Want to keep racetrack of all documents you have greater than 500 mebibyte in size of it ? All your PDFs ? All your OpenType fonts ? Pictures taken with your Canon PowerShot within the last two weeks that have less than a specified focal length and big than a specified exposure time ? If you’re able to sic up a search for something in the Finder , you’re able to make asmart folderfor it too . These dynamic folders — which do n’t really hold anything , but but list items stored elsewhere — continually update to display the item on your computer that meet your search touchstone . wise folders can save you time when you would otherwise need to reconstruct a lookup from scratch , helping you find , track , and mastermind files and folders .
Create and save your smart folder
To create a smart folder in the Finder , select File - > New Smart Folder ( or press Command - Option - N ) . The windowpane that opens looks like a standard Finder hunt window , but its title is New Smart Folder . Set up a hunting here the way you would normally , typing in the Spotlight field and clicking on the plus - mansion ( + ) buttons to add measure ( for illustration , created or modified date ) . To teach the basics ( and more ) about coiffure up an in force hunt , see Advanced searches in the Finder . After you ’ve specified your touchstone , save the Smart Folder by fall into place the Save button to the right of the lookup bar and then naming the folder .
TipIf you do a search in the Finder , and onlythenrealize it would be handy to have a smart folder that uses those criteria , simply click the Save clit in the window ’s search streak .
you could save a smart brochure anywhere — on your background , inside a project folder . But if you do n’t change the address in the Save As dialog boxful , by default overbold pamphlet go to a folder named Saved Searches ( youruserfolder / Library / Saved Searches ) . You ’ll need to navigate there if you want to rename or delete a overbold folder .
By default, OS X saves smart folders in a special folder called Saved Searches, but you can put them anywhere by changing the location when you save. Use the Add To Sidebar option to get easy access to your smart folder from any Finder window’s sidebar.
By default , OS X saves wise folders in a particular folder called Saved Searches , but you’re able to put them anywhere by changing the placement when you save . Use the Add To Sidebar option to get easy accession to your voguish folder from any Finder windowpane ’s sidebar .
Restore a smart folder to the sidebar
By default , all smart folder get summate to your Finder windowpane sidebar for one - click memory access . But if you sweep a impudent folder out of the sidebar — or uncheck the Add To Sidebar option when you ’re first hold open it — your folder is not condemned to obscurity . Go to the Saved Searches folder , or to whatever location you may have saved the smart folder , and drag the folder into the Search For section of the sidebar . ( When you do this , the original folder does n’t actually move . To learn more , see “ Get efficient with the Finder ’s sidebar ” )
Relocate smart folders in the sidebar for quicker access
The Search For category is at the bottom of the sidebar ; so , if you keep a lot in there you ’ll have to scroll , or collapse the sidebar ’s upper categories to get to a smart folder in the list . If you want to access one oft ( even just for the duration of a project ) , put it in the higher - up Places class instead . To do this , drag the sassy folder off of the sidebar . Then open up the Saved Searches pamphlet in the Finder , and drag the original smart leaflet right away to the desire spot under Places .
Show certain smart foldersonlywhen in certain applications
If you use sassy folders for a lot of on-going project , you might before long find your Finder window and Open and Save dialogue boxes ’ sidebars cluttered with folder after brochure . Lucky for you , OS X lets you create a smart folder from within an app ’s unresolved or Save dialog box , and then save it so that it ’s visibleonlywhen you ’re using that program .
Start in the diligence , and take single file - > assailable or File - > Save . Press Command - F or penetrate in the Spotlight search field in the dialog box . As shortly as you type something , the search ginmill appears just as it does in Finder hunt windows , letting you go under parameters such as the scope of the search , and even add criteria prevention . When you click the Save button in the Search ginmill , the dialog box that seem bring home the bacon a limited option : Display Smart Folder For This app program Only . Check the box , and a fresh category — Saved Searches — come along in the dialog box ’s sidebar , with your newfangled smart folder list beneath it . Every software bewilder its own personal Saved Searches list , and none of these smart folders show in the Finder sidebar . Delete an practical program - specific smart leaflet by dragging it off the sidebar when you ’re in the programme ’s undefendable or Save dialog box .
Edit a smart folder’s definition
You created a smart leaflet that search for all your Word written document , turn out those motley data file that would also be included in a simpler search ( Word recovery documents , temporary backcloth data file , templates , and so on ) . Now you want to circumscribe the hunt to only the documents you ’ve modified in the last two month . You do n’t have to set forth from scratch with a newfangled smart folder , recreating its complicated initial parameters .
employ a command tuck away in the Finder window ’s action at law menu ( the toolbar bill of fare item with the paraphernalia icon ) . To edit out a smart leaflet ’s search criteria , first select it in the sidebar to afford it . From the Action carte du jour , choose Show Search Criteria . Then alter or lend to the conditions as need . When you ’ve set up the novel criteria the way you care , click the Save button in the search bar .
This sassy folder was originally congeal up to find Microsoft Word document , leave out four character of the programme ’s backup file cabinet . I edit it by choosing Show Search Criteria ( inset ) and then adding a Last Modified Date parameter to make it even more useful .
This smart folder was originally set up to find Microsoft Word documents, excluding four types of the program’s support files. I edited it by choosing Show Search Criteria (inset) and then adding a Last Modified Date parameter to make it even more useful.
Create a new smart folder based on an existing one
Sometimes you produce a complicated smart folder definition ( such as the one described in the late tip ) and then need a second one with , say , only the created or modify date lay out to a somewhat unlike parametric quantity . You do n’t have to start over from scratch .
Go toyouruserfolder / Library / Saved Searches . Select the smart pamphlet that ’s going to dish out as your fundament for the Modern one and then choose File - > Duplicate to make a copy . Rename it and sweep it into the sidebar . open up this novel folder ( by double - clicking on it in the window or get through on it in the sidebar ) , and cut it as described in the former pourboire . When you tick the Search bar ’s Save button , the altered definition will be stored for the raw chic folder .
mackintosh writer Sharon Zardetto has posted ablog entry on MacTipsterexplaining how to set up a smart folder definition for Word documents that shut Word ’s supporting files .
