Search by Finder "Color Label" or "Spotlight Comments"?

Is it possible to do a search of referenced images by either their Finder Color Label, or their Spotlight Comments in Aperture?
I suspect not, but thought I'd ask just in case I'm missing something..
Would anyone else find this capability useful?
G5 2x2.5Ghz/2.5GB; 15" 1.25Mhz PowerBook/1GB; 4x3.0Ghz Mac Pro/4GB Mac OS X (10.4.1)

heh.. so I'm guessing that's a "No", "no", and "NO".
Oh well.. guess I'll submit some feedback then.

Similar Messages

Finder Color Labels Disappear

At my work, we use the Finder color label feature extensively for collaborative projects in order to mark who has worked on what files on our server. Recently, though, my labels have all disappeared. I'm unable to see the labels I had previously set and I am unable to view the labels others have set as well. My colleagues can see the labels just fine on their computers. I haven't seen a lot of people have this particular issue, but I have seen a fix online where you go into the Terminal and delete the DS_Store files and let OS X rebuild them. Please advise.

I have a similar issue, but unfortunately no fix. My labels don't disappear immediately though. They will stick around for days or even weeks, then suddenly vanish. I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. Anyone know of a solution. I tried the DS_Store thing to no avail

Collections in finder, quick add to spotlight comments

I'm wanting to optimize the way I'm using spotlight, and know that there's a field for spotlight comments when you select and item in finder and command-i... I'm wondering if there's a keyboard shortcut that can let me add spotlight comments directly, or is there a Quicksilver plug-in that might let me do that?
Also, within spotlight is there a way to configure it so that the first (or only) items to come up are the ones that I've added the relevant spotlight comments to?
Basically what I'm wanting to do is to add the metadata that would effectively make collections like in Yojimbo or Notemind... I love Yojimbo's idea, but I don't want a separate database for all my yojimbo collections... I don't want to be bound to Yojimbo and don't want it always running in the background... the finder is already a fabulous database, and between QS and spotlight you can do a million more things than Yojimbo can let me do... so I would love to get this "collections" effect inside finder without making a million aliases for my files...
Any suggestions?

Let me start with the "easy" question first: the .DS_Store files are where "Finder information" is stored. Windows users find these things a pain in neck, and usually insist they be deleted. Most of time this isn't a problem, the Mac users just get annoyed when their folder doesn't open the way it was when last closed--the principle information stored there is the view the folder was told to keep, the size of the icons and their arrangement, and so on. Every time you open a folder a .DS_Store file created if one does not already exist, and if one does the file will be updated if you change your settings for the folder, for instance switch it to List view, tell it to always open in List view, with columns for Date Modified, Size, but not Kind or Date Created. And it also keeps the information entered in Spotlight Comments. Just how Finder preserves this information if a file is moved, in Mac OS, to another folder, I don't know. But it does.
What we REALLY need is a nice little program to write to the metadata of the file. For instance, Spotlight will index keywords, which are stored in the file itself, as part of the file's metadata. I mainly work with graphics, and Photoshop allows you to add keywords to the file's metadata. Apple's iPhoto and Aperture will also add keywords, but they are not written to a file's metadata until you export them. PDFs can also have keywords assigned, you can even do it with Preview. Text documents can also have keywords added using some (most?) text editors, including TextEdit (provided the file is in RTF format). The nice thing about keyword metadata is that it goes with the file, and be accessed in any OS that allows a metadata search.
Unfortunately I don't know of any program that would allow you to select a batch of miscellaneous files and add the same keyword to all of them. It would certainly be handy though.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

How to implement Mac OSX Finder color labels

Is it possible to support color labels for files and folders in Mac OSX Finder in a custom connector? It would be nice to implement this in our connector as it's a common way for users to do some lightweight status workflow.
If it's possible, a code sample would be really helpful.

Is it possible to support color labels for files and folders in Mac OSX Finder in a custom connector? It would be nice to implement this in our connector as it's a common way for users to do some lightweight status workflow.
If it's possible, a code sample would be really helpful.

Can't apply Finder color labels to selected apps/utils

just upgraded from tiger -> leopard -> snow leopard.
some of the apps in the Applications folder, and most of the apps in the Utilities folder, have now lost their Finder label functionality: i can't set a label, because that feature is grayed out.
i assume this must be some kind of permissions problem, but i don't get all the way to a solution. even if i add myself to the permissions for the individual item and give myself read+write access, the labeling functionality doesn't return.
first it looked like apple's own apps were more likely to be locked down, but on further inspection that theory doesn't really hold. though, there are apps in each folder for which i can set a label, so it's not about permissions of the parent folder.

Just got my new Mini with 10.6.1 and I can't label certain apps either.
This is a major pain as I use labels to find things quickly. Anyone have a fix yet?

Spotlight's blind spot: Spotlight comments on Disk Utility disk images.

Has anyone but me noticed that Spotlight goes blind to Spotlight Comments once the files are moved into a 256-bit encrypted read/write disck image created with Disk Utility? I don't have iPhoto, and I keep photos in too many categories for that anyway. I keep all my keywords in Spotlight comments in Finder attached to each file and create "albums" on the fly with Spotlight searches.
But as soon as I moved the whole mess into a read/write 256-bit encrypted disk image created with "from folder" in Disk Utility....I can still see all the comments in Finder GetInfo, but Spotlight can't. I even tried adding comments to the search field list and it still sees nothing, not even when the disk image is mounted and visible in my Finder window sidebar.
What am I missing?

Yes, I search while the drive is mounted.
Yes, I can drag it into and out of Spotlight's Privacy Pref's Pane. While it's in there the entire drive obviously disappears from Spotlight's searches. Once I - it from the exclude list it returns to seeing folder names only, but still finds nothing based on Spotlight Comments.
I'm starting to think Apple left that bit of code out. Anybody know how to put it back in?

Automator doubling my Spotlight comment text

I made a simple workflow to add text to the Spotlight comments field using "Get Selected Finder Items" and "Set Spotlight Comments for Finder Items" but when I use it, the text I enter is entered twice in the Spotlight field. What am I doing wrong here or is this a bug?
Thanks,
Edward

Are those the only actions in the workflow? If you are doing something like using this as a Service, the workflow is automatically passed the selected items, so adding another action to get the selection will double up the items.
Also note that this is the Tiger Automator forum - Automator in *Snow Leopard* is quite a bit different, so future questions should be posted in the Snow Leopard forum.

Spotlight comments have vanished since Lion

I'm astonished to find that all my Spotlight comments are missing since I upgraded to Lion. For example I have a folder called Published pdfs and the spotlight comment for each file was the name of the periodical in which it appeared. All gone. Anybody have any idea what's going on? Any similar experiences? Thanks.

OK. The easiest way is to use the TAB key to automatically expand the file path or to use quotes
Click on the file you want and do Command-I to see its path.
For example
/Users/rshs/Documents/My File.txt
You can do a couple of things:
$ cd "/Users/rshs/Documents/" (you can copy straight out of the Get Info; cd = change directory)
$ mdls M [hit the TAB key so that it expands] etc.
Or you can just do it from the beginning using the TAB key
$ mdls /Us[TAB]r[TAB]d[TAB]
etc.
Don't type the $,
You'll see what I mean about the tab when you try it.
If your file name has a space, you'll need to do \ then a space, but usually the TAB key will take care of it anyway. If you get a beep, you need to type a couple of extra letters:
cat
coat
c[TAB] won't do anything but ca[TAB] will expand to cat
You can TAB to expand the commands such as
mdls
but you'll usually need to type the first 2 or 3 letters.

Color Label Order

Is it possible, under OS 10.3, to change the order of the Finder color labels? Under OS 9, Orange used to be at the top of a list when it was sorted by color label. Under OS 10.3, Neutral (no color) is at the top. I'd like to make Orange go to the top of a Finder list sorted by Label. Can this be done?

It may be possible, but the question is how? There are no obvious files to be found that might be modified to do this. Although your arrangment is different than mine. From the top, mine are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Gray.
There's a third-party "haxie" you can try for 15 days and buy for $10 from Unsanity; this may suit your needs.
Mulder
If my answer helped solve your problem, please consider awarding some points. Why Reward Points?
iMac G4 700Mhz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Spotlight/Finder only searching "new" spotlight comments not old ones

I have a bunch of files on my external hard drive that I had taken several hours to "tag" with spotlight comments a few months back. I tagged them so I could quickly find them in Finder or Spotlight by different key words and not just file names or their contents (folders wouldn't work because the keywords overlapped many of the files. Plus folders are slow). It worked beautifully. Until I stopped adding tags for those 4 months until now.
I hadn't been using my comments at all in the past couple of months, but i had some files that I hadn't tagged so I decided to take the time to tag all the new ones. While testing to see if the comments worked, I noticed an extreme shortage of results, compared to the results i had for the same key words 4 months ago. I noticed that only the newly tagged files were showing up. I immediately checked the old files to see if the comments were still there and there they were. I restarted my MacBook Pro, thinking that maybe it was because I hadn't done so in the past few days. I noticed the little dot in the lens of they eyeglass and thought "oh boy! it'll reindex everything!" but it only indexed "new" files of course.
So my question is: "*How did this happen?*" But more importantly: "*+How can I fix it?+*"
I've thought that forcing spotlight to reindex my entire external hard drive would do the trick, but I cannot find any means to achieve that goal. Plus, I would rather just be able to index the files within one folder as I wouldn't have to wait an entire day of sluggish performance for that. Any ideas?

Let me start with the "easy" question first: the .DS_Store files are where "Finder information" is stored. Windows users find these things a pain in neck, and usually insist they be deleted. Most of time this isn't a problem, the Mac users just get annoyed when their folder doesn't open the way it was when last closed--the principle information stored there is the view the folder was told to keep, the size of the icons and their arrangement, and so on. Every time you open a folder a .DS_Store file created if one does not already exist, and if one does the file will be updated if you change your settings for the folder, for instance switch it to List view, tell it to always open in List view, with columns for Date Modified, Size, but not Kind or Date Created. And it also keeps the information entered in Spotlight Comments. Just how Finder preserves this information if a file is moved, in Mac OS, to another folder, I don't know. But it does.
What we REALLY need is a nice little program to write to the metadata of the file. For instance, Spotlight will index keywords, which are stored in the file itself, as part of the file's metadata. I mainly work with graphics, and Photoshop allows you to add keywords to the file's metadata. Apple's iPhoto and Aperture will also add keywords, but they are not written to a file's metadata until you export them. PDFs can also have keywords assigned, you can even do it with Preview. Text documents can also have keywords added using some (most?) text editors, including TextEdit (provided the file is in RTF format). The nice thing about keyword metadata is that it goes with the file, and be accessed in any OS that allows a metadata search.
Unfortunately I don't know of any program that would allow you to select a batch of miscellaneous files and add the same keyword to all of them. It would certainly be handy though.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Close all folders in Mail? Color Label folders? Find folder? And More!

Hi all.
I have a LOT of mail. They're all very organized, though. Heaps of Mailboxes (Folders) and Sub-folders.
I also have heaps of rules dutifully sending incoming mail to their appropriate mailboxes.
However...
It has reached a point where one of of the major bottlenecks in my daily workflow is sorting through all these mailboxes.
There are 5 primary mailboxes with perhaps 100-ish subfolders or sub-subfolders. Maybe more.
When they are all open, or a lot of them are open, it is difficult to find the a specific folder when I need it. It would help if I could close all open folder with a shortcut.
Is this possible?
It would also help if I could visually distinguish each level. Can I color label the mailboxes(not the messages themselves)?
Another help would be if I could run a search for a folder Mailbox name. Is this possible?
Lastly when I create a rule I would love it if there was an option to 'Create new Mailbox' in the rule dialog box rather than having to create the mailbox first. Am I just missing this? See link for illustration:
http://img.skitch.com/20080820-eaqmy89emw6xm5pcj86iuqu992.jpg

I just had a look and you need to create the mailbox PRIOR to asking the rules to move it into that.
Now, automator lets you create a new workflow, but not sure as to how to set that one up (might be possible; however, my mathematical brain tells what you want to achieve is flawed:
1) IF new mail equals "tangerine", create new mailbox tangerine, then move message to mailbox "tangerine. (FINE so far!)
2) the second "tangerine" message arrives, and the workflow should FAIL (because it cannot create a "new" mailbox "tangerine", as there is ALREADY a mailbox named "tangerine")
3) if automator cannot execute "If" and "and" and the "sort by" all together, then distinguish (a "tangerine" message might actually need to go to "pear" but refers to "pears and tangerines", so it ends up in the wrong mailbox), you may have to start and restart mail, until all stages of the script have been executed.
You see the problems?
Anyhow, here is a link to some automator info:
http://automatorworld.com/archives/automator-for-os-x-105-leopard-revealed/
Good luck

How do I find images in LR 2.4 (imported from CS4 Bridge) that have color labels already assigned In CS4 Bridge? I have set both Bridge and LR color labels text to match (eg Green for green, etc).

How do you find images in LR 2.4 that have been imported from CS4 Bridge and have been assigned a color label in Bridge? I have set both LR 2.4 and my CS4 Bridge to match the text for each color to be the same (eg. Green for green, etc), and the filter search in LR 2.4 shows that a label has been assigned, but I am unable to identify and locate the specific images in LR 2.4 that have had a color label assigned from CS4 Bridge. I have tried to search via attribute, metadata, text, etc...Is it necessary to re-assign color labels all over again, image by image, in LR 2.4, or is there a way to automatically have the color labels assigned in CS4 Bridge be assigned and searchable to the images after they have been imported into the LR 2.4 catalogue from the Bridge program?

JohnM.
I closed both programs and re-imported photos and re-tried the action of having LR read the XMP metadata from the CS4 files, and it seems to work now just fine...don't know why now and not before, but thanks much. Is there a way to have LR do this automatically upon import of images from CS4? I tried to do this with an import metadata preset, but no luck. It seems as if I can only do this once the images have already been imported into LR, and then to have to have LR read the metadata from the CS4 Bridge files. thanks gain.

Raw Search Terms for "Spotlight Comment" and "Locked" Status

Is it possible to do a raw search for a specific Spotlight Comment. I know the option exists in the Other… dialog box, but I need to find files that do not contain comments which is not choice.
Also, is there any way to find only files that are unlocked?

If you go to Others and select Raw Query you can use it find items with a specific comment, and items without any comment. For example, if you have the comment "testme" in the Spotlight field you would paste this into the Raw Query field:
kMDItemFinderComment == "testme"
and all files with that comment would be found. To find files in a folder that contain NO comment at all, you would use this:
kMDItemFinderComment != "*"
Be warned though: when I tried this on a folder with only 5 items in it, 4 with comments and one without. it worked, returning the lone uncommented file, but it took an amazingly long time to do so (perhaps a minute, while the search for "testme" was instantaneous).
The "File readable" and "File writeable" functions shown in Others, which presumably are what one would use to find locked files, simply do not work. This is not surprising since the information about whether a file is locked or not does not in fact appear in a file's metadata. I guess that will be a future addition. You can use find in Terminal to search for files that are locked/unlocked. Let me know if you really want to do this.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Spotlight Comments do not appear in Spotlight search results

I have a .png file on my desktop.
Right click >> Get Info
Spotlight Comments has the string 'Fruit' saved.
If I search for 'Fruit' in Spotlight I get no results, why?

Hi TD
Yes and no.
Yes it worked the way you mentioned but if I change the Spotlight Comment: on the same file to something else I can still find it via 'Fruit'. I much prefer command-space bar to call Spotlight.
How long does it take a change to a Spotlight Comment: to filter into Spotlight?
Its not the end of the world its just I was finding Spotlight really useful until I came up against this.

Spotlight comments search and smart folder fails

Spotlight search of the "Spotlight Comments" field fails after a file is saved in TextEdit or iWork programs.
I reproduced this failure, 100% of the time, in OS X 10.8 and 10.8.1 (with iCloud enabled or with it iCloud disabled) and can not reproduce this failure in Mac OS X 10.7.x
The steps to reproduce are simple and quick:
Create a new test file in TextEdit and Save it on the Mac (saved as, for example, test.rtf)
Quit TextEdit
In the Get Info panel for the test.rtf file and enter some unique text in the Spotlight Comments: field, for example XYZZY:
In Finder create a new Smart Folder (File > New Smart Folder)
Create a search criteria in the Spotlight comment field for the unique text from step 3 (XYZZY in this example) and hit Save and name the Smart FolderNote, the test.rtf file immediately appears in the smart folder
Open the test.rtf with TextEdit and change the text and Save the file.
Note, as soon as you hit Save in TextEdit the test.rtf file disapears from the SmartFolder. This is the error. Also note, the Spotlight Comment value (in this example, the text XYZZY) is unchanged, it still exists.
See attached screen shot after step 7 that shows the smart folder no longer shows the text.rtf file even though the search criteria is met.
I have reproduced this error with TextEdit and Pages and Numbers but not with other applications that are not iCloud enabled.

Clendenen02 wrote:
where should I run the code? in the terminal, or an applescript, or should put it in xcode and run it from there or the terminal.
What MrHoffman said.
But if it's easier, you can wrap it in Automator and have Automator ask for the Folders: (Test on a sample of your files before running on all 700 files)
(do you really own 700 movies??)
The Workflow is:
Put this in the Run Shell Script Action (and pass input as arguments":
PicDir=$1
MovDir=$2
for f in $PicDir/*
do
     if [ ! -d "$f" -a "${f##*.}" = "jpeg" ]; then
          comment=$(mdls -raw -name kMDItemFinderComment "$f")
          if [[ $comment != "(null)" ]]; then
               picname=${f##*/}
               movname=${picname%.*}.m4v
               if [[ -e "$MovDir"/$movname ]]; then
osascript <<-EOF
tell application "Finder"
set comment of file (POSIX file "$MovDir/$movname") to "$comment"
end tell
EOF
               fi
          fi
     fi
done
(BTW, I know that this is a bit of sloppy scripting (wraping an osascript in a Bash Script wrapped in Automator, but it does what you need)

Search by Finder "Color Label" or "Spotlight Comments"?

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