Organizing Documents

When I select a time, registration will open for those preregistered. Soon after, if there are still slots available, I’ll post the registration link here for anyone else who wants to join.

Before your first class, I’ll also require you to sign this confidentiality agreement.

• Discussed value of using large icons on Desktop to prevent clutter
• Learned to use View Options (via the View menu) to set Sort: Snap to Grid, choose icon size, and specify grid spacing (density)
• Learned to mouse over an abbreviated file name to see its full name in a tooltip
• Learned to enter rename mode of a selected file by pressing Return
• Made reference to voice control and dictation, deferred until a future workshop
• Introduced concept of Desktop as giant window in icon view with no toolbars
• Learned to access Desktop via a Finder window, such as via Go > Desktop
• Learned to change views in a Finder window, such as Icon, List, and Column, each with its specific benefits
• Learned to navigate to the Enclosing [Parent] Folder using Command+Up, such as to move or rename the folder that an item resides inside
• Discussed the concept of hierarchy to define the structure of folders and subfolders
• Learned to use disclosure triangles to open folders in-place when in List view
• Discussed the purpose of an alias as a link or shortcut to a file or folder stored elsewhere
• Differentiated between iCloud and iCloud Drive
• Discussed local storage usage of iCloud Drive items and how to distinguish between items downloaded to or evicted from the Mac
• Outlined reasons to Optimize Mac Storage if available local storage is limited and reasons not to evict items in advance of travel in case one is offline
• Introduced bird, the background process that manages iCloud Drive syncing, which you can quit using Activity Monitor if syncing stops working
• Discussed folder naming conventions
• Learned to resize columns in a Finder window by dragging the column borders
• Learned to change the size of icons in a Finder window using Command+Plus and Command+Minus
• Learned to use zoom controls in Zoom to increase or decrease the size of a shared screen, either selecting preset percentages in the (⋯) menu of the screen share or, if available, pinching in or out on a trackpad
• Recommended moving unused items into an “archive” folder to make other items more accessible
• Learned to rename folders with one or more leading spaces, symbols, numbers, or letters to force them to the top of the list and/or in a specific order
• Recommended including the date at the beginning or end of the names of multiple versions of the same document; suggested using Year–Month–Day as the order of the date numerals to ensure they remain in proper chronological order
• Discussed archive conventions in email
• Learned to scroll using mouse/trackpad while dragging one or more selected items until the destination is visible
• Explored tags in the Finder to group disparately located items
• Learned to see the hierarchical location of a selected Finder item using the Path Bar
• Learned to rename tags and specify their colors in Finder settings
• Learned to toggle between the Zoom meeting participants and a shared screen using tabs at the top of the window
• Differentiated between searching for text in filenames vs. all content and changing the search scope between the whole Mac and the current folder (default in both Finder and Mail is to search for all everywhere)
• Learned to choose what types of search results Spotlight displays, including the ability to disable Websites, thus preventing Spotlight from searching the Internet
• Mentioned Dropbox as another syncing service users might have set up for storing documents, often both in cloud and on Mac, and as an opportunity to reduce expenses by consolidating where files are stored

Reflecting on the workshop experience as a whole, Jeanne shared perhaps the most poignant insight and others agreed: “These sessions tend not to follow what you expect, but what comes up in serendipity is so interesting.”