Heres a step by step guide to making a super quick archive of everything relevant to a client.

When I finish a project with a client I like to keep a copy of everything backed up / archived that was involved with that client so I can:

• Keep a backed up copy of emails sent/received
• Keep all my contacts backed up on disc per client
• Notes like FTP details / Printer contacts / Quotes / Invoices sent and Receipts
• Free up disc space
• Stay organised
• Save time when I have to find something

When I first got my hands on Tiger I wasn't sure how much I was going to use the features that were available, but I'm starting find some great ways of using Spotlight and Automator together to really improve my workflow, keep organised and let me focus on each project more - without those tedious tasks taking up my time.

So without further babbling on:
Heres my step by step guide to making a archive of your projects.
This has been written for the users without Roxio Toast or another os x burning ultility. For the toast users etc - I will give you a couple of tips at the end.

Spotlight

I hope everyone here with Tiger installed knows about Spotlight, or if you've just landed in from mars and hijacked someone's mac with Tiger installed, it looks like this: (shortcut: ^ Space) :

When you search you will need to "Show All" / press [ return ] to get the full search window, you'll why see next...

Hit cmd + a to select all, or cmd click each file ( that can take a while )

^ Click / right click if you have 2+ button mouse, choose 'make workflow'.

This will take all of the selected files and put them into Automator.

Automator

Again, Im assuming most Tiger people have used Automator here, but im gonna dumb this down anyway for our hijacking Alien buddy.

Ok you've got this window on screen now:

If you want to add more items, click the + icon and select the folder / files that you want to include with this.

When you've got all your items from that you need to backup, look for the burn disc action in automator - Found in System , drag this under that panel on the right.

You'll now have step 1 and step 2. Fill out the details in the burn window and pop in the cd-r / cd-rw / dvd-r / dvd-rw what ever takes your fancy, and click 'Run'. Remember to select all in the automator window ( 1 ) before you click 'run'.

You should now be seeing the spinning graphics and then hear a chime when the disc is done.

Hope thats been of help to some of you out there, im pretty certain that the users more familiar with os x will know a 100 ways to do whats in this article, but one more never does any harm { ^_^ }

Jammo! - I've got Toast!

Great, and pass me the butter!

Ok seriously, if you've got Toast heres a nice quick way to find all of your emails etc that you will want to include on that disc without using Automator.
Open up a finder window and simply do the search in there instead of using the spotlight tool at the top right. Select all your results and ^ Click / right click and choose "Toast it!". Im pretty sure you'll know what to do from there.

Hope i've been a help, I know that was quite a read but you now have a handy little technique to use up all your cd-r's on!