Apple uses the folder convention in a variety of ways to contain groups of data elements in various applications. Most notably, the ones in Mail are called mailboxes even though they clearly look the same as the folders in the Finder, Notes, and just about anywhere else.

Additionally, some applications like Mail and Notes support accounts, which are parent identities that contain folders. And finally, some applications support multiple hierarchical levels of folder structure while others are flat with only one level possible.

Overall, it’s important to differentiate between these different container types so we can organize our data across applications and remember where to find and interact with them.

The Lowly File Folder

In the Finder, we store files in folders and can additionally create extensive hierarchies of folders to categorically organize them. In any Finder window showing an existing volume or folder where you have permission to create something new, you can make a new folder.

The command is in the File menu or you can press Shift+Command+N. Just type the name of the folder and press Return.

It’s unlikely that you’ll run up against the limit of filename length or folder depth but these do exist. Nonetheless, I encourage you to utilize the provided folders in your Home directory and/or in iCloud Drive to organize your stuff. And maybe don’t let Downloads overflow lest you forget what’s there.

Then, perhaps you can get acquainted with your structure and know where to find files so you can do so more quickly than randomly searching for them. I suspect that only your most frequently accessed files will be easier to open using Spotlight or another launching tool.

Email Messages Go in Mailboxes

It might seem only logical that mail goes in a mailbox, but I regularly work with clients who confuse mailboxes in Mail with folders in the Finder. This leads to one thinking they’ve lost an important file that is actually attached to an email message, or wondering why they can’t find a certain text in Mail because it’s actually a document to be found in the Finder.

It’s okay to have a similar categorical hierarchy in each application. However, mailboxes are a little more difficult to manage compared to folders. When searching, you can find out which mailbox a given message is in but can’t then jump to that mailbox. (In the Finder, you can show the Path Bar and easily reveal any parent folder in the current hierarchy.)

Additionally, only in the most recent versions of Mail can you search for a mailbox by name and jump to it, which is handy if you can’t remember where it’s located. And, you can show the aggregate of messages located in multiple mailboxes by multi-selecting the boxes. However, if mailboxes contain child mailboxes, you have to open them, too, to have them included in the aggregate.

Tip: Hold Option when clicking a disclosure triangle and all of the children in that mailbox will open or close. (The same trick works among folders in List view in the Finder.)

Flat Hierarchies, Segregated Accounts

Some applications, like Notes and Contacts, only allow one folder level. This is simply a verbal categorization of a group of items that still exist in the master “All” set that appears at the top of the sidebar. In Contacts, these verbal categories are called Groups and serve the additional capability of sending an email to the members of a group all at once.

Various accounts that support email usually also support notes. Notably, before Apple offered Notes as a separate application, early versions of Mail offered a way to create and organize notes.

You may have multiple email accounts with providers like iCloud, Gmail, and/or Exchange, each with the ability to store contacts and calendars in addition to mail and notes. These separate account identities provide a higher level container for the standard groups, segregating sets of groups from each other.

Account names appear in light gray above a set of folders, like iCloud in the screenshot above, or On My Mac and iCloud in the previous section.

After you build your familiarity with these various types of grouping containers, you can become facile with organizing your data among them, each in the appropriate application.

Next week, we’ll explore some reasons you might choose one application over another for various specific purposes, such as taking notes, making lists, managing email, and more.