Organizing Applications

[cycler15]

When I open Finder and view all the application, are they actually stored there? Or are those just icons that point to another location?

I'm asking because my application list is getting large and I want to organize the applications into folders like games, media players, etc. Am I able to just move the applications into appropriate folders? Or are those the actual app files that cannot be moved because other settings reference their location?

Can other people explain how they've organized their apps when they have a large #?

 

[plinden]

They're the actual apps - but be careful if you move anything. Apps that you dragged into the Applications folder can be moved, but apps installed via an installer generally can't (the iApps, MS Office, Adobe software etc).

But why bother moving anything anyway? Try using Spotlight as an app launcher. It's much faster than hunting down an application from Finder. I hardly ever see my Applications folder.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I probably have a large number of apps, but don't really know because I very rarely enter the applications folder. Usually I just spotlight for whatever application I need. Much faster than looking it up, even if I was extremely organized.

EDIT: plinden is like spotlight, and I'm like manually going through the folder.

 

[treefullofapple]

I'll pitch in here - i'm not such a spotlight user, in fact i'm a big fan of the left shortcut bar, and like to have things ready to hand there... and, to answer your question - yes you can organise your apps folder!

Though, within reason. I wouldn't go moving a folder containing multiple applications & subfolders (i.e. the Office folder, or my CS4 folder). You're safe with self-contained apps though - anything else just takes a little common sense. Likely you can throw it around a bit.

I've attached a picture of my apps folder. I label blue for Specific App/s Folder, green for Multiple Apps folder, and leave the rest in the root. Never encountered an issue, and my mac feng shui is happy.

hope that helps!



[EDIT] Ah, i'm pretty icon happy - i change them a lot, and generally dislike the plain folder icon so will change it to anything else. Hope it's not confusing.

 

[BobZune]

You can also create aliases (shortcuts) for each application and organize those.