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. NeXTSTEP Desktop NEXTSTEP is the original object-oriented, multitasking operating system that NeXT Computer, Inc. ... OpenStep is an open object-oriented API specification for an object-oriented operating system that uses any modern operating system as its core, principally developed by NeXT. It is important to recognize that while OpenStep is an API specification, OPENSTEP (all capitalized) is a specific implementation of this OpenStep developed...

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: Microsoft Windows is a series of operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers. ...

• 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: Look up Next in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Next can refer to: the object which comes after the current object. ...

• 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. For the World of Warcraft ex-NPC, see Captain Placeholder. ...

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.