I have all kinds of files videos, audio, documents, images, archives etc. – whether downloaded from the internet or coming from a device (like a video camera). But it becomes a headache to sort and organize all these files in a proper manner. For example, I want all my video files to be in a folder video on my D: drive while all the archive files to be in a different folder on the C: drive. If I do all this sorting, moving, copying and organizing by hand, then it would cost me a lot of time – not to mention the headache. Fortunately, there is an open-source program called DropIt which can do all this sorting and organizing automatically for you in a flash.
DropIt is a free and easy to use program that allows you to set rules for various file types. Then all you have to do is drag and drop a file (or group of files) on its popup image or icon. DropIt will move or copy the selected files in pre-specified folders as per the rules you have set. The program is also able to extract files from archives (e.g., from ZIP files) and create archives using the 7-Zip plugin.
The DropIt program is designed using the AutoIt script. You can download DropIt from its sourceforge webpage. The download is available in form of an installer or as a portable program for both the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows. When you run DropIt, it puts a square-shaped blue-colored always-stay-on-top DropIt icon in Windows. Your first step is to create rules for files. For this, you can right-click on this DropIt icon and choose Associations as shown.
In the Manage Associations window click on the New button to create a new association. You have to give a name for the new rule – you can type in a description of the rule here e.g., ‘taking care of video files’. Then in the Rules field, type in the extensions of file types for which your new rule would apply. You can use wildcards to include patterns or filenames. If you type multiple extensions, then separate each of them by a semi-colon. You also have to choose an Action. You can choose one of the many actions from the drop-down list – like copy, move, extract, compress, create lists etc. Finally, you have to select a destination folder where the selected files would be sent (if you choose an action like copy or move). Then click on the Save button to save the rule.
Once your rules are set, you can start dragging and dropping files over the DropIt icon and it would come into action as specified in the rules for each file type. It can show the progress of tasks being performed by it, if you have set the in the options. To open the Options window, you can right-click on the DropIt icon and choose Options. In the Options window, you can set various options including Folder Monitoring – which is a feature to periodically monitor selected folders and perform action based on the rules set under a profile. The Folder Monitoring feature makes you even more lazy because now you do not even have to drop anything on the DropIt icon.
If you consume too much time in just copying, moving, deleting, sorting, compressing or extracting files, then you are going to love DropIt. It can save your valuable time which you can invest in something else. You can download DropIt from its web site at http://dropit.sourceforge.net/.