Create and Customize Folders on Your Mac!

Spring clean your computer files! Here’s a new take on a blog post I wrote back in 2016 about creating customized folders on your Mac! I love the ability to take the folder shape, completely customize it with color, icons, and text so that I can visually see what I am working on at the moment! It really helps for organization!

Here’s the step-by-step video to get you started!

Click here to download the Keynote folder shape.

Happy organizing! 🙂

Hide Your Desktop Icons in One Easy Click

Hi everyone! Let’s start the new year off right by being organized (or at least pretending to look organized). 😆

I saw someone use this tool and I knew I had to install it on my computer. I love to store files that I am currently working with on my desktop and as a result, my desktop can become quite cluttered. When I am presenting in front of large groups of teachers or students, I don’t want them to see my desktop. Although I try to keep it tidy, sometimes it just isn’t the case. This solution is quick and easy!

Click here to see a previous post about organizing your desktop.

This is a FREE app called HiddenMe Free: Hide Desktop Icons. It is available in the Mac App Store. Download it and then you will have a small black circle in your menu bar. Once you click on it, you can hide your desktop icons like magic! Additionally, you can set up a hotkey that will automatically hide your icons when you press those keys you’ve set up. 

 

Happy clean desktop to all! 👩🏼‍💻

Custom Folders on Your Mac

 

A friend recently shared how she found out how to change the colors of the default light blue folders on your Mac. It’s fairly easy and can make a gal like myself jump for joy at the thought of another way to organize my files. 🤓

Steps to make colored folders!

1. Go to this site: Colored Folders
2. Download the folders (free download)
3. Drag the colors out of the downloaded folder onto your desktop and rename them. Delete the unwanted files inside the folder to the trash.
4. Add your files just as you would any other folder on your Mac.

Another fun thing you can do is search for images of folders that other users have created and are available to download for free. Example below:

CREATE YOUR OWN! 

I really wanted to learn how to create my own folders with textures and colors. I went to my go-to tool, Keynote. Here are the steps to create your own custom folders:

1. Open Keynote and use the shape tool to draw with pen. You can search for an image of a folder to use as a guide to trace over. Trace over the image of the folder and then delete the folder. You can fill the folder with your own custom color or a background image that you like. A great royalty-free background is from this site: backgroundlabs.com. There are many others out there, as well.
2. Once you have your folder the way you like it, you can take a screen shot of the folder or you can save the Keynote slide as an image.
3. Now, you need to get rid of the white or colored background on the slide. To do this, open the image using Preview. Use the instant alpha tool in  Preview and save the image as a transparent (.PNG) picture.
4. Create a new folder on your desktop (File>New Folder)
5. Click on your newly created image of the folder and press Command+i or use your secondary click and click GET INFO.
6. Press Command+A to select the entire picture and then Command+C to copy the image.
7. Click on the new folder you just created and press Command+i and click on the small image of the folder and press Command+V. You will now see that the folder has changed to your custom created folder.

Using Instant Alpha to delete the background image of the Keynote slide.

 

The folder will change once you paste the copied image.

**Important tip: I would recommend creating your custom colors that DO NOT include the color of your background image. For example, if your background color of your Keynote slide is white, I would recommend not using any white in the image of your folder. When using instant alpha, it is very difficult to not take out the same color as they bleed together.

Hope you have fun creating these folders! It does spice up your organization if you like that kind of thing! Plus, it makes your MacBook look more unique than anyone else’s! 🖥

 

Organize Your Desktop Background!

I wish I could take the credit for this awesome idea, but I actually stumbled upon it when I was on Pinterest searching for desktop wallpaper. If your desktop looks like mine, then you’re a cluttered mess. I usually know where everything is, but when you use three different computers like I do, you tend to forget what file is in which location. Plus, I feel like I am always working on various projects, taking screenshots, grabbing images, and saving files. I like to save files to the desktop because I can SEE it all right there. When I came across these desktop wallpaper organizers, I knew I had to make my own! So, here are some examples and then I will go through some steps to create your own. It takes about 10 minutes TOPS! For the example I am going to show you, I used Keynote to create the desktop wallpaper image.

This is what my desktop usually looks like (YIKES!)

 

This is what it looks like AFTER you organize your desktop!

So, here is where I got my great inspiration! Pinterest: Desktop Wallpaper Organizers. Most of those sites have free downloads for wallpaper organizers, but I think it’s fun to create your own and then you can create headings that work for you. These steps are for a Mac…

Steps:

1. In order to make a wallpaper that has the resolution you want for your particular computer screen, you need to find out the size of your display. To do this, go to the Apple and click on System Preferences. Click on Display. In order to see what your display is, click on the button that says SCALED and you will see which display your computer uses. Now, you know what size to make your wallpaper.

 

2. Open Keynote. The first thing you will want to do is format your slide so that it is the same size as your display. This is over on the right hand side of your Keynote screen.

 

3. Now the fun part begins! You can insert shapes, change the color, and move them around so that the layout fits your needs. Insert text at the top of each shape. You could also fill the shapes in with a background image and adjust the transparency, but to keep it simple and clean, I just chose solid colors.  As you insert the shapes, keep in mind that you don’t want to take the shapes all the way to the top of the slide or the bottom. Leave room for the menu at the top of your desktop as well as your dock.

4. Export your slide as an image and save it to your desktop!

5. Now, either right-click or go to System Preferences>Desktop and Screen Saver and drag in your photo! Have fun arranging your desktop and stay organized! If you want to use my desktop wallpaper organizer, just drag the below image to your desktop (my display is 1920×1080)…maybe I’ll make some more to put on here that my friends could use! Stay tuned! 🙂

Cheers!

April