Filed under: Desktops, OS, How-tos
Organizing your Desktop with file wells
Uncluttering your life and Getting Things Done is a perennial favorite among us TUAW folks, and MurphyMac has posted a new video showing a novel way to take charge of your Mac desktop. Creating a custom desktop helps organize your workspace around your workflow. You build a background in your favorite image editor to match the size of your desk, adding organizing "wells" to store different file classes (like incoming, action items, items-to-file, and so forth). By setting this as your desktop, you instantly add a new level of order to your workspace and can take advantage of the structures you design into the background. It's not rocket science, but it's a great idea for adding structure while preserving the visibility you lose with a folder system.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mat Lu said 3:40PM on 3-29-2007
Sorry, but wow that's ugly. :)
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Ahmad said 4:39PM on 3-29-2007
that's what I was thinking. what an ugly idea.
also, you'd have to know the placement of the files on the desktop to cater to the "organizing wells", which seems like a hassle.
I'm sure somebody could whip up a quick little app for this. I mean, there's an app for everything on macs.
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MurphyMac said 4:49PM on 3-29-2007
Hey - I never said I was a graphic artist!
-Murph
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Jon said 4:54PM on 3-29-2007
Or, simpler yet, just use file coloring? That works pretty well for me. Red for to-do, green for incoming, etc.
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running said 4:56PM on 3-29-2007
I used this tactic 10 years ago on windows 95 and MS Paint!! (I switched quite recently)
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Greenline said 6:17PM on 3-29-2007
Jesus Age Christ is anyone looking at these posts before they hit the site? My goodness this is a waste of everyone's time. Even if the idea was a new one then the visual should be outstanding. Old TUAW where are you?
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Jules Stoop said 5:15PM on 3-29-2007
Been there done that too. On Windows as well as on Mac OS 8 and 9.
Of course is was still in my early twenties back then.
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Lilly said 5:07PM on 3-29-2007
I don't like the way Macs do file color coding. It's hard to tell what's selected and what's labeled.
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Ahmad said 5:16PM on 3-29-2007
you could try out Label X from Unsanity.
http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/labels
you can try it for 15 days before you have to actually purchase it. It costs 10 dollars, which I don't think is really worth it for a little "haxie", but that's coming from a broke college kid
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Gabriel Radic said 5:26PM on 3-29-2007
Or, you could use or remix my so much sexier Layered Desktop, previously talked about on TUAW :-)
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/10/tuaw-desktops-of-the-week-for-9-10-06/
Get it from here http://flickr.com/photos/gr/sets/72157594188036656/detail/
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rp said 6:17PM on 3-29-2007
Or you could not organize/download/abandon files on your desktop which is a big no-no as far as I'm concerned. No self-respecting mac user uses the desktop as a placeholder for files. That's why they created folders. The above example has an "incoming" well and a "needs filing" well. Why? Just create a folder, drop it in there, and be done with it. Who doesn't have an incoming folder? If you have a really really complicated scheme, then you could use colors, but folders were created to hold files.. and should be used accordingly...
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Victor Agreda Jr said 12:09AM on 3-30-2007
I remember doing this back in OS 8, but lately I've been too busy to bother. Now I just let my desktop be my inbox, saving the day's work to it (staying alphabetical, so I can put high-priority items in the top corner using the underscore). Each night, I clean my desktop! ... in theory.
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Nick Brogna said 7:10PM on 3-29-2007
This technique could actually be expanded to ANY folder, not just your desktop. Create your image, open up the folder that you want to add the background to, choose View->Show View Options (Cmd-J), tick the radio button up top that says 'this window only' (unless you devise something REALLY crafty that fits every folder) then select your background image at the bottom of the view options window. Voila!
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Will said 8:43PM on 3-29-2007
Heh heh, I remember when this was a big trend years and years ago, on old ResExcellence.
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Brendan Sheehan jnr said 12:44AM on 3-30-2007
I see you guys are hiding behind the internet again. As usual the people on the web are showing their age. You're like a bunch a babies. Whilst this is not the Murph's best screecast he does some amazing work. 5 minutes over at his site would prove you that. I'm glad to call him a friend, he's a very talanted guy. If ye'd all take your head out of your arses and try and do somthing better then I'd say something - until that day comes shut your pieholes.
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BrightonCub said 12:45PM on 3-30-2007
This idea struck me months ago, and I've been doing it ever since! Admitedly, being a designer, it's a little easier going on the eye. The desktop is the centre of everything I do on the mac, it's amazing how just a few faint, labelled boxes drawn onto your desktop can make work flow easier!
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mentalsticks said 9:16AM on 3-30-2007
While this is not Murph's bad screencast, when I first saw it I liked it anyway. However, what gets to me is the fact that this is re-heated after a couple of months on TUAW. Please, repost only stuff that's relevant, or think up your own stuff. This way I too can make a great weblog: I just select a couple of old macosxhints and murphy's tips every day and put them on my own blog. I'll link to the source, no worries, I'm not *really* stealing them, and woaalla! My very own weblog! I'll call it handymactips.com or something like that, I'll sign up for Adsense and I'll wait.
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mentalsticks said 9:17AM on 3-30-2007
in previous post: bad=best
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