Freeware Review: Liven Up My Documents with Folder Marker

A lot of my computer time is spent in My Documents. That's because I have a lot of files, documents, software programs, graphics, and music files, and I like to try to keep them organized. I have varying degrees of success, but I do try.

My Documents is very useful for anyone who wants to try to keep things organized. But, well, it's kind of boring.

Anything that makes staying organized more interesting and fun is something worth having. That's why I'm glad I found Folder Marker.

What Is Folder Marker?

Folder Marker is a tiny little program that's less than 1 MB in size. With this shell extension, you can quickly and easily change the color of the files in My Documents.

Being able to change the standard manila folders to red, or blue, or green is one sure-fire way to liven things up. And it's easy to do. All you have to do is right click on a folder, and choose the folder style you want from the context menu.

Practical Uses for Folder Marker

Along with being able to change the color of the folders in My Documents, Folder Marker also has more practical uses.

You can change a folder's appearance to indicate that its contents are "High Priority" (represented by a folder with a red arrow pointing up) or "Low Priority" (represented by a blue arrow pointing down). There are icons that represent folders that contain work that's incomplete, private files, or even temporary files.

Using Folder Marker to Organize My Documents

Folder Marker is a great way to help you get organized. Many of us work better when we have a visual. And color-coding your files gives you that visual.

You can use a green folder to hold financial documents.

Use a blue folder to hold your son's baby pictures.

Use a gray folder to hold activities you've been saving to keep the kids occupied on rainy days.

The possibilities are almost endless.

I use an orange folder to hold any new information (like articles, public domain photographs, or free ebooks) that I might have downloaded but didn't have time to deal at the time. That way, whenever I open My Documents, there's a bright order folder staring me in the face, reminding me that I have new stuff on my hard drive that needs to be organized as soon as possible.

Folder Marker isn't the most revolutionary, earth-shattering program you will ever use. It's just a simple, and useful, little program that makes something you have to do anyway easier and more interesting.