Best way to Organize Manuals.

[Kalamata Kid]

Hello,

My New Years resolution is to pay a bit more attention to manuals.

I did a *manual.pdf search on Windows Explorer and found many manuals of which many were for my music software.

I had started to individually put shortcuts of the manual on the desktop. There are just too many to do this with icons. So perhaps best to make a folder with all the shortcuts or better to move all the Manuals to a Manuals Folder?

Unfortunately some manuals are named Manual rather than NoraManual.pdf. When the software name is missing for the Manual file I have to look for the folder name. In this case I need to add the software name to the file name.

Do most of you ignore this just like I have always done? Search and locate the Manual on a as need be basis? No organization required?

[fese]

a) Real men don't read manuals!
b) Kidding aside, I've also recently started a Manual Folder where I just copy the manuals I think I might need or those that I've needed in the past and had trouble finding on the hard drive or internet. Don't use it much though, because a)

[Googly Smythe]

1) I copied my manuals to a folder "Manuals";
2) I created folders major companies eg Waves, Plugin Alliance;
3) Then folders for "Synyhs", "EQ", etc;
4) Copy the manuals to the appropriate folder;
5) (If you're on Windows) create a new Taskbar toolbar pointing to the Manuals folder.

Takes time when starting from scratch, but once set up you just copy any new manuals to the appropriate folder, and have easy access to them from the Windows Taskbar.

[garryknight]

I've always had a Music folder inside my Manuals folder on my data drive. And when I get a new VST, I put a link to it in a different Manuals folder on my desktop. At some point, when I haven't consulted a particular manual for quite a while, the shortuct gets deleted when I do a purge a couple of times a year.

[Winstontaneous]

Yeah, I have a manuals/software license key on my Desktop for easy reference.

[Kalamata Kid]

So I finally found all the *manual.pdf files.
From all the drives
Copied all of files to the Manual folder.
Wow! there were many duplicates and triplicates.

Deleted the duplicates and renamed the manual.pdf to include the name of the software.
Put a shortcut of the Manual folder on the desk top.

Mission accomplished.
Or is it?

Are some manuals in .doc or .txt files?

Thanks to all for chiming in.

[lobanov]

I keep my manuals in my cloud (OneDrive) and read them on my smartphone.

[yellowmix]

I'm obsessive about going paperless. So I have a "Manuals" folder for everything, not just music software. Car owner manual, car service manual, microwave, TV, food processor, you name it.

If the item doesn't come with a PDF file I can usually find it on the manufacturer's site or web. If not, I'll scan and OCR it to searchable PDF. In any case, I get to ditch the paper. With searchable PDF I can find anything faster, it retains formatting and images, and if I had to, I could print pages out. It's sync'd to the cloud and I have a local copy on my mobile. Great bathroom reading.

For music production software I name folders by developer. So on desktop I can go to the folder, hit the first letter of the developer, and I'm there.

[Googly Smythe]

Wherever your top-level "Manuals" folder is, instead of filling your desktop with icons, create a new Toolbar in the Taskbar - you'll have a cleaner desktop, and be able to access your manuals, whatever, straight from the Taskbar, no minimising windows, etc.

3.jpg

[OzoneJunkie]

I'm obsessive about going paperless. So I have a "Manuals" folder for everything, not just music software. Car owner manual, car service manual, microwave, TV, food processor, you name it.

I did this. I found PDFs for all of my hard copy manuals, as well as all of my books, including all of my programming and technical books. I did this years ago.

And.... I didn't refer back to any of the books. The manuals for equipment I referred to a few times over the years, but rarely.

The PDFs for the books I deleted years ago. I just didn't need them.

A few months ago I deleted the equipment manual PDFs. The extremely rare times I need them, I find them online in under 10 seconds.

Along these lines, I've moved other things to cloud storage, and off of my computer completely. Things that I never refer to but don't want to delete completely. Stuff like personal skydiving videos, certain documents, and so on.

I realized that for myself, I had this weird attachment to digital files. Not to say that some things on my computers are unimportant, but I had mentally assigned importance to a lot of things that aren't.

Also, holding things on my computer "in case I don't have internet connection". I also realized here that most of the things that I thought I might need in the rare case that my ISP is down temporarily, I just don't need.

I realize that I'm describing my views, which are likely not applicable to most of you, but I mention these things because for me it's been liberating in a way. It's like I finally left my crappy job as digital librarian

[Kalamata Kid]

I ended up with 109 files. Most of them music related.
Some were not manuals but other info about the software.

Just realize that I am missing the Waves Gold and single plugin manuals.
Also missing Padshop Pro.

[Kalamata Kid]

a) Real men don't read manuals!
b) Kidding aside, I've also recently started a Manual Folder where I just copy the manuals I think I might need or those that I've needed in the past and had trouble finding on the hard drive or internet. Don't use it much though, because a)

Sometimes need a manual but being impatient I struggle without one.
That's what real men do! Fight to the end without the manual, even if it kills you.

Hopefully the convenience that my Manual organization offers will help.

[a_Scientist]

I'm having troubles not finding a Manual but finding a Folder of Manuals
They 're all in one place, from books to products. I think I need a sorting too if I find it again.
like: Books (big), Software products, hardware.