How to Organize Files on Your Mac?

• Sep 05, 2020
• By Celia Swift

This guide makes learning how to organize your Mac files easy and fun. You will know how to manage all your files effectively on a Mac computer. If you’ve been working with Mac computer for some time but don’t know how to manage files and folders and make them easier to find, then you just came to the right place.

In your spare time, creating and saving documents may be something that happens all the time. But as the accumulated documents pile up, it is possible to forget where you put some important files and what are names of the file you created. So how to quickly and effectively organize the files you want? Refer to the several tips as followed.

Enter a good name for your file:

This is the most important part of file management, and probably everyone has their own naming conventions. But I think it’s the one that works best.

Date _ document name _(content overview)_ version number

• The date lets you know when the document was edited;
• The document name lets you know what the document is;
• An overview gives you an idea of what the document is about;
• The version number lets you know which version of the document it is;

Get a right file name, and even if you forget where the file is, you can do a quick search using Spotlight in macOS.

Batch Rename Multiple Files:

• Launch Finder on your Mac.
• Locate the files you want to rename.
• Shift-click to select multiple files.
• Click on the Action button at the top of the Finder window. You can also right or control + click on the files.
• Select Rename [X number] Items.
• Select Format from the drop down menu at the top of the set of rename tools. You need to choose the option of Name and Index.
• In the Custom format, enter a name for your file.
• Enter a Starting number. You can start with any number like number 1.
• Click Rename.

Till now, all the selected file you want to rename will be showed sequentially from the starting number you just entered.

Tag files with a color:

Color tagging allows you to add a color tag to your files so you don’t have to create a bunch of folders to classify them.

•  Select the files that you want to add a color tag.
• Right-click the files and select the color.
• Right-click on the color TAB in the Finder sidebar and rename the color TAB so you don’t need to remember the colors and usage