Organizing Applications folder

Is there a way to organize the Applications folder so that I can find the ones I use often without having to wade through all the dreck, or at least hiding the stuff I'm not interested in from view? If I can't impose some order on this thing it will be impossible to find anyting.

The Applications folder should be left as is. If desired, create a new folder in any location and press the Option and Command keys while dragging items to it; aliases can be renamed and rearranged as you see fit.
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Re-organizing Applications folder

My Applications folder is getting rather full. It takes a noticeable length of time just to open it (nothing worrying, just a noticeable lag). I know this is due to the number of items. I'd like to organize the apps into 5 or 6 "category" folders (eg movie stuff, sound stuff, graphics stuff, etc.
Is there any reason at all that certain apps need to be at the top of the Applications folder (ie not in a folder in the apps folder)?
Is there any argument for ~not~ putting apps in a folder within the applications folder; that its not a good idea?

Is there any argument for ~not~ putting apps in a
folder within the applications folder; that its not a
good idea?
Definitely not a good idea. Many apps require that they be located at /Applications, especially Apple's apps. The most common problem that occurs if they are moved is that they fail to update properly via Software Update.
What you can do is create a folder somewhere, organized any way you like, with aliases to your apps. That way you can have your custom-organized "Applications" folder, while leaving the real Applications folder untouched. You can also drop your "Applications" folder (the one with the aliases in it) into the right side of the dock, so that you can right-click on it and navigate to your programs that way, kinda like the Windows Start Menu.

Organizing Applications in Applications Folder -- An Alternative Method

I know that the general advice for those looking to organize their applications better has been to create a subfolder somewhere, copy the aliases for all the applications to that folder, organize as desired, and then drop that folder onto the Dock. This strikes me a bit un-Mac OS Xy.
Well, I happened upon an alternative method that suits me much better. It is hinted at in another thread, but for the life of me I can't find it again. So here goes:
I press Command+I on my applications in Finder, then
Click Spotlight Comments, then
Type in a category for the application.
After I label all my applications,
I create a Smart Folder with
the search criteria based on the Spotlight comments I just entered.
The Smart Folder appears in the left pane of the Finder window.
I select the Smart Folder and see my organized applications.
Voilà!
I don't necessarily care about being able to select them straight from the Dock.

Nice idea, but I'm a little unclear which metadata I should use in the Smart Folder search. I don't see an item that specifically looks in the Spotlight Comments. I tried using "Comment" but that doesn't seem to work.

Organizing iPhoto in Application Folder

Hey folks,
I just found this great discussion forum last night. Read for hours. Very helpful discussions. I used a PC for 14 years, but recently switched to the "dark side". Mac's are so far superior to PC, cannot believe it. Only been using for a couple of months, but do not even like to go back and work on my PC laptop. Anyway, having trouble understanding the organizational thinking behind the Application folder as it relates to iPhoto and a couple of other apps. When I bought my iMac, it had iPhoto 06 installed. I imported @ 3,000 photo's into it and tried to arrange them. Then upgraded to 08. Tried to figure this thing out myself, and haven't quit arrived yet. Questions:
I now have 4 iphoto folders in the App folder: 1) iphoto 7; 2) Library.iPhoto; 3) iPhoto Library; 4) iPhoto App. I deleted iphoto 06 (probably stupid, but hey, I did it). Now I don't know which folder(s) I should keep and which ones (if any) I should delete. I have imported all the photo files I had on my hard drive into the iphoto app. Also have some questions about what "dmg" files are, and whether they should be deleted after an up-date. Can anyone tell me what omni-outliner is? AND why is it so difficult to copy and paste into Word? Whenever I try to copy, say a couple of pages, and paste into Word, it locks up. Only happens in Word. Thanks for sharing all the knowledge folks. ONE MORE - Why is it so difficult when saving files, say in Photoshop CS2, to find the appropriate folder? I can't seem to get past "pictures" when I need a subfolder in pictures. Same is true when using other apps. Thanks again!

pastorbob
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Getting a lot of questions in there at one go but we'll give it a try:
I now have 4 iphoto folders in the App folder: 1) iphoto 7; 2) Library.iPhoto; 3) iPhoto Library; 4) iPhoto App. I deleted iphoto 06 (probably stupid, but hey, I did it). Now I don't know which folder(s) I should keep and which ones (if any) I should delete.
In your APPLICATIONS folder you should ONLY have the iPhoto application. Your Library (which contains the actual photos) should be in your PICTURES folder. I can't tell you which to keep or not because I have no idea what those folders contain. Can you let us know?
Also have some questions about what "dmg" files are, and whether they should be deleted after an up-date.
A dmg is a virtual disk. They work as follows: you download the dmg and on it is the Application you want to install. Install the app then trash the dmg.
. Can anyone tell me what omni-outliner is?
It's an Outliner, naturally You can read about it here:
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/
AND why is it so difficult to copy and paste into Word? Whenever I try to copy, say a couple of pages, and paste into Word, it locks up. Only happens in Word.
I have no idea, but you might ask on the Microsoft forum:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.word/topics
ONE MORE - Why is it so difficult when saving files, say in Photoshop CS2, to find the appropriate folder? I can't seem to get past "pictures" when I need a subfolder in pictures. Same is true when using other apps.
Have a close look at that Save dialogue: There beside where you name the file you'll see and arrow. Click on it for a lot more options.
Hope this helps, let us know if you need more.
Regards
TD

Applications Folder = Address Book ???

Can anyone translate Apple's decision to make the Applications folder in the dock look like the Address Book icon? Or the icon of whatever happens to sort to the top of the folder?
This is confusing.
If I want to launch an application I need to click on "Address Book"....
Makes zero sense.

I upgraded to Leopard in spite of, not because of, these highly-promoted worse than useless bells and whistles, relying on Apple’s false claim, at 03:26 in its Leopard guided tour (http://www.apple.com/macosx/guidedtour/) that I would still be able to ‘get to any file with just a single click.’
*This is only correct for users who organize their files only one level deep.*
I wonder if that false claim makes it possible to go for class action status, should Apple refuse to issue refunds for this huge step backward.
I did not upgrade to Leopard for stacks, spaces, or cover flow; 'fan' in my opinion (sorry, Apple) is positively hokey, and 'grid' is basically the icon view (rather than the list view) of the finder that I haven't used since my first week on a Mac more than 20 years ago. These and cover view are for users who are less than proficient with naming and organizing files.
Regarding ‘keeping my desktop nice and tidy’ I was already quite capable of that, thank you.
Though it heavily pitched these useless-to-me bells and whistles, I never dreamed that Apple would disable the much quicker means of navigating to files in Tiger.
I have four main folders in the dock, each including up to dozens of folders nested five, six, seven and more levels deep. I'm accustomed to getting to the exact file I need, many levels deep, in about three seconds, with one click, hold, and release.
Leopard is truly a huge step backward in navigating to a file for anyone just a bit more organizationally advanced than the average user.

I Broke my Applications Folder

I am a HUGE neat freak. My downloads folder is spotless, as is my documents folder, flash drive, and external hard drive. The one thing I didn't touch was my Applications folder, until a couple days ago, when I had a moment of weakness and put everything into neat, organized folders sorted by the use of the app. Everything seemed fine until today, when I updated the firmware to the version with the new Photos app. Now, there are duplicate system applications with the missing icon (the icon with the pencil, ruler, paintbrush, and blank piece of paper) that I can't get rid of, and am afraid to move for fear of messing something else up. Can anyone help me fix this?

I've had backup installers from previous installs in my computer, but not exactly what you're talking about. It seems that your system is working fine - you're just interested in aesthetic neatness.
Post a pic of the folder or director you're referring to.

Copy file from mounted DMG to the Applications folder?

I'm wanting to copy file (application) from a mounted DMG to the Applications folder. Something like:
tell application "Finder"
try
copy "Volumes:Dropbox Installer:Dropbox.app" to folder "Volumes:Macintosh HD:Applications"
end try
end tell
(But that doesn't work).
Preferably overwriting the existing application in that folder. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tell application "Finder"
duplicate file "Volumes:S001TEST:S001-S001c-TEST.zip" to folder "Volumes:Macintosh HD:Applications" with replacing
end tell
I tried this principle in Applescript (Mavericks) and received error...
Finder got an error: Can’t set folder "Volumes:Macintosh HD:Applications" to file "Volumes:S001TEST:S001-S001c-TEST.zip".
"001TEST" is a disk image with filename of "S001TEST.dmg"
Any ideas why this won't work?

I'm on ff 3.5.5 for Mac. I've been prompted twice to download latest version. Each time I have dragged the ff icon from applications folder to the dock and all seems ok. But next time I start ff it says I'm on 3.5.5 and should update to latest version!

There was no "update failed" message
I wonder whether I'm doing the right thing when I drag to the dock. There's only one ff icon in the applications folder. The first time I was prompted to update it showed that days date next to the icon as if the update was successful. The second time was a few days later but I think it was still the same date next to the icon (25/8/10) I've only just noticed that (on 10/9/10) so can't be sure but I'm sure the second time was around 2nd or 3rd of Sept.
Also, I am running two versions of ff- one is english, the other is the Italian version. They can't be opened at the same time but they seem to talk to eachother in the background, so to speak, because when I open one after a long gap, it opens with all the history and settings of the other one, right up to the last website I went to. I think I closed both when updating because it prompts you to close all programmes and restart (I think/ remember) so I just clicked ok to that prompt.
By the way, I got the prompt to update twice for ''BOTH'' the Italian and the English version- so 4 times altogether so it would seem that ff does recognise them as separate but still has problems concluding the update for each separate one respectively.
Thank you very much if you can help.
Trapperjohn

Download a new copy of the Firefox program: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all.html
Trash the current Firefox application to do a clean reinstall.
Install the new version that you have downloaded.
Your profile data is stored elsewhere in the [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox Firefox Profile Folder], so you won't lose your bookmarks and other personal data.

How to move Mobile Applications folder while sharing an Itunes library

For reasons that would be long and hard to explain, I decided some times ago to open a second user on my Book Pro dedicated to my music collection. The collection required to be stored on an external HDD, so the second user's Itunes folder links to a folder where all music is stored, and I put it with all library files (xml etc) in the Shared folder. Now I have decided to let the primary and mostly used user to share the same music of the secondary one. I easily succeeded in doing this, just simply opening the primary ITunes and ask it to link to the Itunes folder under the Shared folder. I have got my entire library also from the primary user, with covers and so on.
The trouble is that I use to manage an Iphone with the primary ITunes, and since I have not moved the Mobile Application folder (and what more?) into the shared ITunes folder, I cannot see anymore all data and applications into my IPhone section under ITunes, and I do not want to run experiments, doing a sync and just running the risk to lose all. How can I share the same ITunes library between two users, but to allow one of those still to see the IPhone data that was originally managed only from her ITunes, that now addresses to the ITunes folder under Shared folder that addresses to a HDD?.....

Still misspeaking. Further use reveals that while the users iTunes use the shared file, when the phones add new apps their iTunes recreates its iTunes Media directory in the users home folder. This time I can exit iTunes, move the apps to the shared Mobile Applications, delete and empty trash the original apps/ and folder, then the users iTunes will find the app in the shared folder when it restarts. Clearly not very tidy...

List view in applications folder missing arrows

I have a 27" i7 iMac and I recently updated to 10.7.1. I have a clean install of Lion. After updating, a strange thing happened in my Applications folder. When in list view, the arrows that are usually next to the folders, allowing you to expand and collapse them, are gone. It is only one the top level of that folder. Everywhere else works fine. Also, I can't click on the headings to resort. Is anyone else experiencing this or have an idea on how to fix it?

Found this answer over in another question. Solved my issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15693400#15693400
Check the following:
1. Go to Application folder (or any other folder with similar behavior)
2. Chose "View" --> "Arrange by" --> "None"

Hi when i open my application folder, all the application is shown in trash folder. when i click the application it says this app is in trash first move it out. and when i try to open through finder go it says this file doesn't exist. can some1 plz help?

hi when i open my application folder, all the application is shown in trash folder. when i click the application it says this app is in trash first move it out. and when i try to open through finder> go it says this file doesn't exist. can some1 plz help? how can i put all my application through application folder?

Something really odd is going on. In your first screen shot, I noticed that the Applications folder does not have the proper icon displayed in the side bar. Also, in the title bar it lists it as Applications 08-59-29-909.
Not sure where it's picking up that odd name, unless it's because it's still truly within the Trash folder.
Try this. In the Finder > Preferences > General > turn on "Always open folders in a new window". (I have a feeling you have the default setting with this off).
Now, in Finder > Go > move down and open the Applications Folder from there. Now open the folder where you see all your applications that you show in your screen shot, select all, and move them to this true appliactions folder.
This is what you should properly seeing (but with different apps listed):
See how the Applications folder has the icon of the letter A shaped with a pencil, ruler & pen.

Downloads of updates not saving, no prompts or icons in the Application folder-how do I ensure updates are saved?

I am following the instructions to download v 6 but receive no prompt to move the Firefox icon to the applications folder. I have done that anyway, but it's not saving-the latest version is July 11. I then get reminders to update all the time-what am I doing wrong?
I am working on a Mac laptop

A lot of people panic when they see Photoshop displaying differently from other software. But that's normal and expected. Here's what happens:
1. Photoshop is color managed and performs a document profile > monitor profile conversion when it displays. So whatever the document profile is, Photoshop will display correctly - unless you have CM policies set to "off" (...!)
2. Other applications, including many web browsers, aren't color managed and will just send the file numbers directly to the display. This distinction is extremely important, because there will be a slight difference. Again, that's normal. Photoshop is right and the other apps are wrong.
3. Without color management, it all hangs on how your monitor displays color. Most monitors are so close to sRGB that any sRGB file will display roughly correctly. This is why sRGB is the de facto web standard: it can live without color management. And that's why you should always convert web material to sRGB. Yes, that's the Edit > Convert to Profile option. You can also use Save For Web to do this if you check the appropriate boxes.

Just installed Firefox 7.0.1 on a Mac running OSX 10.6.8 - the installation Disc icon remians on the desktop and each time I launch, Firefox opens a window asking me to drag the Firefox icon to my Applications folder. How do I get this to go away?

I have installed the application to my applications folder and everything else is working perfectly. But normally, after you've installed a browser, the istallation disk icon that appears on your desktop can be ejected or deleted without detriment. Mine keeps coming back...

Make sure that Firefox gets installed properly.<br />
Open the DMG file and drag the Firefox program to the application folder on your hard drive.<br />
You shouldn't double-click the Firefox application to run it from the disk image, but drag it out of the DMG folder instead.
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Installing+Firefox+on+Mac
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Installing_Firefox#Mac_OS_X

HT204408 My applications folder has a black question mark on it at the bottom of my screen. I do not know what error I made, but my fan effect of the previous applications has gone away. Can I get some help with this?

One day ago I inadvertantly removed my applications folder. In it's place is a folder with a black question mark which appeared after I attempted to open up the applications file. Also, previously when I clicked on the file applications would open in a fan display. Could I please get some assistance with this?

...removed my applications folder.
From where? And to where?
If you trashed it and emptied the trash, what backup, if any, do you have? If it's still in the Trash, move it back.
If no backup, reinstall Snow, which will give you the version as of the DVD you use, then update back to 10.6.8, and run all other needed updates, including any security updates. This should save all your third party programs, as well as settings.
The white puff of smoke is nothing, it only means you moved it out of the Dock. If you still have it, or had it, as soon as you open it it would reappear in the Dock. The item in the Dock is only a kind of alias.

Delete locked file from /Applications folder

Hi there
I used Clean My Mac to remove a file install - something I have done many times without any problems.
This time though the application file was left behind in the /Applications folder and I am unable to move it to the Trash because it is locked.
I have tried the following
sudo chflags nouchg /Applications/CrashPlan.app
This however does not resolve the issue and I am still unable to move the file to Trash - it does not remove the locked flag
Does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions how to remove the file?

Hi WIlliam
I tried what you said but I get an unexpected result...
Johns-Mac-Pro:~ John$ sudo rm -r /Applications/CrashPlan.app
Password:
rm: /Applications/CrashPlan.app/Contents: Operation not permitted
override rwxrwxr-x root/admin schg for /Applications/CrashPlan.app?
I'm not sure how to respond to the question it is asking. I tried keying in Y but the response was
override rwxrwxr-x root/admin schg for /Applications/CrashPlan.app? y
rm: /Applications/CrashPlan.app: Operation not permitted
Johns-Mac-Pro:~ John$

Organizing Applications folder

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