MacMost Now 42: Using Smart Folders

Gary Rosenzweig and Molly Stanberry show you how to use Smart Folders in Leopard.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost Now. Do you ever use Smart Folders? Smart Folders are kind of like searches that are constantly performed on your hard drive. So, for instance, say you are looking for Photoshop files, and you are doing this quite often. You can basically set up a Smart Folder to show all your Photoshop files on your drive. Then you can sort them by most recent. It comes in real handy if you work with a particular type of file, let's say if you're a developer. Here's Molly with a quick tutorial on how to make Smart Folders. 
Hi, I'm Molly Stanberry for MacMost. Today, I want to show you how to create Smart Folders on your Mac. Smart Folders are a quick, easy, and smart way to keep your Spotlight search results in a self-updating folder. To create a Smart Folder, click the File menu, then click New Smart Folder. Use the Add button to set the vital search parameters you want to use for your folder. We'll set it up to choose recently created files. Press the Save button. Type in a name for your Smart Folder. The default location for Smart Folders is the Saved Searches folder in your Home Directory's Library folder, but we'll save our Smart Folder to the Desktop. You can also check the checkbox to add the Smart Folder to the Sidebar. Click Save to create your folder. To see your Smart Folder, just navigate to it using the Finder or from the Sidebar under Searches, and double-click to open it. You are going to also edit a Smart Folder. To edit a Smart Folder, navigate to the folder you want to edit and double-click to open it. Click on the Actions menu button, then click on Show Search Criteria. Change your search criteria, click the Save button. Finally, click on Hide Search Criteria on the Actions menu. This is Molly Stanberry. Be sure to check your MacMost.com website for more helpful tutorials.
Using Smart Folders can really help improve your workflow. Say, for instance, you get a particular type of file all the time, you scan something in and you want to have a Smart Folder that shows you the most recent scans. Or, let's say you get your TPS reports as Microsoft Word documents, and you want to see the most recent ones. If you like these tutorials, you can find more of them at our tutorials feed. Molly puts out about three to four tutorials a week and you can find them at MacMost.com/tutorials/. You can also subscribe to a podcast feed for that through iTunes. You can also subscribe to a podcast feed for this podcast at iTunes. Until next time, this is Gary Rosenzweig at MacMost Now.

Comments: 2 Responses to “MacMost Now 42: Using Smart Folders”

Ian

17 years ago

Hi Gary, I like the new changed intro and thanks Molly for the smart folders tip, I think i'll use that one. I didn't know about Molly's tutorials and wish I had subscribed long ago, but I have now and just downloading a couple of them.

Knute

12 years ago

Watched it three times and still cannot get to work for me. Maybe another three times?

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MacMost Now 42: Using Smart Folders

Comments: 2 Responses to “MacMost Now 42: Using Smart Folders”

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