Dealing with downloads

The "dmg" file should expand and open up another window showng the actual app itself, along with "read me" files, etc. What I usually do is create a new folder in my /HD/Applications folder and call it whatever the d/l app is called. I then drag the actual app and related files from the [expanded] dmg window into that newly-made folder. If it's a large app, you'll see a progress bar showing the copy to the new folder.

Once that's completed, you can delete everything related to the download off the desktop. If you want to create a shortcut to the new app in the dock, simply open the Applications folder, the folder with the new app in it, and drag the app to the dock. It will automatically create a shortcut.

The beauty of this is if you no longer want the app on your mac, drag the folder it's in to the trash. Boom, uninstalled.

NanoBite said:

I'm not new to macs but definately new to my G5!!

My querie is that I've downloaded some apps and they are downloaded to the desktop.

I usually launch them from there, go looking for the app icon to add to the dock, find it then wonder what to do with the original downloaded app which is still sitting on my desktop.

What I've been doing is dragging it from the desktop to a folder I created in my user profile but have had some confused moments as the dragged icon sometimes becomes a shortcut and other times it doesn't.

Also there are usually 2 icons involved: the 2nd icon has the extension .dmg.

I'm confused as to why sometimes the dragged icons become shortcuts.

Also I dragged the icon of one downloaded app from the dock and it did what usually happens.....puff of smoke etc, only now the app has totally disappeared from my HD????

When I download an app to the desktop....should I delete the icon after launching the app???

Please forgive me if this comes across a bit confusing sounding!

Click to expand...

If you want to keep a copy of the app you could open a folder called "Downloads", or whatever and have the downloads saved to that folder, otherwise you will end up with a whole lot of icons on your desktop. Much neater that way. If you do a lot of downloading you might want to burn those .dmgs off to a cd now and then, otherwise you will end up with a hard drive full of .dmgs.

Other wise once you have clicked on the .dmg and installed the program into your Aplications folder, you can then just drag the .dmg to the trash and get rid of it, same with any "short cut icon".

Normally you would not have a short cut in the dock unless it was a program that you use a lot. For example my doc has a web browser, an email program, my word processor, graphics program, and iTunes in it because these are programs i use daily.

Thanks for your tips guys! :0)