Sunday Morning Tip #1: Clean up your Desktop

It's spring time, and time for some spring cleaning. I exchange files very often from clients or friends receiving files of IChat, through Mail or downloading trial programs. All of these applications default to the Desktop for saving your files. Usually they are meant to be temporary which makes the Desktop a great place for those files. I however usually get caught up in the work and forget to either move the files or delete the. This leaves my Desktop looking like a litter-filled trash receptacle which is why I like to have many windows covering my desktop, and why I don't have a desktop wallpaper set. I've been wanting an easy way to automate my cleanup for me so I don't have to hunt around and figure out what everything is - something that can do it for me in some sort of logical way.

I went to Automator to help me out with this. Turns out it was easier that I figured it would be. I don't use Automator too much so the method here may seem simplistic but it does the job, and its easier then wading through all the sludge. So here goes. The way I wanted to clean mine up is to simply move files of the same kind to a designated folder. Most of the documents on the desktop aren't trash-able but also do not have a real home, so I'd like to keep them there but organize them until I get around to giving them a real home. As a graphic designer, I regularly download comp images to use for ideas in my work, so my desktop is usually heavy on the images file type. For this reason I've created a Pictures folder on my desktop - I know I have a Pictures folder already and could store them there, but this folder lets me know these images were probably downloaded from somewhere and still has the potential for being trashed.


Launch Automator and choose the Finder library. This will display all of the actions that work in the Finder. Look for the action named 'Find Finder Items', and drag it into the right page which is where you build your workflow. This action is a common search filter where you set criteria for what you are looking for. In this case we are looking for 'Kind' that 'Is' of type 'Image'.

If you have more specific criteria, you can further your filter and apply specific file extensions or date ranges.

Next we want to move our files off the desktop and to its destination. Drag the 'Move Finder Items' action to your workflow. This is where you designate your destination. The list offers the list of favorite folders, but you can choose a specific folder by choosing 'Other...'.

Once that is set, you can save your work flow as a plug-in or application. Plug-ins will be attached to your Finder contextual menu through the Automator submenu. That's it - run it and see how it works for you.

I created separate workflows for each file type I was interested in moving, but you can probably create a workflow that handles many file types. Or, as I have, create a wrapper workflow and run my saved workflow from the wrapper. As I continue to make this better, I will post the updates here. Enjoy.



Before & After.