (annotate PDFs and images)

Built-inSurprisingly powerful

Quick Actions → Markup. Add text, signatures, shapes, highlights to PDFs and images directly in Finder. No app needed.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: contract signing, image annotation

Get Adobe Acrobat Pro →

⚡ Custom Quick Actions (Build Your Own)

Make a Quick Action from any Shortcut

Apple Shortcuts integrationBuilt-in

In Apple Shortcuts app: open a shortcut → Details → ✓ 'Use as Quick Action'. Now your custom shortcut appears in Finder right-click menu.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: serious automation

Shortcuts Books →

Resize image to web standard

Custom shortcut5-min build

Build a Shortcut that resizes images to 1200px wide for web. Add as Quick Action. Right-click any image → resize → done.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: bloggers, web designers

Image Resize Tools →

Convert WebM/MOV to MP4

Custom shortcutUseful

Quick Action that converts video files between formats. Useful for downloading videos that won't play.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: video creators, content downloaders

Get HandBrake →

📁 File Management Quick Actions

Get Info shortcut (Cmd + I)

UniversalMulti-file

Select multiple files → Cmd+I → opens one info window per file. Or Cmd+Option+I → opens ONE summary window for all selected files (great for storage analysis).

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: storage management

Disk Analyzers →

Compress to ZIP from right-click

Built-inUniversal

Select multiple files → right-click → Compress. Creates a .zip archive. Faster than opening Archive Utility.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: sending multiple files in email

Get The Unarchiver →

Get current folder path

Cmd + Option + C in FinderPower tool

Cmd+Option+C copies the full path of selected file/folder to clipboard. Useful for Terminal, sharing locations.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: developers, file-heavy workflows

Path Finder for Mac →

🎨 Image-Specific Quick Actions

Show Image Inspector / EXIF

Cmd + Option + IHidden tool

Cmd+Option+I in Preview shows full EXIF data (camera, location, time, etc.). Useful for photographers.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: photographers, location-sensitive sharing

EXIF Viewer Apps →

Remove Image Background (Sequoia+)

macOS 15+AI-powered

macOS Sequoia adds built-in 'Remove Background' in Quick Look or Preview. Select image → click background remove icon → save.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: anyone removing backgrounds (avatars, products)

Affinity Photo →

🚀 Power User Quick Action Bundles

Service Station (App for Quick Actions)

Mac App StoreCustom

App that adds dozens of useful Quick Actions: lossless image resize, video conversion, file renaming, more.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: power users wanting more Quick Actions

Get Service Station →

Hazel (Auto-organize files)

Mac App StoreRules-based

Apple Automator on steroids — define rules ('move PDFs older than 30 days to Archive') and Hazel runs them automatically.

💝 Why dads love it: Best for: file organization automation

Get Hazel →