Are you organized?
Do you just throw all your documents into one "Documents" folder? That's not all bad, especially with Apple's increasing ease with which to locate documents. Spotlight is a new feature of the new OS X Tiger due out in the first half of this year making it even simpler to find documents by content with great ease. But, I'm sure you at least break down your folder into some subcategories? Are you interested in the potential for being very organized? I was doing some sorting of files, and thought I'd share my own filing system. Here's a glance at it: In graduate school, I decided to create my own filing system, one tailored to my interests as a minister and a "Bible guy". It also represents the coding I created for research (you know, for the top corner of note cards while in the library). I based it on the American Library of Congress system. I truncate a digit for simplicity, and then fudge some categories in order to make room for my own (I didn't really need a top level category for Naval Science). One benefit is that for my subject areas, I've now memorized the general LC assignments. Here is text file index of the raw folder system that depicts the subfolders of subfolders of folders, etc. Note that it contains some areas that really only match with my interests (such as a folder for Racquetball or for Applescript), but by in large it will match with the interests of ministers and religious scholars in general. If you're inclined to get hyper organized, and would like to use some part of this system, here is a stuffit archive file that contains the complete set of nested folders. And for our Windoze sisters and brothers, here is a .zip file. (Additional note: If you'd like to create your own detailed, tab heierarchy folder list in a text file like the one I provide above, I can send you an Applescript that will use your own text file as a basis and create the entire folder structure, without you having to do any of the grunt work. 1/18) You don't have to worry about trouble finding documents because they are "buried" in subfolders. Take my sermon folders, for instance... Here's a glance: Notice that the sermon folder is selected, and notice that the search box in the window toolbar is set to "Selection". This means all I need do is type in "mark" and the window instantly displays any nested file within the selected folder matching what you type. Well, you can do more with the Find File feature as well. Bringing the Finder to the front and using File/Find is where you need to turn to look for files not just by name but by content. But this should be enough organization for now.
2 comments:
Good stuff! Now I just need a month completely clear so that I can organize my computer files, my paper files, my books, my life...
This looks like a great system, I look forward to creating my own version of it. As a "full-time" traveling evangelist my needs are slightly different, but this is a great start. Thank you for sharing it.
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