Doug Anderson's
Article Organizer

So many articles, scattered all over your hard drive... so many that you have no idea what you've actually got. Now there's a simple way to bring them all together under a single directory, with sections for Health, Sports, you name it.

The program gives you two views into your hard drive; you can select any directory in each window.

You can filter the display in each window by file type:

Each window is divided into two halves: drive and folders on the left, files in the selected folder on the right. There is also a status message at the upper right that shows how many files and subdirectories are in the selected folder.

Each section has a number of function buttons at the bottom. The buttons at the left operate on the folders in the window above; the buttons on the right operate on the files in the window above.

The folder function buttons are as follows: Create New Folder, Rename Folder, Copy Folder to other window, Move Folder to other window, Show Folder Properties, and at the far right, the X means Delete Folder. It's separated from the rest so you don't accidentally delete something.

The file function buttons are as follows: Select / Deselect All Files, View File, Rename File, Copy Selected Files, Move Selected Files, Show File Properties, and at the far right, Delete Selected Files.

How Do I Use This?

1. Use the program to set up a single Articles directory to hold all your articles, and then make subdirectories for major categories, such as Health, Sports, Relationships, Religion, whatever. Or use an external hard drive or USB Memory stick and make the major sections there.

2. Browse your hard drive in the upper window, and select the place where you made your sections in the lower window.

3. Copy or move entire folders into your sections. Rename folders to be meaningful.

Can't I use Windows Explorer to Do This?

Yes, you can, but you have to open two Explorer windows, and reposition and resize them. This program is already set up for dual windows. And it remembers directory paths from one execution to the next. And it has one-button access to common functions: view, rename, copy, move, and delete. And it has file filters, so you can, for example, only display PDF files, or DOC files, whatever rocks your boat.

Windows Explorer is free. This program costs a little money. But it is so much more convenient to use, you will wonder why Explorer doesn't work like this.

There's More!

Click on Tools in the main menu, and then Find Empty Directroies.

The program will search your hard drive and report back with a list of all the directories with no files. You can then delete them.