How to reference a file in more than one folder? Shortcut Alias or Duplicate Records?

EagleFiler
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What is the recommended method of referencing a record in more than one place in Eaglefiler?

I’m using EagleFiler on Sonoma. I love the program and have been using it for many years in concert with Hazel to enable a Paperless home-office workflow.

Use Case: My wife purchased office equipment and computer hardware for use in her work. We needed to file those receipts in the 2022 Taxes folder in case of a tax audit down the road. But I also want to reference those receipts in another folder for future warrantee purposes.

I like the fact that EagleFiler natively scans for and prevents importing duplicate records. But in this case I explicitly want to reference these receipts in more than one place.

I’ve discovered and installed the “Duplicate Records” script. It allow me to create duplicates and then I can move them to other folders manually. But I was wondering if there’s a better way.

Question: Is there a better way to perhaps add a shortcut/alias link to a file in a folder in EagleFiler? I see the menu has an item labeled “Copy Record Link” and it made me wonder if I can copy a link as a virtual reference to a file and save the disk space needed to store duplicates.

If I later run the “Remove Duplicate File” script in EagleFiler as a housekeeping chore, I suspect it may remove the explicitly created duplicate records that I created for tax and warrantee purposes. So perhaps creating duplicates may not be the best alternative.

Another possibility might be to tag the receipts in a sort of taxonomy, and store a single instance in the taxes folder in such a way that I can find those receipts later on when I need warrantee repairs. But tags and developing a useful, organized tagging taxonomy seems less desirable and harder to manage.

What do you recommend?

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I think it really depends on the particular use case.

  • It’s certainly fine to just use the Duplicate Records script and store an actual duplicate file. In most cases, the extra disk space used wouldn’t be prohibitive. The Remove Duplicate Files script only operates on the currently selected files, so it might not be a problem unless you purposely run the script on the whole library.

  • Tags are the natural way to make a record appear in more than one place. I’m not sure from your example how much of a taxonomy you would need. For example, could you put the files in the 2022 Taxes folder and also tag them warranty? Personally, I file receipts by year, and if I needed to make a claim I would search for the file by vendor and item name. I’m not sure a tag or filing in multiple locations would be relevant. It’s not clear to me what your other “folder for future warrantee purposes” works. If you already have a detailed folder system for receipts (e.g. by project or location or something), then maybe it would be best to put the file there and then just tag it taxes2022.

  • Copy Record Link lets you paste a reference to a record into an RTF or text file or a note. So, for example, if you have a bunch of files filed into folders, you could make a list of links to them. Maybe have a checklist of the receipts that need to be added up for tax reporting.