[m021478]

Does anyone know if its 'OK' to begin moving/sorting some of my Apps that currently reside in the main 'Macintosh HD/Applications/' folder into sub-folders so that I can begin to have a little sense of organization in this folder? I've currently got about applications in my Applications folder, and its gotten a bit hectic as far as managing/finding the application I need at a particular moment, and I know that I could cut this number into less than half if I could, for example, group all of my iTunes/iPhone related apps into one folder, all of my Audio/Video tool apps into another folder, all of my backup apps into a third folder, etc...

Anyone have any idea if doing this will completely screw things up for me and my system? Are there any applications that should no be moved into sub-folders for any reason (i.e. Time Machine, Spaces, obviously the existing 'Utilities' folder, etc...)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

[Curiosity]

If I have any choice as to where I install applications, I put them in categorized directories under an Applications directory which I created in my home directory. Putting applications there has caused me no problems, so I doubt that you would have any. If an application is able to be installed in only the main Applications directory, I leave it where it is.

[Graymalkin]

Why do people insist on doing this? While it seems to make sense from an "organizational" point of view it tends to break all kinds of stuff. Tell Spotlight to put applications at the top of the results list and then applications become a cmd+space and a few letters away and nothing breaks. You can also simply make a folder somewhere in your home directory (/Library/Favorites maybe?) and put your organized directory structure in there with aliases to your applications. The best part about that is applications can have aliases residing in multiple folders if you want. Stick the container folder in the Dock and tell it to display as a folder instead o a stack. Blamo, organized and easy to get to application aliases.

[Chuckit]

This used to be a problem. It generally isn't anymore, as far as I can tell.

[JKT]

Apple has a notorious reputation for not being able to update its own apps properly when they aren't in their default location within the folder hierarchy. No idea if this is still the case, but I would be reluctant to move any Apple apps just in case.

Sad to say it but, owing to Apple's cack-handedness with Installer.app in the past, I would probably follow both Curiosity's and Graymalkin's advice by creating a separate /Applications folder in your Home directory (it'll gain the Applications folder icon by itself, btw) and populating it with aliases to your apps, then organising the aliases.

(Note to Graymalkin - the Spotlight method only works if you can remember the name of the app. If it happens to be one that you use very infrequently, that might not be the case. Fwiw, the Grid view for Dock icons in Leopard allows you to highlight applications by typing the first few letters of their name, or by using the arrow keys to navigate around the view. I personally find this the easiest to use as I can identify and find apps by either their icon or their name (or both).)

[Big Mac]

I leave Apple applications and utilities in /Applications and /Applications/Utilities. I put third party applications in sub-folders, however.

[mpancha]

I used to organize into subfolders, but gave up on it after Adobe broke on me.

I prefer to organize into subcategory simply so I can find things based on my own logic, just like I do on my Windows machines. However, it tends to not work out so well on the OS X side of things.