Hi. I am wondering if there is a way to create a link back to an original document? (Almost like a "shortcut".)
Let me explain more...
I do research for my business, and currently have hundreds of thousands of news articles (PDFs) and videos (MP4s) on my Mac. Each file starts with a timestamp (e.g. "20251014_Chicago Protests Grow More Heated.pdf").
As part of my research, I want to take an article/video like above, and have two copies of it...
1.) The original file would be placed in a master directory called "NEWS (By Date)", and then
2.) A copy of the original file would be placed in another master directory called "NEWS (By Topic)".
Normally, I would just make a copy of the file and place it in two places, but considering that I have close to 3 Terabytes of files, I am not very motivated to double the amount of storage I need!
So is there a way to make a "link" or "shortcut" or "permalink" (Have heard that term but not sure what it is?) or something?
One KEY requirement, is that I need the shortcut/link to ALWAYS point back to the original file - even if I move the original file around on my local hard-drive.
Even better, if I moved the original file to another hard-drive - plus the shortcut/link - then it would be nice if things till worked. (For example, if I move the "NEWS (By Date)" folder to another hard-drive, and then I also copied the "NEWS (By Topic)" folder to that same new hard-drive, then it would be nice if the shortcuts/links still worked - since from a relative standpoint, they are in the same place as when on my Mac.
ALSO, I am open to other suggestions of how to tackle this problem and avoid having to DOUBLE my storage needs - as a 4TB SSD is pretty pricey!
In the end, I need every article/video to be in two separate directories because sometimes I need these articles/videos to be ordered BY DATE and other times I need them BY TOPIC, but I need them listed in both ways, and since I have THOUSANDS of directories, this is NOT as simple as merely having ONE FOLDER and sorting the files as needed - plus there isn't a way to sort "By Topic" in macOS.
Thanks!
Let me explain more...
I do research for my business, and currently have hundreds of thousands of news articles (PDFs) and videos (MP4s) on my Mac. Each file starts with a timestamp (e.g. "20251014_Chicago Protests Grow More Heated.pdf").
As part of my research, I want to take an article/video like above, and have two copies of it...
1.) The original file would be placed in a master directory called "NEWS (By Date)", and then
2.) A copy of the original file would be placed in another master directory called "NEWS (By Topic)".
Normally, I would just make a copy of the file and place it in two places, but considering that I have close to 3 Terabytes of files, I am not very motivated to double the amount of storage I need!
So is there a way to make a "link" or "shortcut" or "permalink" (Have heard that term but not sure what it is?) or something?
One KEY requirement, is that I need the shortcut/link to ALWAYS point back to the original file - even if I move the original file around on my local hard-drive.
Even better, if I moved the original file to another hard-drive - plus the shortcut/link - then it would be nice if things till worked. (For example, if I move the "NEWS (By Date)" folder to another hard-drive, and then I also copied the "NEWS (By Topic)" folder to that same new hard-drive, then it would be nice if the shortcuts/links still worked - since from a relative standpoint, they are in the same place as when on my Mac.
ALSO, I am open to other suggestions of how to tackle this problem and avoid having to DOUBLE my storage needs - as a 4TB SSD is pretty pricey!
In the end, I need every article/video to be in two separate directories because sometimes I need these articles/videos to be ordered BY DATE and other times I need them BY TOPIC, but I need them listed in both ways, and since I have THOUSANDS of directories, this is NOT as simple as merely having ONE FOLDER and sorting the files as needed - plus there isn't a way to sort "By Topic" in macOS.
Thanks!
