The Problem

I wrote at length the other day about my current system for taking notes. Something else I’ve been working on fixing is how I store files. You store files in a hierarchy of folders and for most of us that’s just how it is. I’ve learned to work with the limitations of the hierarchical folder system and for the most part, it works for me. I create directories in a way that seems logical to me and usually me to remember where I put a specific items with very little exploration. But, there have always been those miscellaneous items that never seem to fit in any logical structure.

A Compromise Pretending To Be A Solution

I often end up with a “catch-all” folder named “SORT” and I always intend for that to be a temporary folder to be deleted once the contents have been moved to appropriate locations. There are a few problems with this approach. First, the temporary folder ends up being permanent because I still can’t quite figure out the best place for some items. And since it’s already there, anything new that I create or download that doesn’t fit anywhere else just gets dumped there, so the collection of miscellaneous stuff continues to grow. Without organization, items are forgotten, or when I need them, I look in places that seem logical at the moment, only to end up recreating or re-downloading the item because it isn’t found. Then if I do store it in a way that seems logical at the moment, the next time I look for it, the logical place in my mind has changed and I repeat the cycle.

Some Examples

If you have no idea why this is such a problem for me, congratulations, you either have a system that works for you or you don’t collect as much digital junk as I do! If that isn’t really the case, but you still aren’t seeing my problem, lets look at a simple example. When I get a new tool, household appliance, piece of software, whatever. I try to find a PDF version of the manual for said item. In my mind, the generic label I would assign to such a document could be “documentation”, “manual”, “instructions” depending on my frame of mind at the time. So do I store all documentation of any kind in one place? If it’s instructions on how to use a piece of code, should it really be grouped with the manual for my lawn mower? Do I separate manuals for physical things and documentation for code? What about software user guides? Should I have specific folders for items even if there will only ever be one document? It seems like a waste to navigate a long directory structure just so I can keep my vacuum instructions neatly separated from my circular saw manual? It might end up being nicely compartmentalized, but it just seems like a bit of a mess to me ¹. Should I make copies in folders of different names so when I’m looking for “Documentation” I can find it, and when I go to look for “Manuals” I can find it there too? That is a waste of disk space and makes keeping things up to date a nightmare.

What about images? In my Windows days, I used Picasa to organize, preview and process pictures I’ve taken ². Now that I’m on a mac, I use iPhoto. That works perfectly for my pictures, but when I download an image to use as a desktop wallpaper, I don’t want it stored with pictures I took on vacation. I also have libraries of icons I’ve downloaded that I use when I build a new interface for an application. I don’t want those grouped in with my vacation photos either. The problem with simply dumping them into directories is how they are organized. Do I put al wallpaper images together, or do I separate them based on subject matter, or color palette, or some other category? If I do create separate folders, what happens when I simply want to look through all wallpaper images to pick one?

The Solution

The solution to the stuff that I just can’t seem to categorize, the one-off documents and the stuff that I don’t to include in places that would logically work for them (like the wallpaper images) is Yojimbo. Yojimbo is a database system for storing documents with the ability to tag each item.

I originally grabbed Yojimbo to store reusable code files such as jQuery plugins, but the inability to store folders at all made it pretty inconvenient for this (I really should have done more research before buying it), but it was an accidental blessing since it helped me clean up the junk.

The Good

Yojimbo acts as a repository for PDFs, web archives, web bookmarks, images and text files. It does this without any visible structure. The power comes from the ability to tag and label items that are added to it. Then you use the search to find items based on a combination of tags and document names. The application stores files in a database, so once they’ve been added to Yojimbo, there is no need to keep the files stored in a directory. After years of upgrading computers and copying my “SORT” folder along just to have it sit and never be organized, I was able to empty the directory, keep all of the files and for once, they are easy to find when I need them.

If the search isn’t enough, Yojimbo also allows you to create tag collections, which are pretty much like smart folders that show items based on a tag or set of tags. So now you can have multiple “folders” that may happen to contain the same document without the need for duplication. From my example before, I can have a tag collection for all wallpaper images. I can then have a separate one that is strictly for wallpaper images that also have the tag “landscape” and I can create as many of these as I need. If I have a tag collection that is based on items that all share 3 different tags, I can add new items directly to that tag collection, and the new item will automatically be tagged with those tags.

The tagging has built in autocomplete so it is easy to keep tags consistent, and there are hooks throughout the OS to allow you do things like print a PDF directly into Yojimbo, and the dialog allows you to set tags right then and there. This allows me to save something and keep going without the need to go into the application and tag my newly added items. So now those pesky user guides, manuals, and documentation files can all be tagged with each, so regardless of how I decide to search for an item, I’ll find it without the need to duplicate it, or navigate down a long path that might get me to what I’m looking for.

Each item can be previewed directly, so most of the time, the file can stay in the Yojimbo database and I can just read it from there. If I am looking at a web bookmark, I have the option to have it copied to my clipboard, or I can launch it right from there. I even have the option to have it moved to the trash once I visit the address, so it works great for temporary items that I want to be able to come back to, but don’t necessarily want to keep indefinitely. If I do need to use a file outside of the application, you can simple drag it to the folder you want it in and it will be copied from the database out to your destination. It will remain in the database, so you have the option to delete it again when you are done with it.

You also have the option to apply labels to items, as well as flagging them. I haven’t found much need to use those features yet, but if the need arises, I’m covered.

The Bad

Yojimbo doesn’t handle all file types. While it does a great job with everything I mentioned above, it doesn’t store slide presentations, spreadsheet documents, zip files, etc. So there is always the possibility that some of your unclassifiable items may still be homeless with Yojimbo. This worked out for me, since most of my unclassifiable junk feel into one of those categories.

The Ugly

Because Yojimbo doesn’t have any kind of hierarchical structure, looking at the default view can make those with even mild OCD cringe a little bit. I am learning to block it out, but when I see a list of files without any apparent organization whatsoever it does still bug me a bit. I do my best to only look at it when I need to find something. The features like printing a PDF directly to Yojimbo make this easier since you can add tags right from the dialog without ever bringing the full application to the front of your windows.

Conclusion

I ended up not using Yojimbo for what I had originally intended, but it ended up being so much more. It’s like having a magical junk drawer that allows you to find exactly what you’re looking for without pushing all the other junk out of the way.