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The Shelf is an interface feature in NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP , and is used as a repository to store links to commonly used files, directories and programs, and as a temporary "holding" place to move/copy files and directories around in the filesystem hierarchy.

The dynamics of the Shelf in filesystem operations can be illustrated by comparison with the metaphor used in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. In order to move a file the following steps may be taken:
  • the window containing the source folder is opened

  • the window containing the destination folder is opened

  • the desired file in the source directory is dragged to the destination folder


With the NeXT operating systems, in addition to moving files by dragging them from window to window, the following method can be used:
  • the source directory is navigated to

  • the file is dragged to the Shelf---

  • the destination directory is navigated to

  • the file is dragged from the Shelf to the destination directory

  • NB The file, when dragged to the Shelf, has not moved anywhere or is changed in any way. The Shelf icon is merely a Placeholder for the file. In moving the placeholder ''off'' the shelf, the actual action occurs.


Notice also that to speed the process up, the destination directory can be put on the Shelf as well, and the file can be merely dragged to the destination directory icon.

Since Shelf icons are 'placeholders' of sorts, icons can be put on the Shelf representing commonly used directories, and commonly used programs can be put on the Shelf as well.

The NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP file management application (called FileViewer and run by the Workspace Manager) also allowed users to have different shelves associated with particular directories. Users simply opened a new browser rooted in a particular subdirectory, and that browser window would show the corresponding shelf, allowing users to have many different shelves based on whatever folder hierarchy they happened to be using to organize their files.