Smart Folder Colum Icon

After probably years of looking at my the Mail app, I just noticed a "new" column icon for Smart Folders (two opposite pointing arrows, one pointing 10 o'clock, one pointing 4 o'clock). It apparently indicates the top level for a multiple nested Smart Folder, but it doesn't appear on all of my multiple nested folders, so I'm not quite sure what it indicates.
Any insight is helpful, thanks,
- Dean
PowerMac G4 Mirrored Drive Door (QuickSilver) Mac OS X (10.4.9) Dual 1GHz, 2Gb Ram

Thank you David. I typically do not use that feature, hence my unfamiliarity with it. I've recently had some trouble with Mail and apparently that feature got turned on. All better now.
- Dean

Similar Messages

Creating a smart folder with Terminal?

What I'm trying to do might not be possible, which wouldn't surprise me at all. What I'd like to do is one of the following:
1. Create a smart folder that contains everything in the "/" folder.
2. Create a smart folder that is populated with every volume currently mounted on my Mac.
Essentially what I'm hoping to do is create a smart folder I can then use as a stack that would contain all the volumes currently located on my Mac. The only solution I've found so far for this is to use the /Volumes/ folder but this doesn't suit my needs as occasionally I get double icons for drives (1 being the alias the second being a private folder). Also it fails aesthetically which is part of the reason I'm doing this in the first place.
If anyone could recommend a solution that'd be great. I figured Terminal was my best bet, unfortunately my knowledge of this form of coding is non-existent and no amount of Google searches could help me.

I don't see how either item on your wish list can be satisfied by any of this "smart" stuff. The smart searches/folders are based on queries against the same metadata used by Spotlight - and that doesn't even look at / or /Volumes. Even if the info were available, is it up-to-the-minute enough to really be usable?
If you want to examine the built-in searches as a guide, you'll find them in:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/CannedSearches
Note that each of the items therein is a package, so you'll have to drill a bit deeper to get to the query file. I found that Property List Editor from XTools was a good way to get a structured view of them.

Smart Folders show icons only in Open Dialog pane

Hi,
I have created a couple of Smart Folders and put them in the side bar. When i select the Smart Folder, it shows the files and their preview icons. When i access the same Smart Folder in an Open Dialog pane from Keynote or another application, it shows regular file icons only, not the preview icons.
Is this how it is supposed to work?

While I'm not quite sure what you mean, it sounds to me like you had the Open dialog set for Column view, and at some point changed it to List view. Take a look at the toolbar at the top of the Open dialog window, you should see the back/forward buttons, then a group of three icons representing icon, list and column view. Both icon view and column view will show a preview icon of the selected file. Personally, I like icon view, since you see all the files that fit in the window with custom thumbs, and can pick what you want quickly. If you change the setting, in say Safari, to list view (which makes more sense in Safari), then the Open dialog for, say, TextEdit gets changed too. Just change it back by clicking the little icon in the toolbar at the top of the Open window.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Smart folder filters

I would like to make a smart folder that only searches for JPGs in a specific external drive and no others. I couldn't find a filter that lets me specify a location or source. Is there one?

Smart Folder searches use the Spotlight index which is on the chosen volume. The index can be disabled via the Spotlight privacy preference tab, and occasionally can become corrupted.
So you could try rebuilding the Spotlight index on your external drive:
Go to System Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy tab
If your external volume is on the Privacy list, delete it from the list with the minus button.
If the volume not on the Privacy list, then add it there and then immediately delete it again with the minus button.
Either of these steps should result in rebuilding the Spotlight index on that volume, which might take a while. Click the Spotlight search icon at the top right of the screen to monitor its progress. Try the Smart Folder search again when the indexing has completed.

Multiple source smart folder

Is it posible to have a smart folder/search that searches both a Local folder/This Mac and Shared computers?
Since we are on the subject is it possible to have it search multiple folders without selecting a common parent folder such as This Mac?

None that I know of. When I was looking at the Saved Search I wanted to use for searching both my startup drive and my Data drive I used Property List Editor and added the path to my Data drive in both the RawQueryDict->Search Scopes field and in SearchCriteria->FXCriteriaSlices->FXScopeArrayOfPaths, since I didn't know which one REALLY controlled things. I set it up to search by name matches "xyz" and keep it in the Sidebar. I can change the criteria when I bring it up by going to the Action toolbar icon, select "Show Search Criteria" then change to the name I want to search and make any other mods (such as Kind: Images, size, and so on). Works pretty good, actually, and is just as fast as the method in Tiger where you went to the Other place menulet and added something. Of course, there is still the aggravation of the column arrangement defaulting to "Last Opened" being selected.... Gad, what kind of a mind thought "Last Opened" would be anyone's first choice for any kind of search at all times? Or even EVER?
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Smart Folder refuses to include some of my files

I have a folder on my desktop which contains various html, php an image
documents.
If I create a smart folder and have it look only in this folder for files of
type 'PHP Source' it will only list 3 of the 10 php files that are in there.
At first I couldn't work out why....
Then I realized. All the files in this folder I copied over from my Windows
machine, all php files were created and saved with notepad. Since the files
have been on my Mac I have edited and saved 3 of them, using TextMate.
However, all files are of the type 'php source' and all have the same icon.
What do I need to do to get my smart folder to see all my other php files?
If I change the filter in the smart folder from php to html it will pick up
all the HTML files just fine, so I cant understand why it won't do the same
with php.
Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Could those be password-protected? Pages can't open password-protected Word files. Your options would be to use a different program - one of the Office clones or, maybe, TextEdit - or ask your teacher to not password-protect the files.

Smart Folder list view order

Is there any way, after creating a smart folder, to make the list go from newest to oldest? All the contents are listed in random order.
PowerMac G4 (10.3.9) 2 GB ram • PowerBook G4 (10.4) 1GB ram Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Thanks guys.
It didn't even dawn on me to change it to list view using com/2 (as it appeared like it was in list view when clicking on the column/icon view in the upper right corner of the Finder window). Now I understand that that is not the "official" list view.
Thanks again.
PowerMac G4 (10.3.9) 2 GB ram • PowerBook G4 (10.4) 1GB ram Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Importing to a Smart Folder

I created my 1st Smart Folder just moments ago. And I quickly learned how to get to the Filter HUD. But after setting filter preferences, how does a person Import images that match the Filter?
1) Is the process automatice.
2) If not, can you grab matching images from in many different folders on an external HD, or do you have to navigate to each folder, open it and then Import the images sequentially? That would be a lot of work. :-(

The smart folders in Aperture only relate to images, that already have been imported to Aperture.
Import all folders with images that you want to maintain in your Aperture library; then your smart folders in the library will structure and filter them.
If you need smart searches to find the image files that you want to import to your library, use smart folders in the Finder.
Open a Finder window and press ⌘F, then press the "+" button to add search rules, for example to find all "jpeg" images taken in the last 30 days, you could search like this:
Then select all images that have been found and copy or drag them to a folder or directly into Aperture's import window.

How to create a smart folder that only selects from a specific directory?

I am trying to create a smart folder that lists all my iPhoto original content in the last few months. I want this so that my wife can connect into the smart folder over the LAN when copying specific photos to her PC.
I am have trouble working out how to restrict the search to only those files that exists in the iPhoto directory. When I look at info for a photo is states "Where: /Users/Shared/iPhoto Library/iPhoto Library/Data/2009/....etc etc".
However if I add an filter for "Where from" begins with "/Users/Shared/... etc etc" it returns nothing. Is there a way to do this?

Find the iPhoto library file.
Right click -> Show package contents.
Double click the Originals folder.
Type anything in the Search box at the top of the Finder window.
In the top of the Finder window, click "Originals".
Click the + (plus) sign next to Save.
Select Kind is Image.
Click the + (plus) sign again.
Select *Created date* is *within last 3 months* (or whatever you want).
Go to the search box and delete what you typed. Don't hit the X to delete the search text.
Now save the smart search.
This is saved in ~\Library\Saved searches. Copy or move it to the desktop where your wife can get access to it.

If i delete a file from a smart folder is it deleted from the hard drive?

I've got a late 2011 17" MacBook Pro with a 750 GB harddrive. I'm trying to free up space by deleting movie files. I spoke with tech support about this, and they suggested creating a smart folder of all my movie files in order to find them and delte them. I did this and deleted many files, but when I open system information to check on the amount of hard drive space, I'm still seeing the same amount of hard drive space dedicated to movies.
If I make a smart folder and delete files in that, am I really deleting them from my hard drive or just from the smart folder?

What files are stored automatically by Time Machine? I thought Time Machine pretty much saved everything on my hard drive to my external hard drive. If that is the case, wouldn't my music files and picture files be on Time Machine (via my external hard drive)?
Time Machine does backup almost all files on your hard drive, unless you have chosen to exclude them. There are a few exceptions, but nothing you should worry about. Your music and photos should be there, but Time Machine will not backup your iPhoto library if iPhoto is open.
Also, are the photos from iPhoto automatically stored on my external hard drive via Time Machine? If so, can I delete the pictures from iPhoto without deleting them from the external hard drive?
Yes to both questions, with the above cavat that Time Machine won't backup the library if iPhoto is open.
I notice that it takes iPhoto quite a while to load, and if deleting those photos would allow it to load quicker I would delete them (providing they would remain on the external hard drive.
I only have a few pictures in iPhoto, compared to my wife's 3,500+, and my iPhoto doesn't load appreciably faster that her's does even though I have a faster computer. In my opinion, it isn't worth the effort it would take to delete them for such a small gain.
You should have at least 2 complete backups to try to make sure you won't lose any data. Hard drives do fail and/or files can become corrupted. Time Machine can back up to more than one external hard drive or you can use a cloning program.
Time Machine FAQ

Deleting files in a smart folder

If I delete a file in a smart folder, does it delete it from the 'puter or just the smart folder?
(after 6 years, I finally looked at smart folders. They are quite nice, but allow for the bad habit of not organizing correctly)

Deleting a file in a smart folder moves it to the Trash.
(48354)

How do I make a Smart Folder for Applications last opened over a month ago?

Can anyone give me some pointers on generating a Spotlight saved search/Smart Folder under Leopard that will give me all applications NOT opened in a given time period (say one month)? I can do Kind:Application and Last Opened:before a given date (1 July 2009), but I don't believe this will update as time goes by? The date is absolute rather than relative, if you will?
Attempts at using some negation of the Last Opened:within 1 month (using a dropdown "Match None of the following rules") appears not to function as I would expect. From having a dig around in the .savedsearch it seems the trouble is attempting to negate a range rather than a fixed date?
The only thing I now suspect is that I need the .savedsearch query, which looks like this:
+<string>((((_kMDItemGroupId = 8) && ((kMDItemLastUsedDate < 268063200))))) && (true)</string>+
To perhaps instead use +$time.this_month(-1)+ in place of the hard coded date, but danged if I know how to do so. Now it's late, and I'm posting incoherently to the Apple Support Forums. Any enlightenment appreciated. (Forgive me if this is the wrong forum - it's a Leopard/Spotlight issue)

If you go into Edit > Preferences, then on the General tab make sure that Ringtones is ticked and it should then appear on the left-hand side of your iTunes.

How to delete a Smart Folder?

I have been trying to delete a Smart Folder in the Search section of Finder. I have not been successful! I can't even open it or access it. I tried dragging it to Trash and it pops back to place. How do I eliminate this folder?

Yeah, that got introduced with 10.6.7. Too many people were dragging things off by mistake so they gave it the same process as removing something from the menubar. Too bad they didn't implement it for the dock...
Captfred

Is there a way to create a smart folder in iTunes, that contains the most recent (say 10) used playlists?

Is there a way to create a smart folder in iTunes, that contains the most recent (say 10) used playlists? By having this I would be three clicks (touches from what is recent).
Thanks

100s with about 30 folders, comprised on different moods, years, genre, favorites, audiobooks, podcasts. Being accessed from multiple Macs and Apple TVs.

Is there a way of displaying the various item in my Downloads folder as icons arranged in order of Date Created, such that the most recent items appear at the bottom, rather than the top?

Is there a way of displaying the various item in my Downloads folder as icons arranged in order of Date Created, such that the most recent items appear at the bottom, rather than the top? I know this can be done when they are displayed as a list, but I want icons!

Hi geezer,
when you open your 'Downloads' folder choose 'View' in the Menu bar and choose:
'as List'
'Show View Options'
In 'View options' window you tick:
'Always open in list view'
'Date Modified', or
'Date created'
Now inside the 'Downloads' folder click on 'Date Created' (or 'Date Modified')
column to get items alined from oldest to newest date (or reverse)…

Smart Folder Colum Icon

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