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Piggie

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
9,117
4,016
I don't know about anyone else, but something I would like would be subfolders in two areas on the iPad.

1: In the photo album, it does not allow Sub Folders, so for example I can't have a folder called Holidays, another called Family, One called pets, and in those then have my sub folders, so I can have a nicely organised and easy to find large photo collection.

2: On the desktop we now have folders, which are a welcome addition, but again, we can't create sub folders and given the very limited number of app icons you can have in each folder, there is just not enough room.
Games being the worst problem. I would like a games folder, then inside this I'd like sub folders such as sports, adventure, action, card etc.
At the moment I have to have multiple games folders on my desktop as I cannot fit them all within one folder.

Am I alone in wanting sub folders in these two areas?
 

ssdeg7

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2010
749
2
I don't know about anyone else, but something I would like would be subfolders in two areas on the iPad.

1: In the photo album, it does not allow Sub Folders, so for example I can't have a folder called Holidays, another called Family, One called pets, and in those then have my sub folders, so I can have a nicely organised and easy to find large photo collection.

That would come in handy.
 

neko girl

macrumors 6502a
Jan 20, 2011
988
0
@Piggie, I would say for #1 you could name your albums so that you name your albums "Holidays - Christmas '09", "Holidays - Thanksgiving '10", etc. Also, have you tried the Faces feature in iPhoto? It really helps you find somebody if you didn't know they were at a certain place at a certain time when you took pictures. There's Places too that iTunes your iPhone picks up automatically if you're taking pictures with your iPhone.

For #2, if you jailbreak there is an extension called Folder Enhancer. Check out some details here: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2010/10/folderenchancer-jailbreak-app-enchances-ios-4-folders.html
 

Acorn

macrumors 68030
Jan 2, 2009
2,642
349
macrumors
i like the idea of subfolders. as long as the navigation remains the same. i dont want it to turn into osx or anything. i kind of like the simplicity of it. thats why many of my family like it. if they get confused they can just hit the home button. plus navigation feels natural and onscreen buttons easy to press. so um yea sub folders wouldnt be a bad thing but i wouldnt go much deeper then that.
 

jb1280

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2009
869
255
I'm certainly not opposed to the idea, but do you just allow one layer of subfolders or you do you allow endless layers?

I honestly get the idea of "user choice" in things like this, but I question the overall utility of having endless drilling into folders.

Say you have 4 subcategories of games.

If you had one larger game folder with 4 subfolders, it's two actions to get to a particular game compared to if you have 4 game folders next to each other on the home screen.

If you even have enough folders that lead to populating a second page, that's still only two actions to get a particular app.

On a slightly related topic, Apple definitely needs to expand the concept of "collections" from iBooks to the iWork apps, photo app, and video app.
 

Piggie

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
9,117
4,016
To clarify a few point.

For my own needs, and I guess most others. I'd say personally 1 level of sub folders should probably be enough to satisfy most people.

As a few examples:

In the photo App, I could have a Holdays folder, then sub folders of the individual holidays. A Pets folder, with sub folders of my individual pets.
A Parties folder, containing parties I'd been to, and so on and so on.

On the desktop, I would right away make a folder called Games, and within this folder I'd have Driving, Sports, Card, Arcade, Adventure, Action, etc sub folders.

As I say, for most uses I think just 1 level of sub folders would probably be enough to keep the majority happy without over complicating things, allowing everyone to keep things neat and tidy with a easy structure to navigate.

I realise, in the photo's app, I can make, Holiday 2005, Holiday 2006, Holiday 2007, Holiday, 2008, Holiday 2009, Holiday 2010, Cat pics, Dog Pics, Parents Wedding Pics, Parents Child Pics, Parents retirement pics, Party at daves, Party at Sarahs, Parts at Bills, Party at Steves etc etc

However this really is a messy way of doing it, and it would be like on your computer having everything on your root directory of your hard drive.

I'm not asking for 20 level deep subfolders so you'd have to hunt for things.
But I do honestly feel, many would find 1 level of sub folder, quite a nice way to neaten up their data in a better way that is possible now.

Just my thoughts anyway, I'm sure there are those who would disagree :D

I suppose I see it as, let us make 1 level of sub folder, and for those who won't wish to, they don't have to.
 

Sydde

macrumors 68030
Aug 17, 2009
2,552
7,050
IOKWARDI
I realise, in the photo's app, I can make, Holiday 2005, Holiday 2006, Holiday 2007, Holiday, 2008, Holiday 2009, Holiday 2010, Cat pics, Dog Pics, Parents Wedding Pics, Parents Child Pics, Parents retirement pics, Party at daves, Party at Sarahs, Parts at Bills, Party at Steves etc etc

However this really is a messy way of doing it, and it would be like on your computer having everything on your root directory of your hard drive.

iOS is based on Mac OS X. I believe the filesystem is essentially HFS+, with most of the features you would find in the HD version. One important but apparently ignored feature of the filesystem is its rich metadata capability. One might hope that Apple will attempt some effective implementation of metadata as a replacement for nested folders. You would just drop tags onto your files to define their categorization, then you could use tag values to filter the folder content. I believe such a concept could be developed into something even more powerful than standard folder hierarchies, and Apple has the tools and creative thinkers to bring it about.
 

Dr Kevorkian94

macrumors 68020
Jun 9, 2009
2,175
76
SI, NY
En I'm not much of a sub folder guy even on my actual Mac, I agree on the photo album but not the desktop. They could add it but I would not use it but that is just me.
 

Piggie

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
9,117
4,016
En I'm not much of a sub folder guy even on my actual Mac, I agree on the photo album but not the desktop. They could add it but I would not use it but that is just me.

Fair enough, we all have different needs/wants, that's part of being human, and a bit of what some might think of as a slight issue with Apple in they want us to all be happy with the exact same thing.

But anyway, out of interest how do you organise your desktop apps, or the ones you have more of?

I will admit, I have more games than any other type of app, despite the fact I don't play them that much, but I like to "have a go" at them :)

On my desktop I have the following folders:

Classic Games
Vehicle Games
Arcade Games
Puzzle Games
Relax Games
Action Games

I don't really want that many categories, but as you can only have a set number of icons/apps in each folder, I had to break them down somehow.

For me, it would be nice, as I said, to have just one Games folder, to keep my desktop as clean as possible, then once opened I could see these sub folders.

This is the reason I'd like them, and as time goes by, and perhaps larger memory iPads come along meaning more apps, I can only see the problem getting worse.
 

phyrexia

macrumors 6502a
Sep 3, 2010
612
3
If you think of springboard pages as folders and ios folders as subcats it works out alright, although i agree with what has been said here.

i have an everyday page, a music page, a game page, with folders on all of them.
 
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