Plug-in Menu Organisational Tip

[zestyOrange]

I get so much out of this forum and like to try and return the favour in any small way I can, so I thought I'd share my process for organising plugins, which I find to be immensely useful.

I ignored the Plug-in Manager (Settings → Plug-in Manager) for the longest time, unless I needed to resolve crashed plugins. I know I'm not alone in that - but I also do a couple of things I don't see anyone else doing, which I have found to be extremely useful.

So in general, creating new categories alone has honestly been a game-changer for me in terms of productivity and staying in the zone when creating, but in addition I've also started using a few symbols like ⭐. This has a couple of advantages. First, it's visually easy to see at a glance what your favourite plugins within a category are, and second it puts them at the very top of the list:

I use a Text Expander to add symbols to anything in seconds (in my case use the fantasticI AlfredApp, of which text expansion is one of many features). All I need to do is type my keyword ;star (or whatever) and the graphic symbol I have associated with that keyword appears.

When first organising the plugins I had to research a few of them and I added notes to the 'shortnames' option (I don't need these reminders any more, but it was extremely useful at first):

So now when I go to add a plugin, I see something like this for instruments:

And this for effects:

It's just a joy to have things categorised in this way (note: the same plugin can belong to multiple groups):

I use other symbols as well. For example, things like Kontakt & Analog Lab are wrappers for multiple synths, so I have a symbol to denote those (and again I benefit from automatic grouping), and I also use a 'pointing finger' icon to remind myself to try out new plugins ... I've been choosing a plugin-a-month (old or new) to focus on. 

All of this requires a bit of initial investment and a little upkeep, but I honestly feel I have benefitted hugely from it. I hope some of you find this helpful. And give me a shout if you have any related tips I can implement.

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by zestyOrange

[David Nahmani]

Great tip, thanks for sharing! 🙂 

2 hours ago, zestyOrange said:

I use a Text Expander to add symbols to anything in seconds (in my case use the fantasticI AlfredApp, of which text expansion is one of many features). All I need to do is type my keyword ;star (or whatever) and the graphic symbol I have associated with that keyword appears.

You can also do this in macOS System Preferences > Keyboard > Text:

[zestyOrange]

25 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

Great tip, thanks for sharing! 🙂 

You can also do this in macOS System Preferences > Keyboard > Text:

Ah yes, forgot about that! There are (or were) some limits that made me look for an alternative - can't remember exactly what, but it was possibly that only certain types of input fields would accept shortcuts - but I just checked it for use in Logic, and it certainly works a treat, there. Thanks.

Edited April 16, 2023 by zestyOrange

[anp27]

On 4/16/2023 at 12:59 PM, zestyOrange said:

I get so much out of this forum and like to try and return the favour in any small way I can, so I thought I'd share my process for organising plugins, which I find to be immensely useful.

I ignored the Plug-in Manager (Settings → Plug-in Manager) for the longest time, unless I needed to resolve crashed plugins. I know I'm not alone in that - but I also do a couple of things I don't see anyone else doing, which I have found to be extremely useful.

So in general, creating new categories alone has honestly been a game-changer for me in terms of productivity and staying in the zone when creating, but in addition I've also started using a few symbols like ⭐. This has a couple of advantages. First, it's visually easy to see at a glance what your favourite plugins within a category are, and second it puts them at the very top of the list:

I use a Text Expander to add symbols to anything in seconds (in my case use the fantasticI AlfredApp, of which text expansion is one of many features). All I need to do is type my keyword ;star (or whatever) and the graphic symbol I have associated with that keyword appears.

When first organising the plugins I had to research a few of them and I added notes to the 'shortnames' option (I don't need these reminders any more, but it was extremely useful at first):

So now when I go to add a plugin, I see something like this for instruments:

And this for effects:

It's just a joy to have things categorised in this way (note: the same plugin can belong to multiple groups):

I use other symbols as well. For example, things like Kontakt & Analog Lab are wrappers for multiple synths, so I have a symbol to denote those (and again I benefit from automatic grouping), and I also use a 'pointing finger' icon to remind myself to try out new plugins ... I've been choosing a plugin-a-month (old or new) to focus on. 

All of this requires a bit of initial investment and a little upkeep, but I honestly feel I have benefitted hugely from it. I hope some of you find this helpful. And give me a shout if you have any related tips I can implement.

Love this idea, thanks for sharing!

[StudioQ1]

This is really epic. perfect task with the morning coffee tomorrow. thank you for sharing! 

[zevo]

Yeah, this is super-cool.

I'm always looking for ways to improve my organization-methods: already use the plugin-manager extensively for this, and it's done wonders, but icons/images are a wonderful addition.

And yet another feature of macOS I didn't know about to boot. (somewhere online I'm sure there's a list of favorite lesser-known macOS features, or old features that have been forgotten or whatever).

Thanks 🙂 

[anp27]

37 minutes ago, zevo said:

but icons/images are a wonderful addition.

Interestingly I don't use Icons at all the rest of the time. Don't find them super useful and Track Colors already do that job well. Icons take up unnecessary space and just add visual clutter, in my opinion. 

[David Nahmani]

7 minutes ago, anp27 said:

Icons take up unnecessary space and just add visual clutter

Here they help with sorting. 

[anp27]

Just now, David Nahmani said:

Here they help with sorting. 

Yeah, many Logic users swear by them. I'm just not in the club I guess. 

[David Nahmani]

1 minute ago, anp27 said:

many Logic users swear by them. I'm just not in the club I guess. 

Sure. Just wanted to point out that they play more than only a visual role. For example, even an invisible icon could help sort your plug-ins. 

[anp27]

Just now, David Nahmani said:

Sure. Just wanted to point out that they play more than only a visual role. For example, even an invisible icon could help sort your plug-ins. 

Oh, in my post that you quoted I was actually referring to the Track Icons, not the plugin emojis, which I love and find very useful

[David Nahmani]

4 minutes ago, anp27 said:

Oh, in my post that you quoted I was actually referring to the Track Icons, not the plugin emojis, which I love and find very useful

Whoops - my bad, I didn't understand that. 😄 

[zevo]

I, however, was referring to the plugin emojis, lol