Favorites
The Favorites tab in the sidebar has two sections: Tables for pinned tables and Queries for saved SQL. The sidebar can also show a Recent section with the last tables you opened (off by default).Table Favorites
Every table row in the sidebar has a star button at the end. Click it to add or remove the table from favorites. A filled yellow star marks a favorite. Favorites move to the top of their section and appear in the Tables group of the Favorites tab. Double-click a table in the Favorites tab to open it. Right-click it to open the table, open the database’s ER diagram, or remove it. Favorites are scoped to the connection, database, and schema, and sync through iCloud. A favorite is hidden when its table doesn’t exist in the database you’re viewing.Recent Tables
Turn on Show recent tables in Settings > General > Sidebar to add a Recent section at the top of the sidebar. It appears in every sidebar layout. Each table you open is recorded, up to 10 per connection and database, most recent first. Arrowing through preview tabs does not count. Click a row to reopen the table, or right-click to remove one entry or clear the list. Recents persist between launches.SQL Favorites
Creating a favorite
- From the editor toolbar: Click the star button above the editor, or press
Cmd+D - From the editor: Right-click selected SQL > Save as Favorite
- From query history: Right-click an entry > Save as Favorite
- From the sidebar: Click + in the Favorites tab, then New Favorite
Cmd+T), New Folder, and Add Linked SQL Folder…
Creating a new SQL favorite
Keyword expansion
Assign a unique keyword to a favorite (e.g.,selall). Start typing the keyword in the SQL editor and it shows up in the autocomplete popup as a starred suggestion with the favorite’s name. Press Tab or Enter to insert the full SQL.
Keywords must be unique across all favorites in the same scope. Typing a keyword in the Quick Switcher (Cmd+Shift+O) also finds the saved query.
Keyword expansion in the editor autocomplete
Cursor placement
Put;; in a favorite’s SQL to set where the cursor lands after expansion. The marker is removed on insert and the cursor is placed at its position:
;; and leaves the cursor right after orders., ready for a column name. Only the first ;; counts as a marker. Without one, the cursor lands at the end of the inserted SQL.
Scope
Each favorite is either global (visible in all connections) or connection-scoped (visible only in the connection where it was created). Set the scope when creating or editing a favorite. Deleting a connection deletes its scoped favorites.Managing favorites
Double-click a favorite in the Favorites tab to insert it into the editor. The right-click menu has Insert in Editor, Run in New Tab, Copy Query, Edit…, Move to (a folder), and Delete. Organize favorites into folders: create them from the + menu, right-click to rename or delete, and drag favorites between them.Team Library
On a Team license, the Favorites tab shows a Team Library section with queries shared by your team. Click one to run it in a new tab. To share yours, click + > Publish Saved Queries to Team… See Team Plan.Linked SQL Folders
Link a folder of.sql files on disk and they show up in the Favorites sidebar live. Useful for a Git repo of shared queries: clone the repo, link the folder, the team’s queries appear next to your DB-stored favorites.
Adding a folder
In the Favorites sidebar, click + and choose Add Linked SQL Folder… Pick any folder. Subfolders nest in the sidebar in the same shape as on disk. You can link as many folders as you want; all linked folders are global and show in every connection’s Favorites tab.Editing files
Click a linked file to open it as a regular editor tab.Cmd+S writes back to disk in the file’s original encoding. UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO Latin-1 and a few others are auto-detected on load and preserved on save.
If the file was modified outside TablePro since you opened it, a yellow banner appears above the editor with a one-click Reload from Disk. If you save anyway, TablePro shows a side-by-side diff sheet with Keep My Changes, Reload from Disk, and Cancel.
External edits propagate to the sidebar within about a second via FSEvents: new files appear, deleted files disappear, and git pull triggers the same refresh.
Non-UTF-8 files show a yellow warning triangle in the sidebar. Saving works in their native encoding; a character that doesn’t fit (e.g., an emoji into ISO Latin-1) fails the save with an error instead of silently losing data.
Frontmatter
Top-of-file SQL comments set the display name, autocomplete keyword, and tooltip:
The parser stops at the first non-frontmatter line, so put these at the very top. A UTF-8 BOM is handled. Files without frontmatter still appear, with the filename as the display name and no keyword. The
;; cursor marker works in linked files too.
To edit frontmatter without opening the file, right-click a linked row and choose Edit Metadata… The dialog rewrites only the leading comment block and preserves the rest of the file plus its original encoding.
Managing linked files and folders
Drag any row from the Favorites sidebar (linked or DB-stored) onto the SQL editor to insert its content at the cursor. Press Delete on a linked file or right-click > Move File to Trash; the file goes to the macOS Trash and stays recoverable. Right-click a linked folder root for Disable, Reload, Copy Path, Show in Finder, Add Another SQL Folder…, or Remove from Sidebar. Removing only unlinks the folder; files on disk stay where they are.Storage
Favorites live in a SQLite database (sql_favorites.db) in ~/Library/Application Support/TablePro/. Search covers name, keyword, and query text.
Linked folder paths live in UserDefaults under com.TablePro.linkedSQLFolders, and parsed metadata (name, keyword, mtime, size, encoding) is cached in linked_sql_index.db in the same directory so the sidebar renders without re-reading every file. File content always lives on disk. Linked folder paths are not part of iCloud Sync; each Mac links its own copy of a shared repo.