CompuServe Thread

Joan, I gather from an earlier question you posted that you are using DOS 2.0 or later. If so, you don't really need to make icons for everything, since, in the Window menu, item SHOW will allow you to display all files and directories no matter whether an .info file exists for them or not. On 2.0, there are several ways you can change these pseudo-icons into real ones – for example, an easy way is to use the Icon Editor. Oh, and maybe I'm stating the obvious when I say there are lots of directories you DON'T want to see icons for, normally. Things on your Workbench disk like C, L, LIBS, DEVS .. the icons would just clutter up your real work. >> .. everything has started its own directory .. << I'm not sure what this means. If you install a program package, it will usually arrange to make its own directory so that it won't get muddled with other things. So if you have lots of applications, you will see lots of directories holding them. If you feel you are over-directoried this way, and want to group similar applications together, you can do so, of course. In the Window menu again, select New Drawer, supply a name, and the new directory is in place. Now you could just drag the directories that you choose into the new drawer .. and there they will be, grouped together as you wish. Careful: some programs need to look for data in specifically-named places; if anything misbehaves, come back here and we'll tell you how to "change the 'assign's" to make it work. –Jim

Start Workbench if it isn't already started, and select "New Drawer" from the "Window" menu heading. That'll create a new drawer on your workbench screen. If you already have directories created, and you'd like icons on the drawers, just copy an existing directory icon to the new directory. For example, if I have a directory named "Spot" with a directory icon and I have another directory named "Sneeze" without an icon. From the CLI, type "copy Spot.info Sneeze.info". The file "Spot.info" at the end of the directory name is the actual icon. The manuals that come with the system should give you a nice introduction. The AmigaDOS Companion is a good book to get too.

Joan, one tool you might look at is MKReal.LZH in library 11 here. It adds an entry to your tools menu that will take any selected 'fake' icon created by WB 2.x (or better) and turn it into a real icon. You still need to intervene manually for project icons, but it'll take care of directories and tools just fine. Perhaps my favorite program. I get the feeling from your line on organizing your hard drive that you want to categorize your data files away from your application directories. If I'm mistaken, ignore the following. If so, many programs out there allow you specify via a tooltype in the program icon (use menu Icon Information to see them) to specify where the datafiles, such as all your word processing documents, are to be found. The good ones do, at least. If so, you can collect all your data files in one directory and just double-click on them in there, ignoring the actual location of the program. However, some programs do not allow you to store your data files seperate from the applications. For this, you need to consider setting up an assign, called, say, data:, to point to where your data files are located. That way, at the very least, you can select this assigned name from within a file-requester when opening a file. Let us know if this is the direction you are heading. Assigns are actually quite easy to set up. I only have half-a-hundred, or so <g>. VERY convienent.