Categorizing the Applications folder

[ChrisH3677]

edit: I've just been made aware (by a reply post from Brian Hickman), that Software Update no longer works properly when you do this. So you might as well ignore this post. Thanks for saving me Brian.

It just sunk in today that I can move apps around without them going haywire. (oh - except, I found out, for MS Office apps. They have to stay in the MSO folder)

I've known this for ages but the value of it just hit me today.

I created a series of sub-folders in my Applications folder, with names being categories. I then drag and dropped all my applications into their relevant category folders.

I also (using FinderIconCM to make it easy) replaced the category folder icons with ones that suited them.

I then dragged the Applications folder onto the Dock. Voila! I now have a simple and easy to use application launcher!

And when I install a new app, i will simply drag it into it's relevant category.

This has two advantages over simply putting the normal Applications folder in the Dock

1) It displays faster because there's not zillions of icons to collect and display
2) The shorter lists are easier to navigate and the categories make it easier to find what i want.

Attached is a screen dump to show the result.

 

[danman]

I then dragged the Applications folder onto the Dock. Voila! I now have a simple and easy to use application launcher!

Why bother 'ol man?

Personally, the best $20 I spent in a while, was for LaunchBar truly a great little app.

(Shame I bought it so many months ago, as it's practically only £10 now

 

[Applespider]

I did that when I got my first PB in January and it promptly led to kernel panics so I put all my Apps back where they were and deleted the subfolders. I thought I read something suggesting that you leave them where they are back then.

Then again, that was the PB that had lots of kernel panics so perhaps it wasn't necessarily because of moving the Apps into subfolders.

 

[virividox]

kernel panicks shouldnt be caused by moving around application folders around; if anything it would be mvoing around files in the osx folder. probably something wrong with your hardware rather than moving the files around.

 

[ChrisH3677]

Why bother 'ol man?

Personally, the best $20 I spent in a while, was for LaunchBar truly a great little app.

two simple reasons....
it was free!!
and I couldn't find any app launcher I liked (including LaunchBar which has a 5 star rating on MacUpdate. but it wasn't what i wanted).

All I wanted was my apps categorized (and easily so) and for any new ones to be automatically added. Of course this way I still have to manually categorize, but no launcher i saw (which had categories) automated that.

 

[GroundLoop]

It just sunk in today that I can move apps around without them going haywire. (oh - except, I found out, for MS Office apps. They have to stay in the MSO folder)

I've known this for ages but the value of it just hit me today.

I created a series of sub-folders in my Applications folder, with names being categories. I then drag and dropped all my applications into their relevant category folders.

I also (using FinderIconCM to make it easy) replaced the category folder icons with ones that suited them.

I then dragged the Applications folder onto the Dock. Voila! I now have a simple and easy to use application launcher!

And when I install a new app, i will simply drag it into it's relevant category.

This has two advantages over simply putting the normal Applications folder in the Dock

1) It displays faster because there's not zillions of icons to collect and display
2) The shorter lists are easier to navigate and the categories make it easier to find what i want.

Attached is a screen dump to show the result.

I tried doing this last week. But there are a few shortcomings. Have you tried running software update yet? SU kept asking me to install iPhoto 2, and other updates wouldn't show up (like iDVD 4.0.1). After a few days I just moved my iApps back to the head of the Applications folder and all is good.

I just wish SU would look through the entire Applications folder tree and not just the top level.

Hickman

 

[ChrisH3677]

doh! thanks Brian. There's prob a few apps that will suffer that prob.

doh doh doh!

Oh well! I'll just have to wait for Apple to include apps categorization in OSX.

 

[ChrisH3677]

ok... plan B. I'll just set up a folder of shortcuts and put that on my Dock