Smart Folders

Smart folders, which is a new feature in Mac OS X 10.4, takes the Find command one step further. It enables you to save search criteria as a special folder. Opening the folder automatically performs a search and displays matching items. So the smart folder's contents always contain items that match search criteria, even if the files and folders on your computer change.

To create a smart folder

1.	Choose File > New Smart Folder (Figure 6) or press .A New Smart Folder window, which looks a lot like a New Search or Searching window, appears (Figure 12). Figure 12. The New Smart Folder window.
2.	Follow steps 3 through 5 in the section titled "To find files with the Find command" to set up search criteria for the smart folder. The search results appear in the window (Figure 13). Figure 13. As you enter search criteria, matches appear in the window.
3.	Click the Save button near the top of the New Smart Folder window.
4.	Set options in the dialog that appears (Figure 14): Save As is the name of the smart folder. Give it a name that describes what the folder will contain. Where is the location in which the smart folder will be saved. Your choices are Saved Searches, the Desktop, or your Home folder. Add To Sidebar instructs Mac OS X to add an alias of the folder to the Sidebar (Figure 15). Figure 15. The name of the smart folder appears in the title bar. In this example, the smart folder has also been added to the Sidebar. Figure 14. Use this dialog to set options for saving a smart folder.
5.	Click Save. The name you gave the smart folder appears in the window's title bar (Figure 15) and the smart folder is saved for future use.

To open a smart folder

If the smart folder has been added to the Sidebar, click the name of the smart folder in the Sidebar (Figure 16).

Figure 16. The contents of a smart folder displayed after it has been saved.

Or

If the smart folder has not been added to the Sidebar, open the icon for the smart folder (Figure 17).

Figure 17. Smart folder icons in the Saved Searches folder.

The contents of the smart folder appear in a window like the one in Figure 16.

Tip

• The Saved Searches folder is in the Library folder in your Home folder (Figure 18).

  Figure 18. The Saved Searches folder is in the Library folder in your Home folder.

  
  
  

To edit a smart folder

1.	Open the smart folder you want to edit (Figure 16).
2.	Click the Edit button near the top of the window. The search criteria appears near the top of the window (Figure 15).
3.	Make changes as desired to search criteria. The search results in the window change accordingly.
4.	Click the Save button. The changes are saved to the smart folder's definition.

To delete a smart folder

Drag the smart folder's icon to the Trash.

Tip

• Deleting a smart folder does not delete the contents of the smart folder. It simply deletes the search criteria that displays those contents. The original items remain on disk.