Organization for Newbies

Question

ok so far I learned that;
1) when you save things, they usually save to your desktop.
2) when you drag things from the desktop to where you want them to be, they get copied not moved. However sometimes they just get moved.
3) when you download something, you download the application but you also download the "disk mounter" and usually some other stuff too that creates new icons on your desktop.
today I deleted a bunch of things from the desktop that appears to be remnant of downloads of the past. First I tested to see that the application would open before emptying the trash.
So, how do you;
1) when its a picture and you want pics to store in one file, how do you get them to go there without making a stop on the desktop?
2) at the left of the finder window, it says "My Pictures" (for instance)
either a) how do you get this link to refer to all the pics on the computer?
b) how do you modify this side bar so that its the same for each drive?
eg, I have 4 drives (2 external that are mirrored) and one removable usb card.
when I'm looking at the external drive for instance, I want the side bar to be reflective of its music, photos, movies etc.
what I think is happening is when I'm looking at music for instance, I think its referring to drive 2.
coming from a PC background for the past 15 years, I find this the hardest thing to get used to however its a ladder I'm willing to climb because I find the mac so far superior to the pc in the way it processes video and the basic operating system.
with the PC I was always guessing if I'm not doing something right or is it a virus or spyware or other conflict. So far I have not had to deal with those red herrings on the mac! The time I spend tech supporting my pc, is now being used as more productive time - that alone was worth the double cost of the mac!
3) when you are looking for pictures and you click external drive for instance, then you get the sub folders, and sub folders of that etc until you get to the pics you want - I want to be able to open "Pictures" and be able to see the thumbnails right there (the way pc file work) any way to do that without using "bridge" for eg, because I don't want to have to open a separate application every time I want to import pics into something for instance.
4) regarding Dock: how do you add / remove icons from the navigation dock? Why would you want to have quick start icons on the desktop if you cant see the desktop most of the time? Why wouldn't you want all your programs to start from the dock? --
4b) years ago when I first saw a Mac, I recall when you moved across the dock, the applications would enlarge in a half circle. Mine doesn't do that. instead I have one static dock. I think the other way might save some space and be able to handle more applications on it? thoughts?
5) finally, is there any way of checking for duplicates? I'm sure I have more than one of many things.
best, M/
G5   Mac OS X (10.4.9)   2x 2.6G DCPs, 3.5GB Ram, 2x160GHDs + 2x320G External HDs, DualCRT's, Shuttle Pro

Answer 1

The desktop is a terrible place to store things. Each Icon on the desktop takes as much storage space and processing power as having another entire Window open.
Mac OS X is a Multi-user System, even if you are the only one who has ever logged on to your Mac. So the files are organized into System stuff and User stuff. The User stuff is (by default) at top-level on the boot drive in a file called Users, with a folder for each login-name.
If you open any window set up with the sidebar on the left, you will see there is a Home (looks like a house with a gable roof) Icon with your login-name on it. By default there is (inside each Home folder) a Desktop folder, a Documents folder, a Music Folder, a Pictures Folder, a Movies folder, and a Library Folder (contains Your Login-name's (not the System's!) Preferences and quasi-System stuff. You can create an Alias for most User folders, so you can keep your active Pictures folder anywhere. You can delete any of the default folders (except Library and Desktop) and create new ones using any organization you like.
I suggest you create a new folder inside the Documents folder called Downloads, and set the Preferences in your Browser to put all downloads there by default. That will go a long way toward not re-cluttering the Desktop.
When installing stuff, you often get a pseudo-drive containing the Install image and read-me and possibly other files. You just have to have the discipline to move those pseudo-drives or their contents somewhere else (like another folder or the Trash) when you are done with the installation. The installers that come in through Software Update store their images in
Macintosh_HD-name/Library/Packages
so you may see them start to accumulate there. You can clean out that folder from time to time with impunity. But DO NOT clean out the Receipts folder nearby, or many things will get very confused.
EDIT: cleaned up some ambiguous pronouns and clarified the language a little.