[Macworld]

Post your comments for Tips for a tidier Mac here

[Bizzkit]

The version of Address Book I'm using in Snow Leopard DOES NOT produce a detailed list of duplicates. It goes straight to a Merge dialog that only shows how many duplicates there are. I am not about to click on Merge without reviewing them.

[Chris Breen]

 Bizzkit, on 22 March 2010 - 06:47 AM, said:

The version of Address Book I'm using in Snow Leopard DOES NOT produce a detailed list of duplicates. It goes straight to a Merge dialog that only shows how many duplicates there are. I am not about to click on Merge without reviewing them.

Nor did I suggest that you would see a detailed list of duplicates. What I wrote is:

For example, open Address Book and choose Card -> Look for Duplicates. Address Book will do exactly that and eventually produce a sheet that details the number of duplicate cards and duplicated entries. Click Merge and the information from cards deemed duplicates will be merged into a single card.


So, it details the *number* of duplicate cards and entries. It does not, as you've noted, produce a list of duplicates.

If you're concerned that it may get it wrong, I'd suggest that you choose File -> Create Address Book Archive to create a copy of all of your contacts. When you have that copy, try the duplicate trick. If you're unhappy with the results, simply delete your contacts and then import the contacts from your archive.

[bastion]

"Many Mac users believe the Desktop is the perfect place to store files. After all, it puts the files you use most often front and center. The problem is that the Finder treats any folder or file on the Desktop as a window. That window designation is benign if you don’t have many items on the Desktop, but clutter it with files and folders and the Finder will slow significantly."

It should be noted that this is really only a problem for items that don't use stock OS icons. Most things don't, but there's a substantial performance difference between having a hundred folders on the desktop versus a hundred Pages files. The performance hit comes from having to hunt down and retrieve the image for each icon it needs to draw.

[LexFriedman]

I can't always file my downloaded/new documents straight away, but agree with Chris that overloading the Desktop is a bad idea. I create a folder on the Desktop of all my Macs called "Desktop 2."

That's where I dump everything. It serves the same purpose without slowing down my system, and prevents a nice amount of visual clutter. When motivated, I clean it out. So, every year or two

[BrianM]

There have also been bugs with some installers in the past that wiped out desktop folders and everything contained within. (Quicken was the most recent) In general files stored on the desktop have been more likely to be lost or overwritten than those stored elsewhere... at least with the customers I've dealt with in the past 15 years of mac support.
(I'm bad for it as well... after a week or two my desktop will be full of clippings, pictures and a project or two)

[rloney]

For organizing files, I have hard disk partitions devoted to various categories (e.g., 'Resources', which has folders for Computer, Software, Graphics, Fonts, General Reference, and Audio). Everything new that comes in goes to a hard disk named 'Chaos'. On Chaos I have placed short cuts to all the various categories (including Documents), so I can quickly copy a file to that destination.
I do wish the Mac OS was better at finding duplicate files on hard disks.

[nascar3d]

Thanks for the tips! My Mac desktop is definitely cleaner than my PC desktops that are cluttered with ICONS for programs. I also use GeekTool to place the Time/Date/Day on my desktop so I have easy access to it.

One thing I wish was available for MAC was a secondary Dock on a secondary monitor. I use my MacBook Pro in conjunction with a 24" Samsung Monitor, and it works great, but I constantly have to go back and forth to open programs, Of course I can have the dock on either monitor, but I want the dock on BOTH monitors at the same time... so far I have not found a way to do this.

[luomat2]

In terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop FALSE

followed by

killall Finder

will let you store files on the Desktop without having to look at them.

I use the Desktop because I can easily save there using cmd+D in open/save panels.

[John__B]

 luomat2, on 22 March 2010 - 09:38 AM, said:

In terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop FALSE

followed by

killall Finder

will let you store files on the Desktop without having to look at them.

I use the Desktop because I can easily save there using cmd+D in open/save panels.

I assume they'll show up in Finder, just not on your actual desktop? If so I'm intrigued enough to try this...

I've always just changed Firefox's settings to default downloads to a ~/Downloads folder (instead of the desktop)...

[merlin747]

Unfortunately, OS X has suffered in much the same way as Windows, and my response is the same: I no longer use the "Documents" folder, but rather have my own "Docs" folder. I find it very annoying that random applications decide that their files represent my documents...

Kelly

[RedBank]

 nascar3d, on 22 March 2010 - 08:57 AM, said:

Thanks for the tips! My Mac desktop is definitely cleaner than my PC desktops that are cluttered with ICONS for programs. I also use GeekTool to place the Time/Date/Day on my desktop so I have easy access to it.

One thing I wish was available for MAC was a secondary Dock on a secondary monitor. I use my MacBook Pro in conjunction with a 24" Samsung Monitor, and it works great, but I constantly have to go back and forth to open programs, Of course I can have the dock on either monitor, but I want the dock on BOTH monitors at the same time... so far I have not found a way to do this.

Try the SecondBar app. It isn't exactly a second dock...but it will prolly give you 1/2 of what you are looking for.

[digidan]

Indeed, useful tips! Personally, I just use a folder on the desktop called "Unfiled"... creative, huh?

Does it matter how much stuff is stored in such a desktop folder, or simply the number of files visible on the desktop? Occasionally, I'll temporarily save a few GB of data (such as a large A/V file) to said unfiled folder until I can offload it to my external drive(s).

[mctavish]

 Macworld, on 22 March 2010 - 05:15 AM, said:

Post your comments for Tips for a tidier Mac here

Does the problem of Desktop files slowing the computer apply to shortcut files (e.g. webloc and alias)? Does it apply to disk and volume icons?

Thanks.