PC user-New to Mac ....Help

[talmy]

I've attached screen shots from Windows 7 Explorer and Mavericks Finder. Windows 7 shows the path to the file in three separate places (marked in boxes). Mavericks shows it in three separate places marked by arrows, only the top one is a tweak, the bottom is a menu selection (path bar) and the drop down comes from setting up the toolbar. Not shown is that the triangles by the folder names let you view hierarchy and thus combines the functions of the Navigation and Details pane of Windows. Of course, Mavericks also has column view as an alternative way to see hierarchy as well as preview files without having to hit the space bar on them.

But I usually turn these off (I turned them on for the picture, including the Navigation pane in Windows) since I rarely care exactly where the files are located.

Searches can get quite sophisticated if you use Spotlight from a Finder Window or start Spotlight using command-option-spacebar. And it always shows the path to each file. (See the third image.)

Anyway this thread seems to be more of a "pity party" rather than looking for constructive solutions.

 

[laurim]

It's interesting to see what a Windows user doesn't understand about OSX Finder. I primarily use OSX and occasionally Windows and I wouldn't call Windows file organization easy to use at all. I wish I had a dime for every Windows user I've had to help find a file on their computer. OSX's Columns view and being able to look at a file's contents without opening an application by just highlighting it (or multiples) and tapping the spacebar has saved me countless time when I just want to look through files to know what I want to copy to another drive, import to my movie editing app or attach to an email. I can even look at an entire Word or Excel document I get from a client while in Mail without detaching it, even though I don't have Mac Office, because Pages and Numbers can open them and enables the quick preview function without opening them. SUCH a convenience.

Columns view in Finder shows you exactly what the nested folder hierarchy is and makes it super easy to move files around by dragging or Option-drag to copy. There are actually add-ons for Windows you can get to mimic this functionality so it must be useful for Windows people.

 

[matrix07]

I want to put any photos I have (I don't have many) in a folder of my choice that **I** can organise the way **I** want.

Old habit dies hard I know but Event in iPhoto and folder are the same. When you drag a folder into iPhoto it will appear as an event, with the same name as original folder even.
You can have Face (to see all your friends or relatives in one place), you can have Place (where have you been), and you can sort event (folder) by date the photos were taken. All these a PC could not do.
iPhoto is far superior. You just can't get used to it, or you just have too little photo to see its benefit.

As for email I am still using my PC for mail, I have not checked the Mac mail program yet but from a little that was shown in a video that I watched I think I will be looking for an aftermarket program.

Aftermarket is fine but the built-in one on Mac is far superior than any built--in one on Windows, which is none. Smart folder and Rule, these two thing save me a lot of hassle of managing mail everyday.
You're just too harsh on Mac for no reason than you're not willing to work with it.

 

[matrix07]

It's interesting to see what a Windows user doesn't understand about OSX Finder. I primarily use OSX and occasionally Windows and I wouldn't call Windows file organization easy to use at all.

Windows Explorer is superior to Finder. The hierarchy sidebar is what makes the difference. It makes it so easy to see your whole computer world at a glance and you can arrange everything with it. You can drag your files or folders to anywhere in your system with this sidebar. In OSX I usually have to open 2 Finder windows to do this.
For example, in Finder sidebar you can see all your externals attached but in Windows sidebar you will see all externals AND all the folders within them in one place.

 

[imajez]

Thanks for the tip imajez I will try it later.
What is 'Pathfinder'?

Pathfinder is an essential replacement for the the useless Finder.
I linked to it above in post 44 and mentioned some other bits and pieces that may help you out.

As for finding files using the search thingo on the Mac it seems to me that the major non fixable flaw in it is that it presumes that you know that name of the file you are looking for.

Nail. Head. Hit.
This is the deal breaking flaw about such organising that keyword and tagging evangelists completely overlook. The other thing they overlook is that good keywording takes time and effort - well worth it, but it's hard word if you have a lot of content.

The best system is a robust and sensible heirachical filing system that works for yourself which is also keyworded/tagged. Best of both worlds.

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It's interesting to see what a Windows user doesn't understand about OSX Finder. I primarily use OSX and occasionally Windows and I wouldn't call Windows file organization easy to use at all. I wish I had a dime for every Windows user I've had to help find a file on their computer.

Columns view in Finder shows you exactly what the nested folder hierarchy is and makes it super easy to move files around by dragging or Option-drag to copy. There are actually add-ons for Windows you can get to mimic this functionality so it must be useful for Windows people.

I can't stand columns view, it's just painful when you have deeply nested folder, so the Mac way of doing things is thus very difficult as there is no folder tree, if using my preference the list view.
The tree view is not a Windows thing per se either, as Adobe products amongst others also use it too.

 

[imajez]

I've attached screen shots from Windows 7 Explorer and Mavericks Finder. Windows 7 shows the path to the file in three separate places (marked in boxes). Mavericks shows it in three separate places marked by arrows, only the top one is a tweak, the bottom is a menu selection (path bar) and the drop down comes from setting up the toolbar.

Yet none of the three Finder path clues are not visible when you first open open Finder. An awful lot of Mac defaults are blithering useless in my view, such as disabling right clicking, duh! I like my Mac, but I spent ages making it functional by replacing crappy Apple software with useful programmes, enabling terminal tweaks and faffing around in settings. They do not 'just work' because very like PCs they need to be tweaked to make them good.

But I usually turn these off (I turned them on for the picture, including the Navigation pane in Windows) since I rarely care exactly where the files are located.
Anyway this thread seems to be more of a "pity party" rather than looking for constructive solutions.

But the OP does care where things are located and why some of the 'solutions' are missing the point and people seem to be trying to force their way of doing things than actually giving relevant advice.

 

[imajez]

Old habit dies hard I know but Event in iPhoto and folder are the same. When you drag a folder into iPhoto it will appear as an event, with the same name as original folder even.
You can have Face (to see all your friends or relatives in one place), you can have Place (where have you been), and you can sort event (folder) by date the photos were taken. All these a PC could not do.
iPhoto is far superior. You just can't get used to it, or you just have too little photo to see its benefit.

The problem with iPhoto+ Aperture I believe is that you cannot just import an already existing and carefully organised folder structure, So effectively you have to start completely from scratch. Which is an awful lot of work if you are an organised person with lots of tidy data.
Lightroom is far superior in this regard [and most others come to that] as you can import your current folder structure as it is and you are done. On top of that it has very good virtual folders or collections, some dumb, some smart which is how iPhoto works. This means you have the best of both worlds organisationally.

Aftermarket is fine but the built-in one on Mac is far superior than any built--in one on Windows, which is none. Smart folder and Rule, these two thing save me a lot of hassle of managing mail everyday.
You're just too harsh on Mac for no reason than you're not willing to work with it.

I'd say the same about people's comments re PCs in this and virtually every other thread on MacRumours.
Outlook is certainly superior to Mail and I notice Mail has copied Outlook attributes over time too. Not sure why people think others have to stick with the default software. Apple make good computers but lots of crappy software and if people want to use something other than the noddy stuff already on a Mac, which on PCs gets called bloatware. Some people like the free software, other want something more functional for their needs.

And if someone comments about having to pay extra for stuff that comes free with a Mac. You can easily buy a good PC and add the software you actually want for less than a Mac will cost to buy. Apple sell computers, not software.

 

[imajez]

Windows Explorer is superior to Finder.

And if you like to use a File Manager, nothing comes close to the power and cleverness of Directory Opus. It's like the Photoshop and Lightroom combined of file managers. Incredibly powerful and best of all exceptionally well thought out.
I used DOpus on my PC to organise data on my Macs via the network as it is so much faster and more efficient.
I really miss having it on my Macs as it saves so much time.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE re PCs + Mac and folders.
OSX does not merge Folders like a PC, it replaces them.
Not only that, it deletes the data immediately from destination folder and you cannot get it from Trash, if you realise you have made a mistake.

Though I believe in Mavericks, this finally may have been corrected in Finder, only 20+ years afters Windows managed it. I'm not using Mavericks for work yet [and never use Finder to mage files] because Apple OSX like Windows is best avoided until the bugs are ironed out. Update .3 or .4 is like SP1 with Windows.

This for instance is how DOpus handled file replacement/folder merging over 7 years back and how it should be done by all file managers.

 

[pdauser92]

Thanks for the tip imajez I will try it later.
What is 'Pathfinder'?
As for finding files using the search thingo on the Mac it seems to me that the major non fixable flaw in it is that it presumes that you know that name of the file you are looking for.

I still miss the Windows File Manager since moving to Mac around a month ago. Finder is frustrating but I'm getting used to it. After a long trawl online for alternatives I found MuCommander (http://www.mucommander.com). Its free and has features similar to those found in Windows File Manager.

 

[mtngoatjoe]

Outlook is certainly superior to Mail and I notice Mail has copied Outlook attributes over time too.

You can easily buy a good PC and add the software you actually want for less than a Mac will cost to buy. Apple sell computers, not software.

Sorry, I use Outlook 365 every day at work, and I see no reason to consider it superior to Mail. About the only thing Outlook has going for it is Voting, and even that is horribly implemented.

As for Apple software, I find iPhoto, iMovie, Numbers, and Pages to be FAR superior to the free Windows apps. I like Finder way better than Explorer. Safari is MUCH better than IE 10 or Chrome.

Don't get me wrong, there are things I'd like to see Apple do better, but I think their software is way better than what comes with PCs. And the question about whether the Mac is more more expensive than PCs is a matter of opinion. I derive a lot of value from my Mac. And if my work PC is any indication, I would get far less done with it at home than I do with my iMac.

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If you don't like the Finder, that's ok. I'm not going to tell you that you have to like it.

But I think the basic issue comes down to this (in a generalized way): Many Mac users are focused on their content, not on file management. How often do I move files on my iMac? Not very often. Usually, I save current projects to the desktop, and when I'm done, I move them to the documents folder (and maybe even one or two layers deep there). For things I access a lot, I put shortcuts in the sidebar.

The vast majority of file management needs went away with iPhoto and iTunes. And most of what was left is taken care of with iCloud in Numbers and Pages (for me anyway). I have about a dozen spreadsheets that I access every month, and because of iCloud, I don't have to worry one bit about where the files are stored, AND I can access the files anytime, anywhere.

Even if you're left with a gazillion files to manage, it's still not an issue. I work with a gazillion files every day on my PC, and I very rarely need to move anything around. I have shortcuts on the Windows sidebar (or whatever it's called), just like I can do on my Mac.

So, seriously, what is so precious about file management? I just don't get it. I make shortcuts to my working directories, and I move on with dealing with content.

And Mastic, I'm really curious about what you actually use your Mac for. You don't have many photos. You don't like music. Are you using your Mac for work or hobby? I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just want to understand what you do that causes all this file management angst.

Oh, and what junk programs are you referring to? Did you buy a used machine? I may not use most of the apps in the Utilities directory, but that doesn't mean they're junk. I bought a new iMac last year, and it was clean as a whistle, with no junk at all.

Finally, I'll make two other observations:

1. iTunes is not some spamware software from Apple. It's a very good music catalog application. I have about 1000 tracks in iTunes, and it does a great job of managing them. I very rarely buy music from Apple. I will admit iTunes does a poor job managing video content, but I have very little video content, and it works well enough for that. You did mention that you listen to the radio for music, but I've got to tell you that after using iTunes Radio for a few months, I have ZERO interest in listening to regular radio with the constant stream of commercials.
2. I don't think AppZapper is needed. If you want to get rid of an application, open the application folder and drag the app to the trash. Done.
3. The command button is next to the spacebar. On my PC keyboard, it's labeled "Alt".
4. The only thing you need to do to make a right-mouse button work on a Mac is plug the mouse in. There's no "enabeling" anything. Plug and play.
5. Spotlight is great. Use it to search for files based on their file name or CONTENT. It's very easy, very fast, and very accurate. And I think it is FAR superior to the seach available on my Win7 work PC.
6. Mac Mail is a good email app. Is it the best? Well, I think that's a matter of opinion. It does everything I want to do, and it does it well. Mail also works with Spotlight, and that is VERY handy.

Anyway, if file management floats your boat, then we'll just have to agree that we see things differently. Good luck! -Joe

 

[talmy]

OSX does not merge Folders like a PC, it replaces them.
Not only that, it deletes the data immediately from destination folder and you cannot get it from Trash, if you realise you have made a mistake.

Though I believe in Mavericks, this finally may have been corrected in Finder, only 20+ years afters Windows managed it.

Finder will give a warning that it will replace and not merge, so it is not "fixed". Luckily I only rarely want to do merging this way -- typically I want to selectively copy.

This is actually only a feature in Windows Explorer (the application program). The Windows OS doesn't merge folders.

 

[tdale]

Ya recon???
I am not impressed so far.
Trying not to be negative but so far I find the IMac a huge disappointment.

I am a recent switcher, and I feel your pain. However, I took the approach that rather than get frustrated, everything I cannot do, I will be positive and find out. I am watching videos from lynda.com to give me a thorough overview, thats a big help.

Re Window Explorer, yes, that is my main app in Windows, and Finder, while seemingly similar it is different. You seem to be like me, you want to go to C drive, D drive, make a folder, subfolders and manage your files. You can sort of do that in Finder, but you will see all the OSX system files and folders which are a concern as not familiar. Windows allows you freedom to manage your folders any way you want. Finder pushes you to forget the physical location and use the libraries, like Documents, Downloads etc. I suggest that you go that way, you can feel free to manage/create folders there and make your own filing system, just as if you focused on My Documents in Windows Explorer. Plus, then everything is in one place, and one place for backup if you backup manually.

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Sorry to take so long but I watched the videos in your links and other videos about the Mac. What I think is the same as before, the 'Finder' is overly complex and difficult to use. I have sort of changed my opinion about the Mac in general after seeing the videos though, I now see it as a music/photo machine designed to allow people to easily buy music ... Problem is that I have less than zero interest on downloading music, I have a radio for music. The Apple seems to be loaded with 'gimmick' programs that leave me completely cold. I have to start deleting a lot of the junk programs.... Trouble is there is no uninstall program included ...... Oh, what program does MS Word, pps, xls files etc on a Mac?

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I have zero interest in music on any computer, I want to put any photos I have (I don't have many) in a folder of my choice that **I** can organise the way **I** want. Smart playlist, Smart album have less than zero interest to me. As for email I am still using my PC for mail, I have not checked the Mac mail program yet but from a little that was shown in a video that I watched I think I will be looking for an aftermarket program.

The comments on Finder are interesting, as I am a VERY recent switcher, and love Windows Explorer, and yes, I do prefer to manage my files as I wish to. However, if I choose to say "ok, Documents will now be my root folder for everything I download/store/create, I can manage files and folders exactly as in Windows Explorer. Although photos, music, etc I will use the relevant apps such as iTunes/iPhoto to manage, so I feel that gives me what I want to know.

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That has been my plan since day one. Doing that now with my old desktop. Although I now think I may have prematurely given my WIn 7 laptop to my wife with the just doubled memory and SSD drive

Would have been much easier keeping the old laptop on the desk.

I tried that, I kept going back to the PC as I wished to do THIS, NOW. I have just bought a rMBP, 8GB, 512GB, i7 Quad. Two externals hard drives for backup and storage, which I intended to partition to NTFS and HTxxx whatever the OSX file format is. BUT, I have decided to go OSX 100%, so the drives will now be one for backup (not sure how yet) and one for storage, all OSX formatted. Easier, and I am enjoying the learning how, when I run into a hurdle. Forums, Google, Youtube, video's its all there

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It's interesting to see what a Windows user doesn't understand about OSX Finder. I primarily use OSX and occasionally Windows and I wouldn't call Windows file organization easy to use at all. I wish I had a dime for every Windows user I've had to help find a file on their computer. OSX's Columns view and being able to look at a file's contents without opening an application by just highlighting it (or multiples) and tapping the spacebar has saved me countless time when I just want to look through files to know what I want to copy to another drive, import to my movie editing app or attach to an email. I can even look at an entire Word or Excel document I get from a client while in Mail without detaching it, even though I don't have Mac Office, because Pages and Numbers can open them and enables the quick preview function without opening them. SUCH a convenience.

Columns view in Finder shows you exactly what the nested folder hierarchy is and makes it super easy to move files around by dragging or Option-drag to copy. There are actually add-ons for Windows you can get to mimic this functionality so it must be useful for Windows people.

Windows Explorer has Preview, which shows content as well. WE shows the disk structure, which is clear and obvious. Finder seems to focus on libraries, not the disk structure. But you can use a library focus in WE if you choose, and you can use the library structure in Finder and manage new folders etc the same as in WE. Whats easy is what you are used to, and its a key to understand what you see, then both are easy

 

[talmy]

Re Window Explorer, yes, that is my main app in Windows, and Finder, while seemingly similar it is different. You seem to be like me, you want to go to C drive, D drive, make a folder, subfolders and manage your files. You can sort of do that in Finder, but you will see all the OSX system files and folders which are a concern as not familiar.

There are certain parts of the hierarchy that should not be messed with in OS X -- anything outside of your Home folder (since that's all shared among users if you set up for more than one user), and your Library folder, which is kept hidden. The folders Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music are there to help you get organized but you can ignore them if you wish. By default iMovie uses Movies, iPhoto uses Pictures, iTunes uses Music, but you can move their databases anywhere. Documents is basically a catch-all for everything else. But I set up additional folders for projects and add them to the Favorites list for those that are active.

 

[tdale]

Windows Explorer is superior to Finder. The hierarchy sidebar is what makes the difference. It makes it so easy to see your whole computer world at a glance and you can arrange everything with it. You can drag your files or folders to anywhere in your system with this sidebar. In OSX I usually have to open 2 Finder windows to do this.
For example, in Finder sidebar you can see all your externals attached but in Windows sidebar you will see all externals AND all the folders within them in one place.

Exactly right. To counteract this, for me, I use Finder, Documents as my root folder for all my created/downloaded files, and in that one place I can create folders, subfolders exactly as in Windows Explorer. Thats the need, there isn't really a need to know its in E:/Tony/Games/Manuals and C:/Files/FSX/Scenery

Its now in Finder, Documents/Games/Manuals and Finder, Documents/FSX/Scenery

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There are certain parts of the hierarchy that should not be messed with in OS X -- anything outside of your Home folder (since that's all shared among users if you set up for more than one user), and your Library folder, which is kept hidden. The folders Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music are there to help you get organized but you can ignore them if you wish. By default iMovie uses Movies, iPhoto uses Pictures, iTunes uses Music, but you can move their databases anywhere. Documents is basically a catch-all for everything else. But I set up additional folders for projects and add them to the Favorites list for those that are active.

Yes. I went to the HD icon, to manage files as in Windows, and if I knew the OSX system file structure as I do with Windows I guess I could. But as I mentioned in other posts here, I NEED to have a file and folder organisation that suits me, but I do not need to know the C drive, etc physical location. Moving from habit A to habit B, not an issue!

 

[talmy]

Yet none of the three Finder path clues are not visible when you first open open Finder. An awful lot of Mac defaults are blithering useless in my view, such as disabling right clicking, duh!

They aren't visible because the Apple design philosophy is to keep things simple. You can turn on the visibility, and two of the three ways shown as well as the triangles to open hierarchy and the column view are quickly available if you spend the time to learn. Windows throws everything in your face and you have to figure out how to turn things off but again, it's something you have to learn.

Right clicking is disabled from a historic perspective -- old time users are used to a single button and doing a control-click (which still works). Really, it should probably mention that in the first-time login screen, like it does for the "Natural Scrolling" which natural-or-not I can't use as I'm constantly moving between Macs and Windows boxes during the day.

 

[imajez]

They aren't visible because the Apple design philosophy is to keep things simple.

And sadly as a result this can make things far more difficult to do, simplistic rather than simple. A single mouse button is cretinous as you then have to use two hands rather than one to access time saving context menus, looks before function is bad design. Getting rid of cursors is possibly the single worst thing in iOS, Jobs was talked out of doing it on Mac keyboards in the 80s [thank god] but sadly managed it in iOS.

Some Apple stuff is 'simpler' because it has less functionality, not because it is more elegantly designed.
iTunes only added one of the most basic functionalities of a music player in v11, the ability to cue up a track to play next. Trying to add a track to a playlist in iOS is so painful it's not worth the effort, whereas a simple add to playlist button would be so useful and there's no ability to keyword at all. Duh!

As far as possible, I eschew Apple software as I get fed up jumping through hoops to do really basic things. And sometimes simple things are simply impossible, merging folders would be one. 5 mins on a PC Vs many, many hours using Finder to merge deeply a nested set of folders.

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So, seriously, what is so precious about file management? I just don't get it. I make shortcuts to my working directories, and I move on with dealing with content.

Being able to manage your files as you need them is essential to speed of working. The Apple way suits some, but is simply crap for others. Tagged filing is deeply flawed in many ways, just as heirachical folders are in others. Only using both in tandem is a good robust filing system.
And a flat filing system of any kind [which Apple tends towards] only works with smalls amounts of data subsets.

 

[talmy]

And sadly as a result this can make things far more difficult to do, simplistic rather than simple. A single mouse button is cretinous as you then have to use two hands rather than one to access time saving context menus, looks before function is bad design.

I must laugh at this! The first time I used a mouse was in 1980 on a Xerox Alto. Three buttons plus it used chording with the keyboard. There was a chart supplied showing what the different button combinations combined with key presses did. No way you could memorize all that. When Apple came out with the Lisa and then the Macintosh a single button mouse was an incredible accomplishment! This was not looks over function -- the single button mouse was much easier to use.

The problem was that Steve Jobs seemed to be fixated on keeping it. Apple has never produced a mouse with more than one button (excepting the pinch buttons on the "Mighty" mouse which were basically useless).

Getting rid of cursors is possibly the single worst thing in iOS, Jobs was talked out of doing it on Mac keyboards in the 80s [thank god] but sadly managed it in iOS.

I can't relate to your issues with iOS cursors as I don't understand the problem (I'm not a big iOS user) nor do i use iTunes.

As far as possible, I eschew Apple software as I get fed up jumping through hoops to do really basic things. And sometimes simple things are simply impossible, merging folders would be one. 5 mins on a PC Vs many, many hours using Finder to merge deeply a nested set of folders.

Well I don't think I've spend more than an hour in my whole life merging tree structures where Windows Explorer's merge has been beneficial. The only places where I've needed a simple merge has been for synchronization and I've used rsync or Chronosync for that and xcopy in 4DOS in the Microsoft world. Usually merging involves non-matching tree structures and/or folder names so I have to do it manually anyway.

 

[talmy]

Being able to manage your files as you need them is essential to speed of working. The Apple way suits some, but is simply crap for others. Tagged filing is deeply flawed in many ways, just as heirachical folders are in others. Only using both in tandem is a good robust filing system.
And a flat filing system of any kind [which Apple tends towards] only works with smalls amounts of data subsets.

I want to address this as well. I use both hierarchical folders and tagging. For instance, when I download financial statements from websites or scan them if they come in the mail, a program (Hazel) running in the background analyzes them and renames them based on their source and moves them to my server computer in a folder hierarchy based on source. But it also marks them as "todo" for me to reconcile in Quicken. I've got a smart folder that displays all the "Todo" documents. As I process them I remove the tag and they disappear from the todos. I do similar tagging for documents I need to work on (so I don't forget them) and various types of mail. Again I keep all my mail but use tags to show items I need to handle. Photos also get tagged for quality. But I also rely on Spotlight to find things. My home iMac has (in my Home folder) over 250,000 files. My server has even more.

 

[matrix07]

The problem with iPhoto+ Aperture I believe is that you cannot just import an already existing and carefully organised folder structure, So effectively you have to start completely from scratch. Which is an awful lot of work if you are an organised person with lots of tidy data.

I had dragged all my photo folders in and it stay exactly the same. The name of the event is the same. The name of the file is the same. The sorting is the same. iPhoto is plenty enough for non-professional.

I'd say the same about people's comments re PCs in this and virtually every other thread on MacRumours.
Outlook is certainly superior to Mail and I notice Mail has copied Outlook attributes over time too.

I had been a PC user since Windows 3.1 and I never used Outlook. It gave me headaches every time I tried. Doing more is not superior. Superior is quicker to handle your tasks and more enjoyable to work with.
Once I switched I fell in love with Mail, Calendar and Contact immediately and I never looks back.
In my days of PC the gmail web was only my email client. THAT says so much about Microsoft offering.

 

[talmy]

I had dragged all my photo folders in and it stay exactly the same. The name of the event is the same. The name of the file is the same. The sorting is the same. iPhoto is plenty enough for non-professional.

Yep, in Aperture "Import...Folders as Projects" will do just that. I've never tried it in iPhoto to see what it does, but Aperture is designed to handle enormous quantities of photos (if you run out of space you can always create additional libraries on different drives). From the documentation:

If you’ve spent time organizing your image, video, and audio files into a meaningful hierarchy on your computer and you want to keep that organization, you can import a folder of files as a project or drag it directly into the Library inspector. When you import a folder of files or drag it into the Library inspector, the top folder becomes a folder in the Library inspector and any subfolders become projects within the folder.

 

[Mastic]

Sorry to take so long but I watched the videos in your links and other videos about the Mac. What I think is the same as before, the 'Finder' is overly complex and difficult to use. I have sort of changed my opinion about the Mac in general after seeing the videos though, I now see it as a music/photo machine designed to allow people to easily buy music ... Problem is that I have less than zero interest on downloading music, I have a radio for music. The Apple seems to be loaded with 'gimmick' programs that leave me completely cold. I have to start deleting a lot of the junk programs.... Trouble is there is no uninstall program included ...... Oh, what program does MS Word, pps, xls files etc on a Mac?

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I have zero interest in music on any computer, I want to put any photos I have (I don't have many) in a folder of my choice that **I** can organise the way **I** want. Smart playlist, Smart album have less than zero interest to me. As for email I am still using my PC for mail, I have not checked the Mac mail program yet but from a little that was shown in a video that I watched I think I will be looking for an aftermarket program.

Oh well I downloaded Airmail and set it up, fooled around with it for quite a while. I then set up the Mac mail program and tried it out. Disaster, my emails disappeared, I didn't tell it to delete them or store them anywhere. Both programs are counterintuitive. I would like to say that I am getting to know and like my iMac but as time progresses I like it less and less.

 

[laurim]

Windows Explorer has Preview, which shows content as well. WE shows the disk structure, which is clear and obvious. Finder seems to focus on libraries, not the disk structure. But you can use a library focus in WE if you choose, and you can use the library structure in Finder and manage new folders etc the same as in WE. Whats easy is what you are used to, and its a key to understand what you see, then both are easy

But can Windows Explorer Preview do this? THAT'S what I use Finder for repeatedly.

And please don't tell me it does thumbnails view. That would make me laugh. I can click on any one of these images and see it full window, which is really helpful when looking through a folder of stock videos. I really don't understand the difficulty with columns view. If I need to switch folder hierarchy during a drag and drop, I just hold the item over the different main folder and it unfolds automatically until I find the destination. Couldn't be easier. No need for a second window. And much easier that trying to drag through a mile long vertical list of folders and files with tiny targets to land on. But, I guess it's whatever you are used to.

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Yet none of the three Finder path clues are not visible when you first open open Finder. An awful lot of Mac defaults are blithering useless in my view, such as disabling right clicking, duh!

WTF do you mean by "disabling right clicking"? I right click all the time, not only with a trackpad on my MacBookPro but with the Apple mouse on my MacPro.

 

[Mastic]

But can Windows Explorer Preview do this? THAT'S what I use Finder for repeatedly.

Image

And please don't tell me it does thumbnails view. That would make me laugh. I can click on any one of these images and see it full window, which is really helpful when looking through a folder of stock videos. I really don't understand the difficulty with columns view. If I need to switch folder hierarchy during a drag and drop, I just hold the item over the different main folder and it unfolds automatically until I find the destination. Couldn't be easier. No need for a second window. And much easier that trying to drag through a mile long vertical list of folders and files with tiny targets to land on. But, I guess it's whatever you are used to.

.

And that sums up the Apple, a machine for fooling with pictures and music. I am not into porn so I don't care about the pictures that keep the web afloat.

 

[matrix07]

Yep, in Aperture "Import...Folders as Projects" will do just that. I've never tried it in iPhoto to see what it does, but Aperture is designed to handle enormous quantities of photos (if you run out of space you can always create additional libraries on different drives). From the documentation:

I don't think iPhoto can do subfolder though.

 

[CrickettGrrrl]

I don't think iPhoto can do subfolder though.

Actually yes, you can. "Folders" are "Albums" in iPhoto. I have many Albums & sub-Albums in iPhoto.