[X-Newbies] out of control mess

[Eugene Lee]

On Fri, Oct 01, 2004 at 03:05:26PM -0400, John Park wrote:
: 
: I'm writing for help on organizing my mac.  Is there a web page or book 
: that describes different ways to organize files.  I seem to end up with 
: everything on my desktop, and multiple versions of things and in 
: general a big mess of files.

Try to collect your files into groups based on the data, the app, or the
workflow itself.  For example, if you have a bunch of digital pics that
you took on vacation at some beach, put them all into a folder and name
the folder something descriptive like "beach pictures".  If you plan to
turn the pictures into a slideshow, make a folder named "slideshow", put
the "beach pictures" folder into the "slideshow" folder, and put other
stuff related to the slideshow into the "slideshow" folder (e.g. music
tracks you plan to incorporate, other images you will use as banners or
openers, pre-written notes describing the photos, etc.).  You can also
add photos from other vacations into the "slideshow" folder.  Finally,
if the slideshow is only a piece of a larger presentation, make a folder
called "presentation" and put your "slideshow" folder inside.  Then add
longer papers that describe and summarize your vacation, separate movie
clips that you want to show, and so forth.

Really, the organization depends on you.  Mac OS X uses the desktop and
file/folder metaphors as a means to let you group a ton of stuff that
is normally unmanagable into smaller collections of stuff that is more
managable.

Here's one link.  You can Google for more.

	http://www.macefficiency.com/me101/1998/01_BeginOrg.html


-- 
Eugene Lee
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/