Archiving Work
With cheap 300GB disk drives available now it has become easier to procrastinate archiving one's creative work. Everyone hates archiving their work. It's so boring--so uncreative. The following is how I archive my work and hopefully it will allow you to archive faster and more efficiently.
The main points to consider when archiving are:
DVDs vs CDs
With printable DVDs costing a few cents more than their CD counterparts and the ubiquitousness of DVD players now, I always burn one DVD instead of trying to burn multiple CDs.
Listing files in OS X
A co-worker of mine said there used to be a print window (a Finder window) command in OS 9. I was unable to find an equivalent in OS X. One could screen capture the Finder window in List mode and print the resulting PNG or PDF. That would work, but it would be a pain expand all the folers, and you would still need to fold up the piece of paper and place it in the CD case.
A few months ago, I discovered an AppleScript on a forum that uses Unix commands to recursively list all the file contents of a folder's directory tree (meaning all subfolders and their contents), and saves it to a text file. Here is the folderPrint script, and the folderPrint OS X application (PowerPC version).
The folderPrintApp.app will open up a Choose Folder dialog and ask you for a folder. It will then save a text file named "folder_list.txt" to the Desktop. You can open this text file and copy all the text (Ctrl+A) into a textbox in the following disk template.
Listing Files in Windows
Coming Soon. . .
Disk template
If you have a direct to CD printing printer (or if you want to use labels), use this archival CD label template (PDF made with Illustatrator CS2) for the Epson R220. For directions on using the Epson R220 to print to CD in Illustrator, read my previous post on the topic. It isn't the prettiest, but your archive disk ends up in a CD album or with a job ticket, after all.
Marking that a folder that has been archived
I place a text file called "_FOLDER_ARCHIVED" in a folder after I archive it. With the "_" first, I know it will appear at the top of the file list. Once this file has been placed in a project folder, I know that I can delete it, since I have a backup copy.
--Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com
The main points to consider when archiving are:
- Do I have everything for this project?
- Do have a list of everything on the disk, so I can locate files in the future?
- Do I have a way of marking that I have archived this project and so can delete my project folder in the future?
DVDs vs CDs
With printable DVDs costing a few cents more than their CD counterparts and the ubiquitousness of DVD players now, I always burn one DVD instead of trying to burn multiple CDs.
Listing files in OS X
A co-worker of mine said there used to be a print window (a Finder window) command in OS 9. I was unable to find an equivalent in OS X. One could screen capture the Finder window in List mode and print the resulting PNG or PDF. That would work, but it would be a pain expand all the folers, and you would still need to fold up the piece of paper and place it in the CD case.
A few months ago, I discovered an AppleScript on a forum that uses Unix commands to recursively list all the file contents of a folder's directory tree (meaning all subfolders and their contents), and saves it to a text file. Here is the folderPrint script, and the folderPrint OS X application (PowerPC version).
The folderPrintApp.app will open up a Choose Folder dialog and ask you for a folder. It will then save a text file named "folder_list.txt" to the Desktop. You can open this text file and copy all the text (Ctrl+A) into a textbox in the following disk template.
Listing Files in Windows
Coming Soon. . .
Disk template
If you have a direct to CD printing printer (or if you want to use labels), use this archival CD label template (PDF made with Illustatrator CS2) for the Epson R220. For directions on using the Epson R220 to print to CD in Illustrator, read my previous post on the topic. It isn't the prettiest, but your archive disk ends up in a CD album or with a job ticket, after all.
Marking that a folder that has been archived
I place a text file called "_FOLDER_ARCHIVED" in a folder after I archive it. With the "_" first, I know it will appear at the top of the file list. Once this file has been placed in a project folder, I know that I can delete it, since I have a backup copy.
--Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com
posted by Stephen M. James at 4/25/2006 06:49:00 PM
1 Comments:
To create a directory listing in a text file, you can use the "dir" command in a command prompt, and output to a text file.
"dir > mydirlist.txt"
You can of course use all the available options in dir, like this:
"dir *.exe > myexelist.txt"
Trashcan
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