Thank you. But I feel like this approach (as well as the approach with smart folders) will be helpful when you need to look/search for important documents in your database(s). You first tag them or name them in a certain way and then you display them all at once. This is nice, but this approach is from the other end of what I was initially seeking. If I do this, I will see a folder tree with dozens of ‘0. Read Me.txt’ / ‘0. See Me First.txt’ / ‘0. Important!.txt’ files placed in various folders and this serves no use for the purpose.
I am not sure I made myself clear, so I will try to provide an example to help you visualise the need better. Please note this is just an example, but my need is very close to this.
Let us walk through a day for an HR specialist.
Scenario: I’m an HR specialist. My primary tool for managing employee information is the DT library. Inside HR/Employees, I have folders for each employee (e.g., HR/Employees/John_Doe, HR/Employees/Jane_Smith, etc.).
Problem: John Doe Calls - He is going on holiday.
My current workflow (that I am trying to improve):
– John calls: “I’m taking holiday next month.”
– I navigate to HR/Employees/John_Doe/Vacations/.
– I open the folder to process his request (e.g., pulling up the holiday request form, checking his leave balance).
– The Critical Moment: What if John has a special holiday accrual rule? Or a pending disciplinary action that impacts his leave eligibility? Or a specific project he must complete before leaving? Or his boss WhatsApped me something about him, then I took a screenshot of our conversation and placed it in his folder as “Keep in mind!.jpg”
– Problem arises when folders have dozens of files, important files appear in between ordinary files, such important files may be not present, but I have to visually scan the folder structure first to identify whether some files are worth to pay attention for, while I was trying to add/edit something within this folder.
– As a temporary solution, I put such files in a separate folder named ‘0. Some name’. Zero in front of the folder name let me ‘trick’ the sorting most times, and such folder appear on the very top.
With tags, smart folders, search:
– When John calls, I navigate to HR/Employees/John_Doe/Vacations.
– Then, I have to stop what I am doing and start using tags/smart folders/search. As a result, I will see something like this:
0. Read Me.txt
0. Read Me.txt
0. Important.txt
0. Read Me.txt
0. See Me First.txt
0. Read Me.txt
0. Important!.txt
… (and imagine 50-100 other files for all folders)
I have to scroll/sort, focus on paths, find John’s specific folder, read it, and then navigate back to HR/Employees/John_Doe/Vacations to resume processing his request.
The issue: This is a major disruption to my workflow. It’s an extra mental step, an extra navigation step, and it pulls me out of the context of John’s specific situation. It’s like having to leave a patient’s room, go to a central ‘patient alerts’ board, find their name, then come back to their room.
The ‘Pin’ feature:
Proposed ‘Pin’ feature would allow you to spot what is important (or if there is anything important at all) in under 1 second in any folder just by using your eyes. It is like pinned threads on a forum. You visit the forum section and see 1-3 pinned posts right away. You do not need to click on the side menu, select “Tag-Important” to sort these 3 posts each time you go there. Again, I am just sharing the needs I am facing. If developers and the community do not see the need, there is nothing that can be done.
