Comments on: The Smart Mac: Smart Folders in OS X

By: Richard Elmes

Richard Elmes — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:54:43 +0000

I am new to Smart Folders and cannot see how to change the device/volumes searched from the menu. All of my data, images, movies and documents are off my main Mac hard drive whose name is shown in the main menu after “Search this Mac” and are located on 2 external drives called WDEARS and FreeAgent. Can anyone explain how to set up a smart folder to search those – all 3 if possible at the same time for 500MB files?

Many thanks
Richard

By: mmmiles

mmmiles — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 02:28:22 +0000

Use smart folders to generate the list, then drop them in an iPhoto event.

It’s not dynamic, but it uses “off the shelf” tools at least, and is pretty easy to repeat.

By: tomm

tomm — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:03:37 +0000

I want to find all pdf files in a folder that contains many subfolders, some of which are only alias folders. Unfortunately, it seems that the Find command (or equally a Smart Folder) does not search the alias subfolders, and the resulting list does not contain the pdfs located in the alias subfolders.
Does anyone know a workaround?

By: Nicolas

Nicolas — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:41:25 +0000

I find the Finder Smart Folder setup to be clumsy. For instance, I want all files and folders with "tax" in their name. Great, but some are MP3 files, and I don't want them. It is not a simple matter, so far as I can see, to select "Not MP3." I prefer the setup method for Smart Folders in Mail.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:20:32 +0000

If smart folders were smarter, you could save one to any location instead of the side bar.

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:36:10 +0000

@Tom,

Do this.

Click the '+' sign to start a new smart folder
You'll see a new criteria added ... ignore it
Now, hold down the alt/option key, the '+' next to the new criteria will change to a '...'
Click the '...' to add a new criteria. This one will say 'Any of the following are true'. Change 'Any' to 'All'.
Delete the original (first) criteria, you don't need it
Now add your two criteria below the 'All' clause.

Done.

By: tom

tom — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:57:21 +0000

Is there a way to make "and-statements" in smart folders. Like "show me all my devonthink-databases" AND "all my filemaker-databases". I cannot figure it out, to set this up. Any hints?

By: Putra

Putra — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:04:17 +0000

thanks for share this information. i like it

By: Saffy

Saffy — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:37:26 +0000

@ben, ah the alt key, yes that seems to do it! Thanks

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:46:17 +0000

@Saffy – Hold the option key when clicking the plus button that adds another criteria, this will create an indented ‘Match any of the following’ option. Any criteria you add under this indented section is an OR criteria. Anything not indented is AND.

That’s not a particularly clear explanation, but play around with it and you’ll see what I mean.