Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
for the detailed conditions you added later), select the text in the Search box
and press Delete.
That may seem like a lot of steps, but most of them are optional—and once you've done a few
searches this way, the process will seem both quick and obvious. With this technique under
your belt, you can now move on to create smart containers.
Note:
When you construct rules in Mail (see
Manage Incoming Apple Mail with Rules
)
,
Hazel (see
Organize Files with Hazel
), and other such apps, the search conditions are
only part of the equation—you then go through a similar procedure to specify what
action(s) should occur when an item matches.
Create and Use Smart Containers
The Finder has smart folders. iTunes has smart playlists. Mail has smart mailboxes. iPhoto
has smart albums. Contacts has smart groups. I refer to all these (and similar constructions
in other apps) collectively as
smart containers
. Although they may
look
like folders or
mailboxes or whatever, they're really just saved searches. You construct search rules as
described previously, click a button to save the search, and give it a name. Then…hey, presto!
Select that smart container whenever you want to display an up-to-date list of all the items
that currently match your search.
Here's a quick overview of how to create and use smart containers in several popular apps:
•
Smart folders (Finder):
Choose File > New Smart Folder
(Command-Option-N), or simply create a search rule as described in the
previous topic. When you're finished, click the Save button in the search bar.
Give the smart folder a name, choose a location (the default is
~/Library/
Saved Searches
),and formaximum convenience, alsocheckAdd toSidebar.
Click Save. Thereafter, select that item in a Finder window's sidebar (or open it
wherever you saved it) to show currently matching items.
•
Smart playlists (iTunes):
In iTunes, choose File > New > Smart Playlist
(Command-Option-N). Fill out the desired conditions, and optionally select
the checkboxes to limit the playlist to a certain number of tracks, match only
checked items, or use live updating.
(I recommend live updating, by the way; without it, the smart playlist will
always show whatever it happens to match at the time you created it, unless
you manually update it by right-clicking or Control-clicking the smart playlist
and choosing Update Smart Playlist from the contextual menu. However, live
