Organizing Documents

Client Notes

Last week, I helped Layli explore advanced parental control options for her kids’ devices, enabled Sigrid to become more efficient with her business processes, and got Marci’s phone working in her car for the first time in a while.

I also facilitated my third TEACH workshop, leading a lively discussion about organizing documents, hence today’s topic. As last time, we covered a tremendous amount of content and participants asked a wide range of questions to propel our learning together.

Upon reflection at the end, we agreed on one key insight shared by Jeanne and the reason she keeps coming back: “These sessions tend not to follow what you expect, but what comes up in serendipity is so interesting.”

Big, Dense & Snappy

When too many documents are on the Desktop, they start to pile up in the top right corner. Obviously, smaller icons enable more accumulation. Thus, to reach saturation quicker and force me to organize items sooner, I prefer to keep my desktop icons as big as can be: 128×128.

Also, I like to see all my desktop items but find randomly placed icons distracting. So, I prefer to keep them all perpetually visible in a grid, but one that isn’t too spacious. You can set any of these metrics in the View Options panel, toggled near the bottom of the Finder’s View menu or with Command+J.

View Documents as a List

In a Finder window, I mostly prefer to view documents as a List, using the command in the View menu, toolbar button, or Command+2. When sorted by name, I can also have folders shown at the top of the list, above any extraneous files.

This enables me to easily triage a bunch of items using the arrow keys to quickly and precisely move through the list: Up and Down are primary selectors and Right and Left can open and close folders in the hierarchy. The angle glyph shown next to a folder is called a “disclosure triangle” because activating it discloses the contents of the folder.

Additionally, Command+Down opens a selected item, including showing the contents of a folder, and Command+Up goes up a level in the hierarchy, showing the enclosing folder.

In List view, you can click any column header to sort by that metadata. Click again to toggle between ascending and descending. Drag the border between two columns to resize the column.

Plus, right-click or Control+click column headers to see available columns and add/remove them. Use Command+Plus and Command+Minus to increase or decrease icon sizes. (View Options is also available for each of these.)

Name Documents to Be Informative

In many Finder views, a long file name is truncated. Thus, there is value in beginning the name with information that will support you to recognize it in a folder or list of search results. This could be a date, subject matter, name, or other category.

Of course, if you have patience and want to find out the full name of a document, you can mouse over the name. In a second or so, it will appear in a tooltip.

Naming conventions are especially valuable if you tend to locate documents using search and don’t want to have to remember where a file was located to know its relationship to other items.

Sort & Arrange Documents By Name

When you have a deep hierarchy of folders and subfolders, it’s helpful to have files sort in a reasonable way. A leading letter, number, or symbol adds only one character width to the length of a name.

To start renaming a selected item, just press Return. Then, you can easily place the cursor at the beginning of the name by pressing the Up or Left arrow key. Here are some sorting approaches to consider:

1. Start with a space. Alphabetically, a space supersedes all other characters, so when items are sorted by name, a leading space causes an item to jump to the top.
2. Symbols, such as those typed by Shift+Number, are next. For example, an asterisk (*), plus (+), or tilde (~) is an attractive character to precede a name that you want to appear near the top of a list.
3. Numbers are a great way to order a set of documents or folders, especially when the file names are not themselves in alphabetical order. Or, you can use numeric dates as a name prefix, as when listing a series of revisions of the same document. If the items span multiple years, it’s a good idea to use a Year–Month–Day format so they remain in chronological order.
4. Finally, letters can push files to a particular position, such as the beginning or end of an alphabetical list. That is, start with a z and you’ll find the item hugging the bottom.

Organizing Documents

I recommend keeping on the Desktop only the items you are actively using or are in the process of filing, just as you might on your physical desk. Most everything else belongs in Documents, which is like a file cabinet in your office.

Do you have documents you haven’t touched in a while or just don’t want to let go of? To reduce your clutter, consider archiving them. Literally, create a folder called “Archive” (or “z Archive” if you prefer) and move to it the files and folders in a given domain, or a larger hierarchy, that don’t need to occupy space your main list.

Archives are representative of the boxes or cabinets you store in a closet, basement, storage unit, etc.

Movement Methods

When moving files and folders to new locations in your hierarchy, there are a few ways to go. First, it’s good to remember how to multi-select items. With a selection, if you have yet to create the destination folder, you can use File > New Folder with Selection or Control+Command+N to create a folder that contains them.

Otherwise, when you select the items you want to move into a folder — assuming the destination is in the same folder as the selection — you have a few ways to get them to their new home:

• Click and drag the items. If the destination is not visible in the window, you may need to drag above or below the visible list, forcing the list to scroll, until you get there. Careful: Scrolling speed is proportional to cursor distance from the top or bottom of the list.
• Copy the selection. Then, open the destination folder. Press Command+Option+V or hold Option and use the Edit > Move Item(s) Here command.
• Click and drag the items. If the destination is not visible in the window, use another finger on your mouse or two fingers on your trackpad, scroll up or down until the destination is visible. Then, complete your drag.

If the destination is not in the same folder as the source, you can use the Move Item Here command; involve yourself with spring-loaded folders; or make a second Finder window, navigate to the destination, and drag the items there.

Trackpad Tips

When using multiple fingers on a trackpad as in the latter method above: If it’s difficult for you to use additional fingers of the same hand, you can use two fingers of your other hand to scroll while holding the item with the original finger.

On a trackpad, I prefer to use my thumb to click, my middle finger to drag, and my middle and ring fingers to scroll.