Filed under: How-tos, Productivity, Tips and tricks, Found Footage
Found Footage: Organizing Files with Labels and Smart Folders
To be honest I've never really gotten the Finder's colored labels. That is to say, I've never really understood how to use them to good effect. However, this video tutorial from Living With Mac convinced me I need to take another look at the usefulness of labels, particularly when combined with Smart Folders. The idea is rather simple, but also potentially powerful. Label your files for different project names, or with different status designations (e.g. "needs to be finished", "waiting for" (some other information or person), "archive") then create Smart Folders that search for those labels. That way your files can remain in appropriate (hierarchical) folders, yet can be temporarily grouped according to status, project, etc. As mentioned in the video, this can also be a good way of "Getting Things Done." I'll warn you the video is perhaps a little under-rehearsed, but nonetheless it has some great tips you can use right now.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Clark said 1:20PM on 3-14-2007
If only they weren't so damn ugly. Seriously though why did Apple take away the ability to change the colors so we're stuck with only 7 garish colors?
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Jono said 1:24PM on 3-14-2007
Yea, I use labels with smart folders.
I have a 'Work' folder that contains 270 folders, 1 for each client I work for or have worked for in the past.
Any client I'm currently working for I label their folder blue. Then in my sidebar I have a smart folder that looks for blue lables in the Work folder (currently shows 5).
Because the smart folder is in the sidebar I have quick & easy access to the client's I'm currently working for, including all save & open dialog screens from apps :)
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danwassink said 1:42PM on 3-14-2007
Thanks for the mention on your website! The videos are more than a little under-rehearsed.. they are not rehearsed at all. The site is just something for me to play with. :) I am glad you enjoyed the tip!
I enjoy reading www.tuaw.com every day! If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know at http://www.livingwithmac.com/contact.
Thanks again!
Dan
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luckycat said 2:28PM on 3-14-2007
The power of Spotlight is really underestimated.
One could also add distinct Spotlight comments to the folders and define the searches on top of them. No ugly colors then. Although a little more difficult to attach.
Just in case one wants to backup those nicely organized files:
http://freeridecoding.com/smartbackup
it is the only app i know that handles backup of smartfolders. which is really nice i think.
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Paul said 2:32PM on 3-14-2007
Wouldn't it be better to use Spotlight comments instead of labels?
With labels, you can only apply a single tag to a file or folder; not so with Spotlight comments. A file could therefore easily be set to show up in both your "Development Project" and "Waiting On" smart folders, for instance.
Also, it gets around the issue of the butt-ugly colors.
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Paul said 3:04PM on 3-14-2007
Looks like luckycat beat me to the post, but I'd like to point out that spotlight comments needn't be any more difficult to apply than labels. See this video demo for details:
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Paul said 3:31PM on 3-14-2007
er...*this* video demo:
http://theappleblog.com/2007/02/19/the-metadata-screencast-part-three/
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walkerjs said 6:45PM on 3-14-2007
I use file/folder colors all the time. For music files I use them to denote which files I have the physical meda for (those are green), for folders that contain music that I've already archived/burned to audio CD (red), and for videos such as episodes of television shows I use a color to denote that I've already watched that particular show.
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Ting said 5:50PM on 3-15-2007
I use colour labels extensively. Here's the 'why', the 'how' and 'the problem' I have:
The 'why' is based on my need to quickly see where I've been during the last two weeks in a folder I have called 'Workflow' to contain everything I do in my business consulting work [http://www.inflectionpoint.com.au]. For instance, within 'Workflow' are further folders for Strategy, Marketing, Selling, Delivery, Admin, Knowledge, Toolkit and Check. And each folder contains further sub-folders for Projects, Initiatives and in the case of Delivery, a folder for each client each containing a standard set of folders that are common to all my client engagements i.e., Engagement Control, Financials, People, Strategy, Systems, Scorecards, Risk etc. In total there are some 5,800 files and folders within 'Workflow'. Given there are a lot of 'trees in the woods', I wanted a method that permitted me to quickly see (at the level below the main folders in Workflow), which folders I have recently created or opened and within them, which files I have worked on (created or modified).
The 'how' called for a mechanism that monitors the hard drive to identify and label (using a set of rules) folders and files that have been recently created or modified such that those that have been touched:
> in the last two days are labelled 'green';
> over two days but less than 7 are 'blue';
> over 7 days but less than 14 are 'purple'; and
> anything older reverts back to being unlabelled.
I do this using Hazel, a preferences pane that allows the definition of rules to apply them across user specified folders and files [see http://www.noodlesoft.com].
Here's the problem: the Finder in Mac OSX does not readily update the 'modified' date of folders so it sabotages the folder related rules in Hazel. So while I can easily spot recently created or modified files and I can spot recently created folders, I cannot spot recently modified folders.
And there it stands. In an utter and desolate state of frustration. Unless that is, one of you readers have a cunning plan...
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Frank said 12:40PM on 3-16-2007
The advantage of using labels instead of spotlight comments lies in the fact that labels are easier to change than spotlight comments, so they are better, in my opinion, as indications of "status". I use folder actions to add an "unwatched" purple label to all of my downloaded videos and a smart folder to see only those. When a video's been watched, I remove the label but do not have to move the file anywhere else. I can keep all of my videos organized neatly in a traditional folders hierarchy (or smart folders using spotlight comments) and labels to show those that are unwatched. Quicksilver makes it easy to add spotlight comments (or QS tags) to files, but removing comments is a bit more painful, so personally, I see a use for both comments and labels.
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consumer_q said 3:13PM on 4-02-2007
What if instead of only referencing the files in a Smart Folder, I want the files to actually move to specific folders based on label/colour?
Is that possible to do real time?
thanks!
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