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#1
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
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 |
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#2
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:10:12 -0700, Ken Springer wrote:
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. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com Shikata ga nai... |
#3
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
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. -- mick |
#4
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
On Wed, 7 Nov 2012 14:28:28 -0500, Stan Brown
wrote: On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:10:12 -0700, Ken Springer wrote: 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. 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 |
#5
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:10:12 -0700, Ken Springer
wrote: 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. -- Char Jackson |
#6
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
Hi, Stan,
On 11/7/12 12:28 PM, Stan Brown wrote: On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:10:12 -0700, Ken Springer wrote: 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. 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/26932...ws-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 |
#7
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
Hi, Char,
On 11/7/12 1:10 PM, Char Jackson wrote: 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 |
#8
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
Hi, Mick,
On 11/7/12 12:58 PM, mick wrote: 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/win...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 |
#9
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
Hi, Char,
On 11/7/12 1:18 PM, Char Jackson wrote: On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:10:12 -0700, Ken Springer wrote: 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. 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 |
#10
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
Hi, Mick,
On 11/7/12 12:58 PM, mick wrote: 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/win...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. -- mick |
#11
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
On 08/11/2012 10:47, Ken Springer wrote:
Hi, Stan, On 11/7/12 12:28 PM, Stan Brown wrote: On Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:10:12 -0700, Ken Springer wrote: 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. 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/26932...ws-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!!! -- choro ***** |
#12
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
On 11/8/12 6:25 AM, choro wrote:
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. snip 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 |
#13
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
On 08/11/2012 14:47, Ken Springer wrote:
On 11/8/12 6:25 AM, choro wrote: 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. snip 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. But why not take the easy route out in the first place? -- choro ***** |
#14
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
Hi, Mick,
On 11/8/12 5:12 AM, mick wrote: 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 |
#15
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Library enhancements and/or replacement
Hi, Mick,
On 11/8/12 5:12 AM, mick wrote: 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 |
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