ABCs of Filing Things on a Mac

Saving and Organizing Files

This is just a quickly designed page, which may evolve, to show how I have apps, text and pic files/folders organized and saved on my several Macs -- these examples are from the TiBook using OS9.2.2 (I also have Jag on the partition, but am still getting used to it, so it is not yet my usual OS). I have used a similar system as that described below when using OSX, the beta and first versions, as well as Jag.

I realize that many of the viewers of this page know all of what is shown and explained below, but for some it may be useful because they have not yet accumulated so many diverse files that they had to be concerned about their organization and storage/localization on their computers.

When I change computers, usually by getting a new one, the first thing I do after loading the apps and general stuff is set up my Apple Menu popup/select thingy. I usually base what it contains on a previously used model, changing and/or updating particular details to adjust to revised planning and/or theoretical current and potential future needs.

Any applications (my general term for any program that does something) in the menu are usually aliases to save space on the hard drive -- the original is on the HD, which I rarely ever open, via the icon in the upper right of my screen, to find anything other than the latest screen shots which are always at the bottom of the screen [see below].

Since a pic is said to be worth a thousand words, I have taken handy-dandy screen shots to illustrate what I am trying to describe -- clicking on the icon will take you to a full-size pic which opens on a new screen for convenience --

Screen shots are automatically saved on the hard drive, in my case at the bottom of the folder --

After I click the ON button and the puter boots, the next thing I do is go to my Apple Menu and pick the app I want to start working with -- it may be AOL, the PHOTO folder if I want to process some new/old digital pics, or possibly one of my web site folders to update a page

I just go down the open menu and click on the desired concept I want to start with

Let us start with the PHOTO folder

Inside the PHOTO folder are the apps and things I may want to work with -- or the folders into which I save files

I usually actually open the main folder to begin using something

In this particular case I keep the icon view simply because I find it easier than going through a list of alphabetically arranged words -- while in a couple other folders I do have the files as a word list rather than icons

Now, another example going to my eBay folder

Here is the first tier of things which I have stashed under my main header/folder of eBay -- there are data folders and links to some of my friends items that I like to bid on, as well as links to postal service rates and related shipping issues, among other things

Within Old eBay, in the next, second tier of this folder, are all of my old item descriptions and related pic files

which provide me with templates and actual pics of what I may still be selling (since I have duplicates of many books) -- the old original pics I still use -- and the templates are usually altered to conform to a new seasonal format -- I am always updating the format

Opening any of these folders

provides me with the corresponding data/templates and pic references of all the items listed within the last 5-6 years

You will note one example of my use of file color labels -- the green files are the first item in that batch list put on eBay on a particular day -- they are always small batches since it takes me so long to do new item descriptions, noted when the html and pic files have the same code designation -- dups of older listings show a sequential item index code within that series, followed by the original pic reference

ALL of this info is also contained on my hand written main batch-letter legal-sized forms, which I use as backup if the FIND function does not locate a particular item by its pic code/number, which may occur with very old item listings when I did not use the newer label system

Let's take a look at things such as write apps, emails, letter/sign/business card related things -- all located in the WRITE folder -- I keep the originals masters of things here, as well as Holiday and other card designs, virtual copies of snail mail letters and other stuff

My personal communications via email and snail mail are found in the *PERSONAL folder

I do not SAVE absolutely everything, obviously, in these folders, some of which open into third tier options

All of the above is also backed up on my external hard drive, having 3 partitions, each of which contains different related things

Ok, with the above examples you have seen where I stash files -- let us now look at how I do this -- virtually everything is saved in some folder on my desktop -- the following screen shot is a medium-size enlarged version -- -- you can see the full-sized version <here> -- my desktop is not usually as cluttered as shown here, but I did not want to take the time to file things so I could get this page done and online asap --

In this case I want to SAVE an interesting email from a friend. Clicking SAVE AS in the File menu brings up several destination locations on my desktop, and the folders are labeled so that the most used and/or empty folders appear at or near the top of the SAVE options -- a * or # places them before other folders in the list for convenience. You will also notice a pile of miscellaneous saved items, all of which must yet be filed in their corresponding folders

In this example we have the html code, written on a blank AOL email form, which I use for making large versions of a thumbnail open onto a new screen when viewed on the WWW -- I scrolled down the potential storage locations just to show examples of where I could stash it if I wanted to. Actually it sits on my desktop because I use it on a daily basis

Scrolling farther down the places to save this file we can see other folder options.

OK, so to show how I did basically the same things as outlined above, but on OSX, I booted in Jag and did some experimentation -- first, I created a folder on my OS9.2.2 desktop (which is on the other partition) titled 9.2.2 Desktop from JAG, then made an alias

which I placed on the Jag desktop, here shown with just what little I have there clumped together at the bottom of the screen -- the OSX screen is way too kewl to have it as cluttered as I have my 9.2.2 desktop!

Thus, anything I save to this alias folder on Jag, including this screen shot, will also appear in the original folder

on my OS9.2.2 desktop, located on the other partition. The screen shot I took in Jag was automatically saved as a pdf file, which is well-programmed because one can freely and easily share such formats on a network with any other computer, be it a Mac or PC -- it was a slight inconvenience for me since I do not network, but it was easy enough to convert, sort of. It opened automatically using Acrobat Reader, and I simply took a screen shot of the image -- a piece of cake

So there you have it. I hope it may have been useful to someone who may still be working in OS9.2.2, and even to those who only use OSX/Jag.

The object of the game is to save things somewhere, and go on to doing something else. Where the files saved to your desktop finally get stashed comes when one has a free moment, or when the desktop is so full of stuff that adding more saved items finds them clumped over/under the hard drive icon in layers! I usually file things at the end of the day and basically only keep folders, links and a couple other things which I frequently use visible on my desktop screen.

ALL of the text and pic files thus saved may be immediately located using the Find function, no matter where you later stash them, at least in OS9.2.2. I have been working on this page for over 7 hours and am way too tired to get back into Jag and check out how easy it might be to find a file either on Jag or in OS9.2.2 -- maybe later.

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	After I click the ON button and the puter boots, the next thing I do is go to my Apple Menu and pick the app I want to start working with -- it may be AOL, the PHOTO folder if I want to process some new/old digital pics, or possibly one of my web site folders to update a page I just go down the open menu and click on the desired concept I want to start with Let us start with the PHOTO folder
	Inside the PHOTO folder are the apps and things I may want to work with -- or the folders into which I save files I usually actually open the main folder to begin using something
	In this particular case I keep the icon view simply because I find it easier than going through a list of alphabetically arranged words -- while in a couple other folders I do have the files as a word list rather than icons Now, another example going to my eBay folder
	Here is the first tier of things which I have stashed under my main header/folder of eBay -- there are data folders and links to some of my friends items that I like to bid on, as well as links to postal service rates and related shipping issues, among other things Within Old eBay, in the next, second tier of this folder, are all of my old item descriptions and related pic files
	which provide me with templates and actual pics of what I may still be selling (since I have duplicates of many books) -- the old original pics I still use -- and the templates are usually altered to conform to a new seasonal format -- I am always updating the format Opening any of these folders
	provides me with the corresponding data/templates and pic references of all the items listed within the last 5-6 years You will note one example of my use of file color labels -- the green files are the first item in that batch list put on eBay on a particular day -- they are always small batches since it takes me so long to do new item descriptions, noted when the html and pic files have the same code designation -- dups of older listings show a sequential item index code within that series, followed by the original pic reference ALL of this info is also contained on my hand written main batch-letter legal-sized forms, which I use as backup if the FIND function does not locate a particular item by its pic code/number, which may occur with very old item listings when I did not use the newer label system
	Let's take a look at things such as write apps, emails, letter/sign/business card related things -- all located in the WRITE folder -- I keep the originals masters of things here, as well as Holiday and other card designs, virtual copies of snail mail letters and other stuff *My personal communications via email and snail mail are found in the PERSONAL folder**
	I do not SAVE absolutely everything, obviously, in these folders, some of which open into third tier options All of the above is also backed up on my external hard drive, having 3 partitions, each of which contains different related things

	In this case I want to SAVE an interesting email from a friend. Clicking SAVE AS in the File menu brings up several destination locations on my desktop, and the folders are labeled so that the most used and/or empty folders appear at or near the top of the SAVE options -- a * or # places them before other folders in the list for convenience. You will also notice a pile of miscellaneous saved items, all of which must yet be filed in their corresponding folders
	In this example we have the html code, written on a blank AOL email form, which I use for making large versions of a thumbnail open onto a new screen when viewed on the WWW -- I scrolled down the potential storage locations just to show examples of where I could stash it if I wanted to. Actually it sits on my desktop because I use it on a daily basis
	Scrolling farther down the places to save this file we can see other folder options. OK, so to show how I did basically the same things as outlined above, but on OSX, I booted in Jag and did some experimentation -- first, I created a folder on my OS9.2.2 desktop (which is on the other partition) titled 9.2.2 Desktop from JAG, then made an alias
	which I placed on the Jag desktop, here shown with just what little I have there clumped together at the bottom of the screen -- the OSX screen is way too kewl to have it as cluttered as I have my 9.2.2 desktop! Thus, anything I save to this alias folder on Jag, including this screen shot, will also appear in the original folder
	on my OS9.2.2 desktop, located on the other partition. The screen shot I took in Jag was automatically saved as a pdf file, which is well-programmed because one can freely and easily share such formats on a network with any other computer, be it a Mac or PC -- it was a slight inconvenience for me since I do not network, but it was easy enough to convert, sort of. It opened automatically using Acrobat Reader, and I simply took a screen shot of the image -- a piece of cake