Albums Master

The Albums Master was an icon library and file organization scheme, employed by the Dozerfleet founder during the Cormorant era. It is considered a project in the history of Dozerfleet Labs. It was used from 2003-2006, and was later replaced by the Dozerfleet Divisions and Windows / Mac / Linux Libraries.

Motivation
As the enterprise that is Dozerfleet began to grow more sophisticated during its Cormorant era, and more of its contents went digital, an advanced means of file organization became necessary. Simply developing the folder structure didn't seem like it quite cut the cake. Folders were given unique icons based on their content. Given a general lack of differentiation on Windows 98, which was still the OS in use by Dozerfleet until the fall of 2004, the need for an Albums Master seemed like a big deal then. After seeing what was possible with Mac icons, the Dozerfleet founder wanted to implement something like that for Windows folder icons.


 * Pictures, the first group to get a custom icon, had a blue folder, in keeping with OS X blue folders.
 * Audio was next, getting a green folder inspired by the green music note on the CD icon for iTunes 4.0.
 * Video folders were next. Since a film strip was used in the blue picture album icon, a VHS tape became the symbol for video.
 * Text Albums got a "T" for "text," inspired by the "T" used for the Windows Fonts folder.
 * Miscellaneous items were given a yellow folder. These were files that didn't fall under any traditional category.
 * Labels Albums were purple folder icons, designed to reflect that they held label templates for use with Avery DesignPro label sheets.
 * Web Albums were set up as folders for hosting offline websites and their content. They were similar to an All-in-One album, except with the emphasis being on web content.
 * Maps Albums were black folders, and the icons indicated that maps were to be stored in here. This could also mean game files, if able to exist outside of the main game directories.  Images could also be stored here, if they were of a map nature.  Interactive maps also belonged here.
 * All-in-One Albums were brown folder icons, designed to invoke folders where all the content had to be in one folder.

Main icon
The Albums Master's main icon was a multi-colored life preserver with a silver ball in the middle, one that had a big letter "A" on it. Since then, the open source Chrome browser's icon was modified by Google to make the icon for Google Chrome. Google Chrome's icon looks very much like that of the original Albums Master, but with the orange and brown stripes removed.

Icon sets
In its time, a few different versions of the Albums Master set were made. This included the original "Cardstock" edition. It was immediately followed by a higher-res "Plastic" edition, which became the standard. A third version existed briefly, along with a Halloween edition. A "Wood" edition was also made. A variation of the plastic set was made for Macintosh, and the set was saved in ICNS format. All versions are currently archived to a DVD.

Cormorant era Albums Master scheme
The Albums Master managed files in a sort-by-project first, then-by-type fashion. The Windows folder "My Pictures" housed only miscellaneous pictures not necessarily pertaining to a project. My Music housed mostly MP3s that didn't pertain to projects also. Inside of "My Documents," every project had a root folder. That root folder contained subfolders with the customized icons, each for specific file types relevant to the project. Each subfolder was labeled an "album," and contained contents of a particular set of file types. Icon sets were usually rainbow color themed.


 *  Text Album : Housed most Publisher and Word documents, and any other written of office-nature files.
 *  Video Album : Handled animated GIFs and video files.
 * Misc. Album : Handled files too unique to fit into one of the other categories.
 *  Audio Album : Handled audio files specific to the project.
 *  Picture Album : Handled all image files that weren't maps.
 *  Label Album : For storing Avery DesignPro's ZDP file format, and other formats for label printing.
 *  Map Album : All maps and SimCity files for the project.
 *  Web Album : HTML contents for a given project.

Dozerfleet current scheme
The current organization scheme lists content by "Division," which is where the divisions of Dozerfleet are most relevant. In other words, files are sorted first by type and then by project. This is a complete reversal of the Albums Master, which sorts first by project and then by type.

The Dozerfleet Literature folder houses a project folder for every piece of literature pertaining to a Dozerfleet project. Most of these are located inside of "Verse" folders, such as "Gerosha Multiverse" and "Stationery Voyagers Universe." There are separate folders for projects pertaining to school assignments that were deemed worthy of keeping on record. Another separate folder, titled "Generic Business," handles important office files such as the most current resume. A "Memoirs" folder handles essays and articles of interest that aren't truly a part of Dozerfleet Literature. The Literature folder contains a subfolder for the song lyrics of works in Dozerfleet Records, including songs by Every Ape and His Brother. Actual audio files are handled under the My Music folder.

The Dozerfleet Comics folder handles all picture albums for Dozerfleet projects. This sometimes includes animated GIFs, which overlap with video. All video and video editing-related files are located in project folders inside the Dozerfleet Studios folder, except for Ferris and SWOCC videos. A Dozerfleet Graphics folder handles division logos. "Comics" and "Graphics" are both located in the My Pictures folder, with Dozerfleet Studios and other video project folders in the My Videos folder. A separate folder handles all Dozerfleet Labs content, with subfolders for such things as DzMD.

Even so, these folders are often not dealt with directly. Windows 7 introduced its "library" system, which can be tweaked to work as a sort of Albums Master unto itself. This renders an actual Albums Master system obsolete.