Many Mac users don’t know that folder icons can be changed. Using unique folder icons is important because it helps you to quickly find the desired folder without reading through a list of folder names. After a short time with new folder icons you will find navigating in the Finder takes less mental effort. What genealogist wouldn’t rather save brain power for pursuing elusive evidence? Changing icons is a medium difficulty task and it’s made easier by following along with the video below.
Visit TheIconFactory and download a free set of icons called Agua Leopard Folders before watching the video.
Now you’re ready to start the video and follow along. Enjoy the effects of the nice, new icons. Let me know how it goes by leaving a comment.
Thank you SO much for what you do, Ben , it is always helpful and informative….Have now worked through all your basic set up Tutorials and am setting up similar files on my iMac. One question : how do you file paper letters and emails ? I have some thirty years of these in many ringbinder files, “sorted” first by surname, then by date. Some are very precious and many correspondents have now passed away. They usually come from one person but deal with many people and places. What do you do??
Create “correspondence” folders in the surname folders. Put the images in the respective correspondence folders with a naming scheme that includes the correspondent’s name, the date of correspondence, and page number. Put a list of the surnames in the comments metadata field for each image file..
Thank you Ben, that sounds good.
Not quite sure about the last point, “…list of the surnames in the comments metadata field for each image file” ????
Help please.
Control-click an image file in the Finder then click Get Info in the context menu. You’ll see a dialog with the Comments field among other info. Text you put in the Comments field is searched by Spotlight.
Thanks once again Ben. Not used Spotlight much – good chance to get used to it now.
Rupert, saw a great webinar yesterday on how to organize the physical papers, photos, etc. you want to keep. I had started using the system recently. The webinar recording will be free on the site for about a week. After that, you have to have a subscription to their Webinar site. I highly recommend this system…like Ben’s for the computer, it’s simple, but effective! Love their webinars because they’re not just for their genealogy program…they’re free and cover all kinds of genealogy topics! Go to: http://www.familytreewebinars.com/download.php?webinar_id=192
Thanks Kaye, very helpful. Liked that webinar. I like the colour coding ideas, but not sure about the large boxes – they look really heavy to move around, especially as I get older !! Its Ben’s computer filing system that really interests me as ideally , i would like to use the Mac to store everything, or at least the majority of my thirty odd years of research to date. It seems very quick to set up, plus I don’t have to buy a load of files and boxes and sundries, and have a large physical set up to accommodate. Ben, with your system, I can have my complete family history – all files, photos , media, etc with me on a small hard drive, and easily carry it around; and have copies for safety etc. At present , I have some sixty or so A4 ring binders, and I prefer the idea of making these all digital. My only concern is to know how the system looks when its all set up, and particularly how easy it is to retrieve information from the computer. Presume Ben, yours is all set up and runs well now?
Ben, thank you so much for these videos. I’ve read about a lot of systems for naming files but yours is the first one that made sense to me. Maybe I can persuade all those files to get organized now! Thanks!
Hi Cheryl.
You’re welcome! Let me know how it goes.
—-Ben >@<
What a great series.. Can’t believe you got so much in such a short series. Thanks. I am going to take my WHOLE genealogy folder and see if I can do this with out. Do you have a similar system for resources; articles by topic, forms, and other things?
Marianne H
Ben, not sure, but didn’t you have another series that had a set-up where the Surname folders had subfolders for things like birth, death, census etc.? There the files had the persons last, first, middle i the files names, and all people of the surname appeared there? That is what I have done. Do I have someone else’s system in mind?
Steve K.
Hi Steve.
No, my system doesn’t recommend what you describe. It could certainly be done and in no way that I can think of conflicts with it.
With best regards,
—-Ben >@<
Hello Ben,
I have tried to watch your videos on how to set up the files on the Mac. Most of them stop repeatedly and will not allow me to watch through to the end. Is there a way this can be fixed?
Also, I noticed all your surnames were in one folder and there seems to be quite a few….does this mean you make folders for the wife’s (maiden name) surname as well?
Hi Donna. The way I handle maiden and married names is in part four. Perhaps that’s one of the videos you experienced trouble viewing.
I just watched parts four and nine and experienced no stopping. I suspect the problem is on your end–probably with your Internet connection, possibly with your web browser. If you try to watch the same video twice, does it stop in the same place?
Hi, Ben. Thank you very much for making these screen casts. I have been a Mac-user for a long time, but I really learned a lot. I’ve never been fully satisfied with my electronic filing system, but I will be following your recommendations and finally getting myself properly organized.
I have a quick question about photos. Do you keep photo files in these folders as well? If not, do you have any screen casts about how you handle them? I’d be curious to know what you recommend.
Hi James.
Yes, I do keep photos in my foldr system. I don’t handle them any different than any other file in the system so I haven’t created any screencasts on the subject.
What are your questions about handling them?
Ben, I am learning SOOOO much from these videos! Thanks for developing the system! I have recently retired and am beginning again to delve into family history and genealogy and this is encouraging me to load all my paper files into digital files – properly.
I couldn’t find the Agua Leopard Folder from TheIconFactory nor in the App Store. Is it no longer available?
Ben;
I like the system you’ve outlined. However; since you use aliases in the filing system, it presents me with a problem. I use a “sidecar” file to store citation-related info on each item stored. Obviously, I’d like to keep the two together. Aliases only refer to a single item. It’s a bit of a pain to have to create two aliases each time or to create a directory containing the two files and alias that. Have you any suggestions?
No, sorry Gary.