Why use label colors

sroach

This is not really a tech question as more and an organization question.





Being from a PC world I noticed Mac give you the ability to label files, disks, and folders with colors.



I was just wondering how people use this and what benefits do you get from it?





-TIA

influenza

It's very useful if you play games like The Sims or Neverwinter Nights. You can label the new modules, skins, etc. you download so you know which ones are new, and if anything screws up, you know which ones you can remove without accidentally wiping out part of the original game. The same applies to any other patches or modifications to programs that would otherwise become hopelessly mixed in with the original files.



Labels can also be useful if you do a lot of writing and editing, image editing, or anything else involving a lot of files of the same type. It's just one more way to keep organized.



Probably good for marking your porn, too.

macsrgood4u

The different colors also look nice on the desktop. Add some variety.

sonofsylvanus

Quote:

Originally posted by Influenza

It's very useful if you play games like The Sims or Neverwinter Nights. You can label the new modules, skins, etc. you download so you know which ones are new, and if anything screws up, you know which ones you can remove without accidentally wiping out part of the original game. The same applies to any other patches or modifications to programs that would otherwise become hopelessly mixed in with the original files.

Is there a preference to assign rules to do this. Like: 'mark all download files as red', or something?

drewprops

There's probably an Applescript you could download that would label files as desired. If not, now's a great time to learn to use AppleScript!



I used to use labels all the time in OS 9 and look forward to regaining that organization power in Panther.



Here's a real-life situation where I would use labels for a short-term file management. If I wanted to move a whole bunch of files from one drive to another I would label all the files that I'd already transferred blue, so that I wouldn't try to move them again. Great little tool.

placebo

Labels aren't just visual, you can also search for files and use "Is Labeled..." as a search criteria catagory. And it looks cool.

buonrotto

Seriously, people woud often categorize files in a single folder by labels, usually by priority (red = hot/important, blue = cool/on the back burner) in any arbitrary way they need at the time.



Mac users had labels for years with the old Mac OS, and lost them for a while in Mac OS X. A lot of people, especially in graphics, absoutely depended on labels in folders with 1500 fonts or pictures in them in order to tell them apart and sort through them quickly. I was hoping for something a little more flexible or powerful instead, but hopefully that's still in the works.

luca

I use labels with my games. A lot of games install a bunch of support files that have to be in the same folder as the game, so you end up with 5-20 files all in the same folder as the game. It's hard to find the game but if you put a label on it, it pops right out. The other way is to add a space to the beginning of the actual application, so it's listed at the top of the listing, but labels are more elegant.



I don't use it for much else. It used to be that Read Me files were always in red, but it's not that common anymore.



I just thought of another use, I could use them for my website folder. It's cluttered with a bunch of pictures and HTML files, maybe I could organize it by making all full size pictures red, all thumbnails orange, and all HTML files green. Or something like that. It would help, I'm sure.

kickaha

Quote:

Originally posted by drewprops

There's probably an Applescript you could download that would label files as desired. If not, now's a great time to learn to use AppleScript!

Actually, use Folder Actions (in 10.2 as well, easier to use in 10.3) to set up an action such that anytime something is added to a folder, it gets the label set to say, red. Then you can do fun stuff like every night at midnight a script gets triggered that makes all red labels in that folder orange, all orange labels yellow, all yellow labels green, on down the rainbow until they push off the end as no label.



That way you have a visual record of what was downloaded today, yesterday, the day before, etc.

drewprops

boy oh howdy imagine if you could do recursives with Applescript.....yeeeowch.

dmband0026

If your coming from the PC world, you probably don't see their usefulness now, but once you start using them than you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. Kinda like a Mac, you don't understand them till you start using them, than when you do you can't do anything without them.

kickaha

Quote:

Originally posted by drewprops

boy oh howdy imagine if you could do recursives with Applescript.....yeeeowch.

Eh, you can.



And those Folder Actions can be AppleScripts, can be shell scripts... anything.



One of the most powerful things in 10.3, I think. It integrates the power of batch processing of a CLI with the ease of the GUI file navigation.

agent302

Quote:

Originally posted by DMBand0026

If your coming from the PC world, you probably don't see their usefulness now, but once you start using them than you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.

I'm not sure if labels are that much of a saviour. I've had a Mac for a long time, and never used them (and thus didn't lament the lack of labels in OS X as others did).



Although some of the things mentioned here seem fairly useful.

pensieve

Quote:

Originally posted by Kickaha

Eh, you can.



And those Folder Actions can be AppleScripts, can be shell scripts... anything.



One of the most powerful things in 10.3, I think. It integrates the power of batch processing of a CLI with the ease of the GUI file navigation.

Kick, are you going to tell us how to DO any of these nifty things or are you just going to tease us?

kickaha

Oh, I'm a tease.



For fulfillment, talk to Brad.

sonofsylvanus

Quote:

Originally posted by DMBand0026

If your coming from the PC world, you probably don't see their usefulness now, but once you start using them than you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. Kinda like a Mac, you don't understand them till you start using them, than when you do you can't do anything without them.

I trust this will be the case.



ref. Drag and Drop, Tabs, Expose...



I will experiment with it

kickaha

Alright, alright...



Ctrl-click on a folder, or select it and hit the Tools popup in the Toolbar in the metal Finder window. (Tools is the gear.)



In either, select 'Enable Folder Actions'. Do it again, this time selecting 'Attach a Folder Action'. This will present a dialog where you can select from the pre-built Folder Action scripts. They're in /Library/Scripts/Folder Actions/. Look in there, and read those scripts for what triggers them off from folder events. There are some spiffy things in there to start with, but then consider that from one of those skeleton action scripts you can trigger off any *other* script, Apple or shell. Woot.



You may also want to poke around in 'Configure Folder Actions' which launches the Folder Action Setup app.

pensieve

Quote:

Originally posted by Kickaha

Alright, alright...



Ctrl-click on a folder, or select it and hit the Tools popup in the Toolbar in the metal Finder window. (Tools is the gear.)



In either, select 'Enable Folder Actions'. Do it again, this time selecting 'Attach a Folder Action'. This will present a dialog where you can select from the pre-built Folder Action scripts. They're in /Library/Scripts/Folder Actions/. Look in there, and read those scripts for what triggers them off from folder events. There are some spiffy things in there to start with, but then consider that from one of those skeleton action scripts you can trigger off any *other* script, Apple or shell. Woot.



You may also want to poke around in 'Configure Folder Actions' which launches the Folder Action Setup app.

Thanks.



But, I could figure *that* much out for myself. I was trying to do the color coded downloads thing you were talking about. I looked at the "alert when an item is added" script and the finder AS dictionary, but I couldn't figure it out. I just broke the script. I'm a slow learner. Any ideas about where to start with this stuff? (Like a link or primer that you like - books are good.)

jante99

Quote:

Originally posted by Kickaha



It integrates the power of batch processing of a CLI with the ease of the GUI file navigation.

Apple should begin using this description to explain the benefits of OS X to new computer users. I'm sure they will understand it instantly.

kickaha

Oy. I just learn it piecemeal. \



Apple's AppleScript site is a good start, I think.

agent302

Well, I looked in the Finder applescript dictionary, and there's a section for labels, but it says this:



Class label: (NOT AVAILABLE YET) A Finder label (name and color)



So it appears to be a not yet scriptable item