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franfromhkg

Q: Deleting files

I have 3 years of Uni/College notes/assignments on my macbook - very few of which I actually want to keep.

 

Is there a smarter way to sort through and delete or do I have to go through each file and select delete?

 

I think I'm hoping against hope that somebody will know a genius way of my completing this painful task a little less

painfully?

 

Many thanks, Fran.

Posted on Feb 5, 2014 4:22 AM

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Q: Deleting files

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  • by CT,

    CT CT Feb 5, 2014 4:56 AM in response to franfromhkg
    Level 6 (17,882 points)
    Notebooks
    Feb 5, 2014 4:56 AM in response to franfromhkg

    command-a

     

    command-click

     

    command-delete

  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Feb 5, 2014 4:50 AM in response to franfromhkg
    Level 7 (24,405 points)
    Notebooks
    Feb 5, 2014 4:50 AM in response to franfromhkg

    To delete a file you must select it. That means if multiple items are selected they can all be deleted at once. It is easy to select a group of items that have been found with a search. Mavericks makes it easy to search for items that have been tagged. Also when a folder is deleted the contents of the folder are also deleted. This leads to several things that might help you clean up your computer.

     

    • Easiest: if you have a folder which is all notes you want to delete, drag it to the trash. If you have a folder that mostly contains deletable items, move the items you wish to keep elsewhere and then delete the folder
    • If your notes have common terms in their titles: History 207 for example, perform a search for that term using Spotlight (in the menu bar) Click on the show in Finder option (which is the first option) and then select the items you want to delete. Remember, you can select more than one item at a time and then delete them all at once.
    • As you are working thru this problem it might be easiest to use Spotlight to perform a search and then tag all the found items. You can later perform a search on that tag and then go through the list to untag what you want to keep. Once finished, perform another tag search and delete all the found items.

     

    Going forward you might want to think about how tagging can help you organize your files to make cleanup easier. As a 30 year vet of computer use (and a packrat) there are no easy genius solutions, just things that help organizing be less painful