what are your working habits on your mac...

kraig911 · November 12, 2003 8:52PM

*EDIT* what are YOUR working habits on your mac

(mods please fix if you gots the time)

I just wanted to hear what your working habits are when you do a lot of work like me... I know a lot of people on here use macs @ home and @ work and its just like man my desktop is cluttered... my home folder is in shambles... and everything is everywhere...

What do you do start a project and put all the files you're working with on the desktop say in a folder and just work out of that folder till you're finished and then put it somewhere for later on when you're done? (thats what I try to do but it's just not working)

I currently put all my personal stuff in a part in my documents folder, just for easy access. I use my powerbook mainly for e-mail and image browsing and what not for researching and presentations but I just got a dual g5 that is also now cluttered (got some real big things going thats just a ton of files and a mess in my mind) I guess I just have a real big personal problem on my hands.

Its just that I always have about 10 different projects and ads out the yazoo going at any given moment... and everything has gotten out of control around the office as well as on my workspace and I was wondering if there are any organization guru's on these boards with helpful insights

maybe its hopeless... I'm just a hopeless cause

i'm thinking of reinstalling just to have a nice orderly clean system... once again.

ipeon · November 12, 2003 9:19PM

I use the Desktop for downloads only. While I'm downloading, what I'm concentrating on is searching and downloding. Once I'm done with that I then place the files in their respective category.

The main trick to organization is categorization. It does not have to be too detailed. Just get into the habit of having a place for each type of file. Once you get used to organizing your files in this manner you will develop better "categories."

For starters, create a folder called "Projects", inside that folder create a folder for the project you are currently working on and place the files for it in there. If you have files you use for projects such as images, create an image folder and categorize the imagine by placing each type within it's own folder.

Once you start doing this, you will develop your own organizational method.

dmband0026 · November 12, 2003 9:32PM

I used to have a lot of clutter, till I got my new HD and did a clean install of Jaguar (before Panther was out). Since than I've done a really good job of keeping it all in order. I keep my desktop sparkling clean. Only HDs, removable media, and FW disks allowed, nothing else (with the exception of the two widgets that I have). My home folder is organized making it very easy to find things. My most frequently used files now are some pictures and stuff that I photoshop, some movies I'm working on in FCP, and a lot of school documents. I keep my school stuff organized like this: Home/Documents/School/Year/Semester/Class. I know, it's a lot of folders, sometimes a pain, but pretty easy to navigate in column view. Also, I always know where everything is, I can find any document from any year in school in a snap. I'm getting an iBook soon so I'm hoping to carry over the organization to that and keep it clean too.

pensieve · November 12, 2003 9:42PM

I go through phases. My desktop is often a mess of stuff which eventually get stuck in folders that are stuck in other folders and stuck away in vaguely titled folders like "research folder" when I don't really need that stuff any more except rarely. My documents folder is pretty organized, but that also goes through phases. Once every few months, I'll tidy it up and put stuff where it belongs. And when I'm in a really tidy mood (or I'm procrastinating - I'm not sure which), I'll break things down by year. So I'll have something like clinic/clients/2003/client initials in my documents folder.

My music folder, however, is immaculate thanks to iTunes organizing it for me. I need all my applications to do that. It would save me a lot of trouble...

kraig911 · November 12, 2003 9:47PM

I think I am just going to reinstall everything... got a big pack of cd-rs just begging me to do it. I will do it this weekend I guess. Its just for client files only just clients I got about 15 gigs worth of shit... word documents... images... scripts... what not everything I'm trying to organize better. Another thing is my e-mail is so full theres just no way it seems... I'd spend more time organizing the mass of e-mails I get than read them.

Currently I call our client stuff 'customer file" and out of it is where I primarily work... but at times i would have gotten lazy and drop files in other peoples folders by accident... some where in my home folder or just some random place. You know how when you go to save something in an application it takes you back to where you last saved? Gah its just stuff like that. Not only that but between me and my boss and our co-workers we have about 20 different versions of the same file that all need to be brought up to speed on whats current and everything. I wish apple would make an isync... for a specified folder kind of like what briefcase was for windows 95 (great idea sucky implimentation)

Still any tips we should all share so we can be a mountain of mac efficiency... or something to that extent.

pensieve · November 12, 2003 9:56PM

For organizing mail, I find mail.app's rules very effective. I've got about 4 years worth of email in there. I do a year system for archived mail, so sent mail from 2002 goes in an "archived" mailbox, etc. It keeps me from deleting something I might need later (like a document I KNOW I sent as an attachment to someone but can no longer find in my documents folder, etc).

kraig911 · November 12, 2003 10:02PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pensieve

My music folder, however, is immaculate thanks to iTunes organizing it for me. I need all my applications to do that. It would save me a lot of trouble...

dude... why can't they do something like that... I wish every app would do that mysef. Good idea! if I had a cookie... or a gold star that smelled like something nice I would stick it on a paper and circle and say good job! heh

sigh just sitting here organizing crap is just a big pain in the ass... I kind of use rules to sort e-mails from different clients. i have a couple of clients that don't want to use the phone

they like to send one sentence (hell one word) e-mails to me but still yeah maybe it beats a phone call I'm not sure. Been messing around with the feature in word to combine documents together which is really nice for out scripts it puts little quotattions next to who wrote what which is awesome. Something like that in PDF's and easier pre-flighting tools would be nice in acrobat instead of all the bloatware.

t9000 · November 12, 2003 10:48PM

Hey, I just got my mac and I have nothing really on the Desktop.

But I did put some albums I had in my music folder, but here is my thing. I have always worked in windows on winamp with music. So I am use to clicking it and hearing it. I put my cds in my music file, but then there is a itunes file. When I click to hear something it imports the damn thing into itunes and then it is on my hd twice, in the music folder and itunes one.

pensieve · November 12, 2003 10:59PM

Quote:

Originally posted by T9000

Hey, I just got my mac and I have nothing really on the Desktop.

But I did put some albums I had in my music folder, but here is my thing. I have always worked in windows on winamp with music. So I am use to clicking it and hearing it. I put my cds in my music file, but then there is a itunes file. When I click to hear something it imports the damn thing into itunes and then it is on my hd twice, in the music folder and itunes one.

Just let iTunes organize your music for you. Once you get the tags right, you'll never have to worry about it again. If you absolutely MUST turn off the organization feature of iTunes, go to preferences -> advanced and uncheck the "copy files to iTunes music folder". But don't do that. You'll appreciate not having to worry about it. Just delete the duplicates in the other place. When I (rarely) download some music, I'll import it into iTunes and trash the original file after it's copied.

But I'm not sure what you mean by "clicking on it and hearing it". If you want to play the music in iTunes, it'll import it into your playlist. Nothing you can do about that.

t9000 · November 12, 2003 11:11PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pensieve

Just let iTunes organize your music for you. Once you get the tags right, you'll never have to worry about it again. If you absolutely MUST turn off the organization feature of iTunes, go to preferences -> advanced and uncheck the "copy files to iTunes music folder". But don't do that. You'll appreciate not having to worry about it. Just delete the duplicates in the other place. When I (rarely) download some music, I'll import it into iTunes and trash the original file after it's copied.

But I'm not sure what you mean by "clicking on it and hearing it". If you want to play the music in iTunes, it'll import it into your playlist. Nothing you can do about that.

Ok, I threw some music in the itunes music file, and none of them are in my library. I am confused.

t9000 · November 12, 2003 11:14PM

Nevermind I figured out how to get it like I wanted. Damn I love Apple. These things are easy. I have worked with faulty windows all my life, I am in love.

pensieve · November 12, 2003 11:24PM

Quote:

Originally posted by T9000

Nevermind I figured out how to get it like I wanted. Damn I love Apple. These things are easy. I have worked with faulty windows all my life, I am in love.

Yeah, you get used to doing things the "windows" way after a while and then it takes some time to get the "apple" way. And when you get the apple way, you're like "duh!" Easy, huh? BTW, there are a few different ways to get your music into your library. One is just dragging the folder over the master playlist window, another is to "add files to playlist" and other is to just double click the songs.

ipeon · November 12, 2003 11:26PM

Quote:

Originally posted by T9000

But I did put some albums I had in my music folder, but here is my thing. I have always worked in windows on winamp with music. So I am use to clicking it and hearing it. I put my cds in my music file, but then there is a itunes file. When I click to hear something it imports the damn thing into itunes and then it is on my hd twice, in the music folder and itunes one.

The one in iTunes is not the file itself. iTunes does not import the file unless you told it to. What it does is add what it plays to it's "Library", it's kinda like a shortcut to the real file. If you control click on any song in iTunes and select "Show Song File", the system will open the folder where that file is located.

By the way, you don't have to open a file with iTunes to listen to it. If you view your folders "as Columns" you will be able to preview, that is play the file without having to open it. The same can be done with pictures and movies.

t9000 · November 12, 2003 11:50PM

Thanks for all the help and the screen shots. I just did the drag and drop, it worked great. I then deleted the files from my music folder, but they are still in itunes, and I can burn a cd from the playlist, does itunes like compress all the files and put them somewhere?

pensieve · November 12, 2003 11:55PM

Quote:

Originally posted by T9000

Thanks for all the help and the screen shots. I just did the drag and drop, it worked great. I then deleted the files from my music folder, but they are still in itunes, and I can burn a cd from the playlist, does itunes like compress all the files and put them somewhere?

No, the files are all in your iTunes music folder all organized in folders by artist name and then album. They are regular mp3 or .aac files. They're not hidden in any way, just more organized.

ipeon · November 13, 2003 12:20AM

Quote:

Originally posted by T9000

Thanks for all the help and the screen shots. I just did the drag and drop, it worked great. I then deleted the files from my music folder, but they are still in itunes, and I can burn a cd from the playlist, does itunes like compress all the files and put them somewhere?

That's because you haven't emptied the trash. Once you empty the trash, the files are gone and iTunes will not be able to play those files anymore.

You must have missed what I said. The files you see in the iTunes window, aren't files. Again, they are NOT files. What you see in iTunes is a list of the files in your Music Folder. If you delete the files from your Music Folder, then iTunes will not be able to play the files.

Think of it this way, what you see in the iTunes window is just shortcuts to the files in your Music Folder.

I'm amazed at how people used to Windows have difficulty understanding the file concept. I had the same problem with a friend of mine who I recently convinced to switch. He was going on about the same thing. "The files in iTunes...", or "the files in Photoshop", I'm like, Huh?

Basically there there are two things in your computer, applications and files. The files are separate from applications. Applications can open different types of files. Files can be opened by different type of applications. For example, the files you play with iTunes, Quicktime will also play them. You have to disintegrate the idea that the two are the same. The beauty of the Mac is that you have better control of your files. It's sweet once you grasp the concept.

kraig911 · November 13, 2003 9:17AM

on my music I pretty much let itunes do it for me, I have it set to add any mp3 to my music folder and if it isn't in my music folder I delete it. I wish other apps did that or had an option at least. Say like microsoft word, would possibly make a microsoft documents folder (or maybe you could even set it) and it would copy all the .doc files in there. And maybe the same for photoshop, it would be neat too if it added a naming scheme of your choice, like date, client, or subject matter. Any PROGRAMMERS listening? But I do see that some people would absolutely hate that as a function hehe not me tho

thuh freak · November 13, 2003 9:42AM

i keep pretty organized. as a programmer its tough not to. like if i start writing a program, in order for a lot of my tools to work, the source files must be in a certain hierarchy. i keep a projects folder (with Projects as a symlink to projects, on systems that differentiate between cAsE). Every time I start a new program, that I'm writing, I make a folder inside 'projects', and throw all my source right in there. then, after a few weeks, if the project is still alive, i'll organize all the files in there. the readme, license, install and similar files in the root of that project's folder, source in a 'src' folder, and if i've bothered with expansive docs i'll make a folder for them. 90% of my projects don't make it that far, so usually all my source and whatever files are just in that project's folder, without any subfolders.

But, a lot of my computing time isn't programming. When I download stuff, I never know where its gonna go. Often right into my home folder, sometimes on the desktop, sometimes in /tmp. I usually download a file, then start the download again to see where the browser tries to resave it (usually the save dialog will be exactly where the previous download was). When I download programs, and compile+install them myself, I'll put them just about anywhere. Sometimes in ~/projects, sometimes /usr/src, sometimes in my home, or sometimes where ever i download them to.

At work, they force me to be mostly organized. Projects have to go in a certain folder, or their system won't pick up on them. Auxiliary files though will often go to the desktop, or temp folder. I have about half of my visible desktop filled with files from projects i don't even remember doing. I tend to name temp files "file" or "file1", so I can't tell by their name what they belong to. Then, when I think I have too much clutter, I'm afraid to throw anything out, because any one of the files name "file" could go to the current project.

aquafire · November 13, 2003 10:20PM

It's really weird, the only neatness in my universe is my mac's desktop...I can live with the clutter & junk around my house, ( some piles of stuff don't get moved for fear of diturbing giant roaches )....haha but the sight of a cluttered screen on anybody's mac just annoys me....

what are your working habits on your mac...

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