Library enhancements and/or replacement

[Ken Springer]

Having discovered you can't add individual files to a library... :-(

I've been "Ixquicking" (No Google for me except as a last resort. LOL)
for a means of adding individual files, replacing the existing library
program with something else, etc.

I've discovered that Vista had Smart Folders, and someone has written a
Smart Folders utility for Win7. I've got it downloaded, but not
installed and tried out, as of yet.

This is what I would like to do:

You are a railroad fan, and you have 4 folders of information for 4
railroads. Let's say, a Union Pacific folder, BNSF folder, Norfolk &
Southern folder, and the Alaska Railroad. 2 folders are on one hard
drive, 2 folders are on another hard drive.

If you organize your hard drive(s), you might create a single folder
called Railroads on a drive, and move the 4 individual railroad folders
into Railroads folder.

On your hard drive, you have a lot of photos for the 4 railroads I
listed, with the photos specific to a railroad in the folder for the
railroad. For each railroad, there are photos of steam locomotives
owned by that railroad.

This is what I want to do, create two libraries, one called Railroads
and the other Steam Locomotives. When I open the Railroads library, I
want to see all the photos for all 4 railroads listed. But if I open
the Steam Locomotives library, I only want to see the photos of steam
locomotives for all 4 railroads.

And maybe if I have a Passenger Cars library, I would only want photos
of the passenger cars for the 4 railroads, or selected railroads.

Naturally, you should be able to include any kind of file in a library,
not just photos, as I used for explanation.

Hopefully, it would work like the card file at your local library.

Anyone have some suggestions or ideas?


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.2
Thunderbird 16.0.2
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Stan Brown]

Having discovered you can't add individual files to a library... :-(

Okay, there *has* to be more to it than that. I add individual files
to my Documents library many times a day.

 

[mick]

Having discovered you can't add individual files to a library... :-(

I've been "Ixquicking" (No Google for me except as a last resort. LOL) for a
means of adding individual files, replacing the existing library program with
something else, etc.

I've discovered that Vista had Smart Folders, and someone has written a Smart
Folders utility for Win7. I've got it downloaded, but not installed and
tried out, as of yet.

This is what I would like to do:

You are a railroad fan, and you have 4 folders of information for 4
railroads. Let's say, a Union Pacific folder, BNSF folder, Norfolk &
Southern folder, and the Alaska Railroad. 2 folders are on one hard drive, 2
folders are on another hard drive.

If you organize your hard drive(s), you might create a single folder called
Railroads on a drive, and move the 4 individual railroad folders into
Railroads folder.

On your hard drive, you have a lot of photos for the 4 railroads I listed,
with the photos specific to a railroad in the folder for the railroad. For
each railroad, there are photos of steam locomotives owned by that railroad.

This is what I want to do, create two libraries, one called Railroads and the
other Steam Locomotives. When I open the Railroads library, I want to see
all the photos for all 4 railroads listed. But if I open the Steam
Locomotives library, I only want to see the photos of steam locomotives for
all 4 railroads.

And maybe if I have a Passenger Cars library, I would only want photos of the
passenger cars for the 4 railroads, or selected railroads.

Naturally, you should be able to include any kind of file in a library, not
just photos, as I used for explanation.

Hopefully, it would work like the card file at your local library.

Anyone have some suggestions or ideas?

I am no expert but using photo catalogue software you give files
'keywords', either one or many. You search the keywords and your files
are displayed

In win7 I think you 'tag' each file with tags(keywords) which when
opening a folder in the libraries in explorer you can choose to Arrange
By: Tags, which then displays all the files you have tagged with that
name. Try this, highlight Documents in Libraries and choose Arrange By:
Tags, you will probably see similar files arrange in certain stacks.

In you scenario all files can be in one or many folders then just give
them tags like 'railroads' to all files, plus steam to applicable files
diesel to applicable files, passenger to applicable files.
If you tag a file railroads;bsnf;steam it will show in three places
If you tag another file railroads;bsnf it will show in two places and
not in the steam section.

Open explorer and choose some files, Arrange By: Name, highlight one or
many of the files and tag each one with one or more tags(found at the
bottom of the window)(semicolon between each tag you enter) and don't
forget to press save.

 

[Char Jackson]

Okay, there *has* to be more to it than that. I add individual files
to my Documents library many times a day.

I think he means, you can't *start* a library with individual files.
Every library has to be defined by a folder, or a set of folders. Once
your library has at least one folder assigned to it, you can then add
or remove your individual files to/from it, as needed.

 

[Char Jackson]

Having discovered you can't add individual files to a library... :-(

Every library starts with a folder, so yes, once you define a library
you can quite simply add (or remove) individual files to it.

This is what I want to do, create two libraries, one called Railroads
and the other Steam Locomotives. When I open the Railroads library, I
want to see all the photos for all 4 railroads listed. But if I open
the Steam Locomotives library, I only want to see the photos of steam
locomotives for all 4 railroads.

And maybe if I have a Passenger Cars library, I would only want photos
of the passenger cars for the 4 railroads, or selected railroads.

Anyone have some suggestions or ideas?

Create all of your folders at the same hierarchy level. By avoiding
nesting, you can pick and choose which folders will be in which
libraries. Some folders will be in multiple libraries, while others
will appear in a single library, making what you want to do very easy.

Note that renaming or deleting a file in one library will affect that
file in any other library to which it belongs. After all, you're
working directly with your files, not with abstract representations of
your files.

 

[Ken Springer]

Hi, Stan,

Okay, there *has* to be more to it than that. I add individual files
to my Documents library many times a day.

There's *always* more to it. LOL

Been experimenting here, and as I learn more about Win7, I possibly
should have said "Having discovered you can't add specific files from a
folder to a library...".

As I understand your comment, as you create a new document, and save it
in the Documents folder (wherever it is, as I relocate mine), that
document shows up in the Documents Library. Agreed.

But, what if, you have 20 documents in the Documents folder, can you
show only certain documents in the Documents Library? Maybe you only
want 10 of those documents displayed in the library.

That's what I'm after, and with *no* folders required.

There's a possible horse's arse workaround here,
http://superuser.com/questions/269322/is-it-possible-to-add-single-files-to-windows-7-libraries
but it's far more complicated than I wish to deal with, or even should
have to deal with.

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.1
Thunderbird 16.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Ken Springer]

Hi, Char,

I think he means, you can't*start* a library with individual files.
Every library has to be defined by a folder, or a set of folders.

Actually, it wasn't what I meant, but would be a good idea.

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.1
Thunderbird 16.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Ken Springer]

Hi, Mick,

I am no expert but using photo catalogue software you give files
'keywords', either one or many. You search the keywords and your files
are displayed

In win7 I think you 'tag' each file with tags(keywords) which when
opening a folder in the libraries in explorer you can choose to Arrange
By: Tags, which then displays all the files you have tagged with that
name. Try this, highlight Documents in Libraries and choose Arrange By:
Tags, you will probably see similar files arrange in certain stacks.

In you scenario all files can be in one or many folders then just give
them tags like 'railroads' to all files, plus steam to applicable files
diesel to applicable files, passenger to applicable files.
If you tag a file railroads;bsnf;steam it will show in three places
If you tag another file railroads;bsnf it will show in two places and
not in the steam section.

Open explorer and choose some files, Arrange By: Name, highlight one or
many of the files and tag each one with one or more tags(found at the
bottom of the window)(semicolon between each tag you enter) and don't
forget to press save.

I think your tagging idea would work, unfortunately, you can't tag all
file types.
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...r-files-for-easier-searches-in-windows-7/4024
has this line: "While you can add Tags to many different types of files,
you can’t add them to all file types. For example, you can add Tags to
Microsoft Office documents and most picture files, but you can’t add
Tags to text files or bitmap files."

But, later in the article, the author has a screenshot showing tagging a
JPG file. JPG's are bitmapped files, which he just said you couldn't
tag! <grin>

So I went experimenting. Opened a couple JPG's, sure enough the Tags
field is listed, but no ability to tag it. I'm using Home Premium,
logged into an Administrator account. Thinking it might be similar to
XP Home where some administrator functions can only be done in Safe
Mode, I tried that, same result.

Then I checked the properties of a couple BMP files, no tag field is
even listed. Maybe by bitmap files, the author meant BMP specifically.
Don't know.

Same for .dll files too, although I don't know of a reason why you would
have these in a library unless you're a programmer.

As I said, I think the tagging idea would work, but you have to be able
to tag all files, not just some of them.

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.1
Thunderbird 16.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Ken Springer]

Hi, Char,

Every library starts with a folder, so yes, once you define a library
you can quite simply add (or remove) individual files to it.


Create all of your folders at the same hierarchy level. By avoiding
nesting, you can pick and choose which folders will be in which
libraries. Some folders will be in multiple libraries, while others
will appear in a single library, making what you want to do very easy.

Note that renaming or deleting a file in one library will affect that
file in any other library to which it belongs. After all, you're
working directly with your files, not with abstract representations of
your files.

But as I noted to Stan, I don't want all files from a folder in the
library, just some of the files.

A crude, brute force way of doing it would be to create a folder of
shortcuts to specific files. Then add the folder of shortcuts to the
library. But I'm still stuck with at least one folder, which I don't
want. I just want the files listed.

And why bother with a library anyway if there's a folder of shortcuts.
If possible, why not have the shortcuts folder(s) listed in the
navigation pane? <grin>

And as noted to Stan, or at least implied, what if I wanted certain
files from Folder A in one library, and a different group of files from
Folder A in another library, I see no way to accomplish this.

I thought a small utility called Smart Folders would do this, but it
appears to move the files to a common folder, not just provide links to
the files in the smart folder.

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.1
Thunderbird 16.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[mick]

Hi, Mick,

I think your tagging idea would work, unfortunately, you can't tag all file
types.
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...r-files-for-easier-searches-in-windows-7/4024
has this line: "While you can add Tags to many different types of files, you
can’t add them to all file types. For example, you can add Tags to Microsoft
Office documents and most picture files, but you can’t add Tags to text files
or bitmap files."

But, later in the article, the author has a screenshot showing tagging a JPG
file. JPG's are bitmapped files, which he just said you couldn't tag!
<grin>

So I went experimenting. Opened a couple JPG's, sure enough the Tags field
is listed, but no ability to tag it. I'm using Home Premium, logged into an
Administrator account. Thinking it might be similar to XP Home where some
administrator functions can only be done in Safe Mode, I tried that, same
result.

Then I checked the properties of a couple BMP files, no tag field is even
listed. Maybe by bitmap files, the author meant BMP specifically. Don't
know.

Same for .dll files too, although I don't know of a reason why you would have
these in a library unless you're a programmer.

As I said, I think the tagging idea would work, but you have to be able to
tag all files, not just some of them.

Yes I see what you mean, you cannot tag just any old file. Jpg's I can
tag, but not wmf, bmp, tif, txt, exe, dll and most others, :-@

I don't use windows explorer to manage files. I use a program called
Directory Opus as my file manager. This program will tag any file. It
is quite expensive but one I could not do without.

What I think you should look at is ACDsee 15
http://www.acdsee.com/en/products/acdsee-15
This is primaraly photo cataloging software with photo touch up
capabilities BUT you can tag any file, and all files show as thumbnails
whatever their extension, any file can also be launched by its parent
program by clicking on its thumbnail.

 

[choro]

Hi, Stan,



There's *always* more to it. LOL

Been experimenting here, and as I learn more about Win7, I possibly
should have said "Having discovered you can't add specific files from a
folder to a library...".

As I understand your comment, as you create a new document, and save it
in the Documents folder (wherever it is, as I relocate mine), that
document shows up in the Documents Library. Agreed.

But, what if, you have 20 documents in the Documents folder, can you
show only certain documents in the Documents Library? Maybe you only
want 10 of those documents displayed in the library.

That's what I'm after, and with *no* folders required.

There's a possible horse's arse workaround here,
http://superuser.com/questions/269322/is-it-possible-to-add-single-files-to-windows-7-libraries
but it's far more complicated than I wish to deal with, or even should
have to deal with.

Me tinks you are asking for the impossible. Splitting a strand of hair
into forty, as they say in my mother tongue.

The ideas people come up with! Honestly!

What's wrong with putting certain files in a separate folder and keeping
that folder out of reach of the library? You are trying to go from
Greenland to the north pole via the south pole, my friend. Be practical
for heaven's sake!

KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!

 

[Ken Springer]

Me tinks you are asking for the impossible. Splitting a strand of hair
into forty, as they say in my mother tongue.

The job is not impossible. Windows 7 just doesn't know how to do
it, apparently.

What's wrong with putting certain files in a separate folder and keeping
that folder out of reach of the library?

But now, you've destroyed the file organization on the hard drive.
Instead of having all the files of category X in one folder, you have
now created 2 folders or more. And, maybe excess copies of folders.

You are trying to go from
Greenland to the north pole via the south pole, my friend. Be practical
for heaven's sake!

I would disagree. I'm trying to get straight to the North Pole, not go
to New York and San Francisco first. LOL

KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!

Exactly. Let me display the files *I* want, and not have to go through
intermediate steps to get it done.

I may have stumbled across a reason why programmers of utilities write
them. The utility, or program, is created to do a job the operating
system of any computer cannot do. But, many times, the ability is added
to new releases.

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.1
Thunderbird 16.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[choro]

The job is not impossible. Windows 7 just doesn't know how to do
it, apparently.



But now, you've destroyed the file organization on the hard drive.
Instead of having all the files of category X in one folder, you have
now created 2 folders or more. And, maybe excess copies of folders.


I would disagree. I'm trying to get straight to the North Pole, not go
to New York and San Francisco first. LOL


Exactly. Let me display the files *I* want, and not have to go through
intermediate steps to get it done.

I may have stumbled across a reason why programmers of utilities write
them. The utility, or program, is created to do a job the operating
system of any computer cannot do. But, many times, the ability is added
to new releases.

But why not take the easy route out in the first place?

 

[Ken Springer]

Hi, Mick,

Yes I see what you mean, you cannot tag just any old file. Jpg's I can
tag, but not wmf, bmp, tif, txt, exe, dll and most others, :-@

I don't use windows explorer to manage files. I use a program called
Directory Opus as my file manager. This program will tag any file. It
is quite expensive but one I could not do without.

Given my experiments, and what you've just said, aren't all your tags
being done by Directory Opus and not Win 7?

After reading the one website that talked about tags in Office 2007, I'd
bet that tag is part of the docx file, where your tags are created by
Directory Opus, and maintained by Directory Opus. Take a file tagged by
you, send it to me, and I'd bet the tag is useless. But, if you sent me
a tagged docx file, I bet the tag works if I open it in Office 2007.
I'd bet the docx tag is part of the file structure itself.

What I think you should look at is ACDsee 15
http://www.acdsee.com/en/products/acdsee-15
This is primaraly photo cataloging software with photo touch up
capabilities BUT you can tag any file, and all files show as thumbnails
whatever their extension, any file can also be launched by its parent
program by clicking on its thumbnail.

But, aren't those tags are external to the file itself, as I have
speculated above?

And what about the files I want to display in a library that are not
graphics files? What if they are word processing, database,
spreadsheet, ET. AL.? Or a mix of file types?

I can't imagine there isn't some program/utility that will do this, just
haven't found it yet. I'm also looking for similar for OS X. But I was
hoping to find something that hooked into the OS, and not a standalone
program.

What is becoming dismaying/disappointing, is that as I work with the
libraries, there seems to be only one thing that can be done with
libraries that can't be done using a window with shortcuts. And that's
display the contents of all the folders in the same window, something
I've never seen done in any Windows OS.

And as for the shortcut idea? Pretty sure I can do exactly the same
thing on my 30 year old Atari computer with an alternative multitasking
desktop.

So, I ask, just what is really new as far as being able to do things
more efficiently with Libraries other than viewing the contents of all
the folders at the same time?


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.1
Thunderbird 16.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Ken Springer]

Hi, Mick,

Yes I see what you mean, you cannot tag just any old file. Jpg's I can
tag, but not wmf, bmp, tif, txt, exe, dll and most others, :-@

I don't use windows explorer to manage files. I use a program called
Directory Opus as my file manager. This program will tag any file. It
is quite expensive but one I could not do without.

Given my experiments, and what you've just said, aren't all your tags
being done by Directory Opus and not Win 7?

After reading the one website that talked about tags in Office 2007, I'd
bet that tag is part of the docx file, where your tags are created by
Directory Opus, and maintained by Directory Opus. Take a file tagged by
you, send it to me, and I'd bet the tag is useless. But, if you sent me
a tagged docx file, I bet the tag works if I open it in Office 2007.
I'd bet the docx tag is part of the file structure itself.

What I think you should look at is ACDsee 15
http://www.acdsee.com/en/products/acdsee-15
This is primaraly photo cataloging software with photo touch up
capabilities BUT you can tag any file, and all files show as thumbnails
whatever their extension, any file can also be launched by its parent
program by clicking on its thumbnail.

But, aren't those tags are external to the file itself, as I have
speculated above?

And what about the files I want to display in a library that are not
graphics files? What if they are word processing, database,
spreadsheet, ET. AL.? Or a mix of file types?

I can't imagine there isn't some program/utility that will do this, just
haven't found it yet. I'm also looking for similar for OS X. But I was
hoping to find something that hooked into the OS, and not a standalone
program.

What is becoming dismaying/disappointing, is that as I work with the
libraries, there seems to be only one thing that can be done with
libraries that can't be done using a window with shortcuts. And that's
display the contents of all the folders in the same window, something
I've never seen done in any Windows OS.

And as for the shortcut idea? Pretty sure I can do exactly the same
thing on my 30 year old Atari computer with an alternative multitasking
desktop.

So, I ask, just what is really new as far as being able to do things
more efficiently with Libraries other than viewing the contents of all
the folders at the same time?


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.1
Thunderbird 16.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Ken Springer]

But why not take the easy route out in the first place?

The easy route *is* to be able to display just the files I want. But
Windows 7 can't do it. Doesn't know how. That's the fewest steps you
can take. All the other possible solutions involve more steps.
Not to mention the possible need to destroy the hard drive organization
itself.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 16.0.1
Thunderbird 16.0.1
LibreOffice 3.5.6.2

 

[Char Jackson]

Hi, Char,



Actually, it wasn't what I meant, but would be a good idea.

Your original post wasn't as clear as your follow-ups. I see what
you're trying to do now and I don't know of an elegant solution. Good
luck, though.

 

[Char Jackson]

Been experimenting here, and as I learn more about Win7, I possibly
should have said "Having discovered you can't add specific files from a
folder to a library...".

That still wouldn't have been clear.
You add *folders* to a library directly, by specifying that Library X
will include Folder Y.
You add *files* to a library indirectly, by copying or moving File X
into Folder Y, where Folder Y is included in your library.

I see what you mean, though, by reading below.

As I understand your comment, as you create a new document, and save it
in the Documents folder (wherever it is, as I relocate mine), that
document shows up in the Documents Library. Agreed.

But, what if, you have 20 documents in the Documents folder, can you
show only certain documents in the Documents Library? Maybe you only
want 10 of those documents displayed in the library.

That's what I'm after, and with *no* folders required.

Nope, not currently possible with standard Libraries, as implemented
in Win 7. The granularity to be included in a library is primarily at
the folder level. Once a particular folder is included in a library,
all of it's files are also included in that library.

 

[Char Jackson]

And as noted to Stan, or at least implied, what if I wanted certain
files from Folder A in one library, and a different group of files from
Folder A in another library, I see no way to accomplish this.

I agree. That's outside the current Library functionality being
offered by Win 7. At a minimum, you'd have to split your files into
two separate folders, for example subfolders A1 and A2.

 

[Wolf K]

On 07/11/2012 1:10 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
[...]

On your hard drive, you have a lot of photos for the 4 railroads I
listed, with the photos specific to a railroad in the folder for the
railroad. For each railroad, there are photos of steam locomotives
owned by that railroad.

This is what I want to do, create two libraries, one called Railroads
and the other Steam Locomotives. When I open the Railroads library, I
want to see all the photos for all 4 railroads listed. But if I open
the Steam Locomotives library, I only want to see the photos of steam
locomotives for all 4 railroads.

[...]

Sounds like you need a real database. "Libraries" is a half-hearted
attempt to create a filing system like a database.