Create folders in Applications directory

Some applications do make assumptions of where it is located. This most often becomes nan issue when doing updates to the program. Won't be an issue for all apps, but some may give you trouble.

 

Actually no it isn't because Microsoft office automatically groups so does Iwork Photoshop and a few others and I recognize an app by it's symbol

 

Spotlight is the answer for quick access. I haven't been in the Applications folder in longer than I can remember.

You can group many apps into subdirectories, but as was mentioned earlier, the MS and i-Apps (along with CS, apparently) must be at the root of the directory for proper updating.

Making an application specific or reserved to a given user is just a matter of putting it in the appropriate ~/Applications directory instead of /Applications.

 

You could make a folder in your Applications folder for frequently used software, then make aliases for the frequently used software and put them in that folder, then drag that folder to the Dock.

 

This is what I have done. I have a favorite apps folder with aliases of my frequently used apps (ones not so frequent as to reside on my doc though).

I also took the time one day to create folders by type - Audio/Video Editing, Web Site Design/FTP, Document Editing, Browsers & email, Apps to try, etc. I like my system a lot; it works well for me.

I have a question though. When I use Spotlight to find an app, but my clone is mounted as well, it returns both apps. How do I turn that off so that Spotlight doesn't look at my clone?

 

Okay, I'm on OS 10.4.11 Tiger so this may be slightly different for your OS. Go to System Preferences. Go to Spotlight. Go to the Privacy tab. Drag your clone into the window/or click the "+" button and find your clone and select it. Close System Preferences.

 

Worked perfectly! Thank you so much.

 

You are making this way too hard. Most MacOS X applications can be placed anywhere that you want to place them. Only a subset of applications that are installed using an installer must be placed in the Applications folder. Applications that are installed by drag and drop can almost universally be placed almost anywhere. FWIW, one of the great challenges for newbies is that drag and drop Mac apps can be run from within the Desktop mounted disk image. They never actually install the app on their hard drive.

 

Technically, they do. Whenever I've done that, they always leave behind their usual set of preference files.