Alias & Copy What is the difference?

what's the difference between these?

 

an alias will make a new *very small* file or folder that simply links back to the original.

you could make an "alias" of your music folder and put it on your desktop, for example. you won't have two physical copies of your music, but if you double click on the alias folder, it will link into your music folder. changes made in either the original or the alias will show in BOTH sets.

copying physically takes all the information from a file or folder and copies it somewhere else. if you copied your music folder to your desktop, you would have TWO copies of your music, and changes in one would NOT affect the other.

its the equivalent of a shortcut in windows.

 

alias (in mac) = shortcut (in windows)
---- create shortcut/links for a file/folder

copy (in mac) = copy (in windows)
--- create a duplicate copy of a file/folder

 

Yeah, Alias is only an icon to direct you back to the original .

Aliases would be helpful if you like to keep your files organized but had a specific file that you were constantly editing (say a report) that you wanted to place in your Desktop. Generally, I don't use Aliases though.

 

I use alias' to keep my deskto very organized, instead of having any actual projects or things on my desktop, I just have alias' of whatever I am currently working on, and each one is actually organized in a specific place, that way, when I am finished with a project, I can just remove the alias, also, it makes it very easy to place media and other content for projects in the right place, and still very organized on the HDD.

the only thing ever really on my desktop are Alias' mounted volumes, and every once in a while a screenshot or something. I don't even have the internal HDD on the desktop.