Automatically clean-up your desktop

6 March 2013, 09:00

Is your desktop cluttered? What you need is a desktop cleaning app that’ll sort everything away for you — the equivalent of Mary Poppins magically putting everything into the correct drawer!

Here’s how to quickly and easily create a desktop clean-up app that you can use over and over again. It works by creating six new folders on your desktop into which are copied any pictures, music files, documents etc that might be on your desktop.

1. Open AppleScript Editor. You’ll find it in the Utilities folder of the Applications list of Finder.
2. Start a new file if one doesn’t automatically appear (Command+N), then paste in all of the following code:

tell application "Finder"
do shell script "mkdir -p ~/Desktop/Music && mkdir -p ~/Desktop/Programs && mkdir -p ~/Desktop/Pics && mkdir -p ~/Desktop/Torrents && mkdir -p ~/Desktop/Video && mkdir -p ~/Desktop/Documents"
set myDesktop to alias ((path to desktop folder as text))
-- folders to sort into
set myMusic to alias ((path to desktop folder as text) & "Music")
set myPrograms to alias ((path to desktop folder as text) & "Programs")
set myPics to alias ((path to desktop folder as text) & "Pics")
set myTorrents to alias ((path to desktop folder as text) & "Torrents")
set myVideos to alias ((path to desktop folder as text) & "Video")
set myDocs to alias ((path to desktop folder as text) & "Documents")
--extension lists
set musicExt to {".mp3", ".aac"}
set programsExt to {".dmg", ".sit", ".app"}
set picsExt to {".jpg", ".gif", ".tif", ".png", ".psd"}
set torrentsExt to {".torrent"}
set videosExt to {".avi", ".mpg", ".mov"}
set docsExt to {".pdf", ".txt", ".doc", ".xls", ".sav", ".key", ".pages", ".jmp", ".textClipping", ".rtf"}
set allFiles to files of myDesktop
repeat with theFile in allFiles
copy name of theFile as string to fileName
repeat with ext in musicExt
if fileName ends with ext then
move theFile to myMusic
end if
end repeat
repeat with ext in programsExt
if fileName ends with ext then
move theFile to myPrograms
end if
end repeat
repeat with ext in picsExt
if fileName ends with ext then
move theFile to myPics
end if
end repeat
repeat with ext in torrentsExt
if fileName ends with ext then
move theFile to myTorrents
end if
end repeat
repeat with ext in docsExt
if fileName ends with ext then
move theFile to myDocs
end if
end repeat
repeat with ext in videosExt
if fileName ends with ext then
move theFile to myVideos
end if
end repeat
end repeat
end tell

3. Click the Compile button on the toolbar to make sure the code is OK. If it is, the code will be indented and colorised. If there’s an error you’ll be told.
3. Click File → Save, then give your new app a name and save it somewhere useful (such as in the Applications folder). Before saving, select Application in the File Format drop down list in the Save dialog box.
4. Close AppleScript Editor.

Your new app is ready for use. Whenever you want to clean-up your desktop, just double-click it. There won’t be any progress display apart from the fact that the new folders appear (if they didn’t already exist) and files disappear from your desktop as they’re copied into them. The app will show an icon in the Dock for as long as its running, which in all likelihood won’t be more than a few seconds.

This script is a modified version of an older script found here.

Know better?

 
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