Setting up many apps icons - Applications folder and Launchpad interaction

[OS/4]

I am trying to find a good efficient setup for many applications (specifically .app icons for a lot of old DOS games I have, each launching the game via DOSBox - see my previous post https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...s-for-old-dos-games-running-in-dosbox.1959361).

The word to note here is "many", hence I'm looking for a nice way to set up a hierarchy of folders.

I am fairly new to Mac OS X, but here's what I've observed so far:

* If I create a new .app and put it in the Applications directory, it magically appears in Launchpad (might be a lag of 1-2 seconds, so it seems Launchpad is polling the Applications directory).

* If I create a sub-directory and put a .app in it, it also appears in the main Launchpad window, and if I move apps around in Launchpad, e.g. put them into folders in Lanuchpad, that location has no relation to the location in the Applications directory/sub-directories.
I conclude from that, that Launchpad also looks for apps in sub-directories of the Applications directory, but keeps its own config as to where the apps icons appear within Launchpad.
==> This presents my first problem - I'm happy to script the setting-up of 100+ .app files underneath Applications, but not happy to then have to drag them around manually one by one inside Launchpad to recreate that hierarchy.

My second issue is that I want to set up these .app files on a shared drive, so I've tried creating an alias (i.e. UNIX symbolic link) to that shared location, which works well when using Finder to navigate there via the Applications folder ...but, when I put an .app there, it doesn't magically appear in Launchpad.
==> It seems Launchpad polls Applications and sub-directories, but not aliases!

So, with that in mind, I would appreciate any thoughts on how I could efficiently and neatly set up a hierarchy of a large number of .app files, so they also appear in Launchpad. If it's not possible, I suppose I can just leave them in the shared drive's dir that is linked to by the alias under Applications. At least then I can navigate to the apps via Finder, but won't have them in Launchpad at all.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!

 

[Jessica Lares]

How about putting them in the dock? You might not be using it, but it shows up when you open the Launchpad. That way you can put the DOSBox icon as the folder image, and then go through it as a grid/list and it'll let you go through multiple folders too.

 

[OS/4]

How about putting them in the dock? You might not be using it, but it shows up when you open the Launchpad. That way you can put the DOSBox icon as the folder image, and then go through it as a grid/list and it'll let you go through multiple folders too.

Thank you so much, that is a great idea!

Yes, I am using the dock (it's actually the Launchpad that I hardly use), but didn't think of it because I conceptually thought of it as a place for only the most often used apps. However, dragging the alias from the Applications folder to the right-hand side of the dock gives me exactly what I want: Access to the hierarchy of lots of apps without polluting the dock itself or the Launchpad - and you're right, grid and list work great for a hierarchy of folders (I ended up using list because navigation needs fewer clicks ;-).