TidyUp!

reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher

support@hyperbolicsoftware.com http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/downloads.html Shareware $30 USD Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3 and later - Full Tiger compatibility Strengths: Fast, efficient and neat. Flexible actions for finding what you want to trash. Well worth the cost of making your machine more efficient. The program offers versatility that provides flexibility and different opportunities to delete files.  Weaknesses: Only allows 10 tries before you must purchase. The basket system is a little difficult to understand at first.

Your Macintosh is fresh with little on the hard drive. But gradually, it fills with documents, pictures, movies, programs and much more. Many times, there are duplicates of the same file that you can’t find let alone know how to find, even if you wanted to. TidyUp let’s you handle many of these problems and making your Mac a much leaner machine to work with so you can use the space for better needs.

TidyUp! is the next generation version of duplicate finder software and disk tidiness utility. It replaces the program called Doublet Scan. TidyUp supports OS 10.4 and later and  Tiger.  TidyUp is shareware, which means you can download it and then try before you buy. But you can only try 10 attempts and then it is pay up time. Let’s look at what TidyUp does before you realize that this program is well worth the price.

The well-done visually pleasing help menu explains registration and the introduction. This menu also does a nice job of explaining how to get started and working with TidyUp.

There are several other options to define your search. Compressed folders can be found and more. There is a lot you can use TidyUp to relieve your clutter.

The Preference section is also a good place to define your search and destroy mode. The top menu bars have many possibilities to begin your scan. The Left most icon, looking like a stickpin indicates lists to scan. Just to the right is a goldmine of easy to use attributes labeled tasks, which allow you to find all sorts of items. There are a series of seven other icons that can help as well.

There are several attributes that you can use to find “the clutter.” The program can find any number of attributes to find what you want and trash what you discover. What is nice is that all your hard drive names (external and internal) , music player, pictures folders, music folders, network are displayed. A little check box to the right of the icons can be checked to display the contents of one or more of these. Capacity and availability are also indicated. To the right of the icons, are a series of other search possibilities.

The scanning goes through its search mode. Based on the attributes that were checked and the number of files and more the search takes a certain amount of time. The number of items that were scanned and more are highlighted. After a certain amount of time, after your scan has finished, a listing drops down to show what has been found.

What I found interesting is the way the program can handle trashing items that you find with your attribute laden lists. A nice feature is that the numbers of items found are registered in the window along with the hard drive space. This gives an idea of how much clutter you want to relieve yourself of. However trashing the collection was more complicated then I thought it would be.

There are four ways to trash/move the found items. These  are:

1) Dragging the selected item from the found list to the trash;

2) Once the items are selected, using the contextual menu and choose the "Move to trash" menu item;

3) Creating manual basket (which are storage files), then fill these it by dragging the items into it and choosing the "Trash..." button in the toolbar;

4) Flagging, through the contextual menu, the interesting items and then trash them by using the "Trash..." button in the toolbar.

Trashing all items can be risky as you may delete items you don’t want.  However using unfledged items (those not checked) and flagged items (those checked). I found this a little confusing although I understand the author’s rationale for creating such a system. Ultimately the program gives more versatility. If deleting is not what you want, the flagged content can be transported to a CD to burn or another folder. 

For your registration fee, if a crash occurs, you can report the information and send it to the author to find out what is wrong and help you. I am sure the author will have continual updates as the program is improved.

My wife always tells me about cutting down clutter in the house. TidyUp is a perfect way to find and get rid clutter in your house but in your computer. Less clutter more  space can be used for other programs, files and more. Try out TidyUp and see what it does. I think most Mac users that try the program will find it a worthwhile program to add to their collection. The shareware price is reasonable for the versatility that it provides to cut down the clutter. TidyUp is a better name for what the program does. The program does the job and can eliminate a lot of clutter.  So try it out. The only thing you have to lose is come clutter and a reasonable shareware fee.