Can I move Accordance Files out of ~/Documents?

[Ben]

I'm trying to consolidate my Documents directory and get rid of stuff there that's not actually my documents.

 

Can I move ~/Documents/Accordance Files to ~/Library/Application Support/Accordance Files or something similar? AFAIK that's the appropriate place, isn't it?

[Joel Brown]

Accordance Files I believe is hardcoded to be in ~/Documents, so even though you could symlink it to move the files elsewhere, there will always be an item there. It definitely belongs in Documents, though, as it contains all of the files that you may be interested in. It is the default save location for all workspaces, it contains your highlight files, user notes, and user tools, all for sharing purposes. Unlike the Application Support location, which contains files you should never have to access, the Documents location contains the files you may be interested in accessing.

[Ben]

... the Documents location contains the files you may be interested in accessing.

 

Okay, thanks Joel. I never want to access these files through the Finder, so I'll try to designate the folder as hidden in the terminal in order that it doesn't clutter my documents folder.

 

Feature request for an option to specify where these files should be kept. Thanks.

[Ben]

If anyone else wants to hide the folder, you can make it invisible to the Finder (but leave it visible to Accordance) by using the following Terminal command:

 

NB: you will need Developer Tools installed (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id448457090?mt=12 - 3GB)

 

Navigate in the Terminal to your Documents folder, and then enter

 

/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V "Accordance Files"

 

To make the directory visible again, change the V to v and run the command again.

[AdamR]

Accordance Files I believe is hardcoded to be in ~/Documents, so even though you could symlink it to move the files elsewhere, there will always be an item there. It definitely belongs in Documents, though, as it contains all of the files that you may be interested in. It is the default save location for all workspaces, it contains your highlight files, user notes, and user tools, all for sharing purposes. Unlike the Application Support location, which contains files you should never have to access, the Documents location contains the files you may be interested in accessing.

 

Joel, I'm afraid I completely disagree with you. My "Documents" folder should be limited to my documents. User Notes, User Tools, Highlight Files, etc. are more like preferences than they are documents. I can understand Microsoft and Adobe putting stuff in my Documents folder that doesn't belong there. But Accordance? I've been dissatisfied with this since version 8. According to your position, anything that I might want to share should be put in my Documents folder. If that's the case, then why does Apple rightly put my Address Book information, my iCal information, etc. in places other than my Documents folder? Those are things I might share as well.

 

I'm with the user above. Either switch where these files are kept or at least give the user the ability to move them and have Accordance remember their whereabouts. Even Microsoft allows the latter!

[Joel Brown]

Adam, you are of course more than welcome to disagree. We'll consider adding this feature to our list to program, but its a very long list of other requests, so it is hard to give it too high of a priority. However, I would disagree with your examples. Address Book, iCal, Mail, and other apps deliberately are designed for you to not access their content directly. That is why it is in Application Support, which is even invisible in Lion! To access that content you share it or export it from within the program. On the other hand, Pages saves to Documents, because you are to access those files directly. What makes a User Notes file different from a Document? They both contain user content that may be shared, in a file that should be directly accessed. This same parameter applies to both Highlight files and User Tools. They don't affect how a program works, like a preference does, they are the user's own content, which is what a document is.

 

Anyway, thats my opinion.