Folder Browser

The folder browser is the left panel in Library view. It’s split into two sections — FAVORITES at the top and FOLDERS below — separated by a draggable handle so you can resize them to taste.

FOLDERS — your roots

The FOLDERS section lists the root folders you’ve added to the browser. Each root is a folder somewhere on your disk (typically a year, a shoot location, or your top-level macro directory) that you’ve told Macro Studio to keep an eye on.

Add a folder

Click + Add a folder at the top of the FOLDERS section. A standard system folder picker opens; choose the parent directory that holds your macro shoots. Common choices:

~/Pictures/macro/
An external SSD with this year’s shoots
A network volume where your raw files live

You can add as many roots as you want; they persist across launches.

Expand and load

Click the disclosure triangle next to a root to expand it. Subfolders load lazily on first expansion, so adding a folder with thousands of subdirectories is fast.

Click any folder to load its images as one stack in the filmstrip. Double-click does the same and also expands the disclosure triangle — useful when you want to drill into a sub-shoot.

Right-clicking a folder offers:

Load N images — same as a single click; loads every supported image in the folder.
Add to Favorites / Remove from Favorites — star the folder for quick access from the top section.
Reveal in Finder (macOS) / Show in Explorer (Windows) — opens the folder in your OS file manager.
Remove from Browser — only shown on root-level items. Removes the root from the browser without touching the files on disk.

Refreshing

If you’ve added or removed files outside Macro Studio (in Finder, in Lightroom, etc.), click the Refresh button at the top of the panel (⌘R / Ctrl+R) to re-scan the visible tree. Expanded folders stay expanded; favorites stay favorited.

FAVORITES — quick access

The FAVORITES section is for folders you come back to often: a current-project shoot, a tutorial set, a benchmark stack you keep iterating on.

Star a folder

Right-click any folder in the FOLDERS tree and choose Add to Favorites, or click the star icon at the right edge of the row when it’s hovered (gold filled = favorited, grey outline = not).

Favorites appear at the top of the panel under the FAVORITES heading. They’re independent of the FOLDERS tree — adding a favorite doesn’t change anything about the source folder’s position, and the favorite remains valid even if you remove the parent root.

Right-click context (Favorites tree)

Load — loads images from the folder.
Reveal in Finder — opens in the OS file manager.
Remove from Favorites — top-level favorites only.

When the FAVORITES section is empty, you’ll see the placeholder text (none yet — click any star).

Drag and drop

You can drag image files out of the filmstrip and drop them on a folder in either tree to move them — useful when you decide a frame belongs in a different shoot. A confirmation appears if the destination already has same-named files.

Drop targets highlight with a green border as you drag over them.

When the browser is empty

Right after install, the FOLDERS tree shows:

📁  No folders yet
Add a folder of focus-bracketed photos to get started.

Click + Add a folder to add your first root. From then on, the browser stays populated across launches.

Tips

One root per drive is usually enough. Macro Studio’s tree handles thousands of subfolders without slowing down.
Favorites for in-progress work. If you’re iterating on a shoot, star it so it stays at the top regardless of where the parent root falls in your tree.
Reveal in Finder is your bridge to Lightroom, Photoshop, and the rest of your workflow — fastest way to jump from Macro Studio’s view of a folder to your file manager’s view of the same folder.