I’ve been using EF on a trial basis for the past few days, both for business and personal use. I need to achieve some order regarding my records and I’m so tired of spending way too much time looking for things on my hard drive. I’ve tried several other methods to achieve this, mostly through tagging, but none has been as comprehensive or as user friendly as EF seems to be.
I’ve read the EF manual, looked through the forums but still have some very elementary questions that I hope you’ll be kind enough to answer for a newbie. Please excuse if they seem simple-minded! I really want this to work
It appears that when I import files into EF, they still remain on my HD in their original location. Does that mean that they are taking up twice the HD space as the original file? Is it OK to delete them from their original location once imported? (not sure if the imported files are actually new files or just a reference to where the original file resides) I’m working off a MB Air with limited HD space on a SSD, so this is of concern to me.
The manual states that I can select some text from another app, and then choose “EagleFiler: Import” from the Services menu within the app. I have logged out since installing EF, rebooted, but still don’t see that option in the Services menu from any application. Is this a bug? I also don’t see any option to add this from the Keyboard pane with System Prefs.
Is there any disadvantage to having my EF libraries reside in Dropbox so they can be accessed from other computers?
Since attempting to go paperless, l have all of my scanned documents going into a catch-all folder. From there, I use Hazel to both rename, date, tag, and move the file to the folder where I wanted it to reside permanently. Will this system work with EF if I tell Hazel to move it to the EF Import Folder? Can you think of a better workflow to achieve the same result?
This is probably just a personal preference question, but do most people using EF for multi purposes (ie work and personal) use 1 library for everything? That seems the least complicated to me, as I wouldn’t have to deal with more than 1 screen, but perhaps I’m missing something. I plan to heavily use tags and titles for searching purposes so am wondering if I really need to duplicate my hierarchical/nested folder structure when importing everything into EF.
I know some of these questions are pretty rudimentary, but would appreciate any help you might offer.
With most of the import methods, EagleFiler creates a copy of the file in its library. After the import is complete you can delete the original file. You can also move files into the EagleFiler library by dragging them to the “To Import” or “Files” folder in the Finder.
If you go to the Keyboard pane in System Preferences and click on Keyboard Shortcuts, then Services, you should see the EagleFiler service in the Text section of the list. Click the checkbox to make this command appear in the Services menu.
No.
Yes. You could also have Hazel move the files into any subfolder within EagleFiler’s Files folder.
Yes, that’s a personal preference. Personally, I have lots of different libraries with different folder structures and tags to suit different projects. There are definitely lots of people using a single library, though. It’s pretty easy to switch, so you don’t have to decide up-front.
I didn’t realize that depending on the import method used, it would either *copy *or move the files to EF. Seems like if I’m short on disk space the most productive method would be to drag them to the Import Folder, so I don’t have to go back and delete any files. Then I would know exactly what’s been moved and what hasn’t. One question regarding this: if in the future I decide I don’t want to use EF anymore, is it possible to reverse the move and have everything moved from EF back into the way it was before in Finder?
Not sure why I wasn’t seeing the EagleFiler: Import option in the Keyboard pane of System Prefs before, but it’s there now and working as expected.
In terms of using either single or multiple libraries, it sounds from your response that I could start out with a single library and then decide later on to split them? Did I get that right? And vice versa also? Start out with multiple libraries and then merge them?
One other question: I have virtually no experience with using scripts. But I’ve noticed that there are some very useful ones around here. I don’t expect anyone to hold my hand and explain everything, but if you could let me know where they should be located in each application’s file structure, that would be very helpful. I’m running Lion and I think there were some changes regarding their location with this OS?
Thanks again. What a great piece of versatile software!
EagleFiler doesn’t remember where the files came from, but you could certainly drag them back yourself. Also, EagleFiler stores everything in a regular Finder folder (not inside a database) so you if you stopped using EagleFiler everything would already be accessible from the Finder.
Right.
Each script listed on the page should say where it wants to be installed. There’s also information about using the built-in Scripts menu or FastScripts. This particular kind of script hasn’t changed in Lion or Mountain Lion.
One of the main reasons I was attracted to EF was because things aren’t stored inside a proprietary database. I have used Evernote in the past, and while I like certain things about it, it’s a real pain getting files out of their database, and even if you do mange to accomplish it, you end up losing all sorts of information in the process.
I’ve checked out the scripts listed in the above referenced URL, and I do see where they are supposed to be installed. But when I go to ~/Library/Scripts, the folder is completely empty. No applications folder, and no EagleFiler folder. (see screenshot) What am I missing?
As another brand new user, my thanks to both RobinH for asking questions I shared, and to Michael for responding so promptly. I look forward to learning more about EagleFiler; I’m impressed with what little I’ve seen of it thus far.
You need to create the other folders in the path. Or, I think the Script menu (and FastScripts) will create them if you use the menu command to open the EagleFiler scripts folder.
