Searching by Multiple File Attributes
Sometimes you can’t find what you’re looking for by searching the text contents or the names of files, folders, and volumes. You may need to take into account such other attributes as the age, size, or kind of item that you’re looking for. Under these circumstances, you need to perform a custom search in the Find window.
Performing a custom search
To perform a custom search, open the Find window and click one of the plus sign buttons. Doing this adds a search criteria item to the window just underneath.
By pulling down the criteria item’s pop-up menu, you can pick from several kinds of criteria. After you pick a criterion, the subsequent qualifier phrase will alter to go with your choice, often presenting a second pop-up menu with alternatives, including a text entry field when appropriate.
To remove an item, click the minus button to the right of the field. Clicking a plus button adds another search criteria just underneath. As you add additional criteria, Find helps you by removing previously set criteria from the new criteria’s pop-up menu. Find sets the next criteria for you by picking from the remaining possibilities.
Figure 7-11 shows examples of these additional search criteria and controls.
Figure 7-11: Adding criteria to the Find window can narrow the search results to more precise results.
Table 7-1 explains the additional criteria usable for searching.
| Attribute | What Find looks for |
|---|---|
| Name | A file, folder, or volume whose name contains/starts with/ends with/is/is not/doesn’t contain the text you enter |
| Content includes | Text within documents, such as the search by contents described earlier in this Chapter |
| Date Created | A file, folder, or volume whose creation date is/is before/is after/is not; is today; is within 1/2/3 days of; is within 1/2/3 weeks of; is within 1/2/3/6 months of the date you enter |
| Date Modified | A file, folder, or volume whose modification date is/is before/is after; is today; is within 1/2/3 days of; is within 1/2/3 weeks of; is within 1/2/3/6 months of the date you enter |
| Size | A file whose size is less than/is greater than the number of KB you enter (1024KB = 1MB) |
| Label | A file whose label is/is not the color you choose, or if you click on the X box to the left of the label color dots, a file which does not have a label assigned |
| Kind | A file whose kind is/is not alias/application/document /folder /audio/ image/movie |
| Extension | A file whose three-character extension (also known as the file name suffix) is the character set you enter |
| Visibility | A file or folder that is invisible, or visible, as you choose |
| Type | A file that possesses a Type code[1] |
| Creator | A file that possesses a Creator code[2] |
|
[1]Type and Creator codes were used in Mac OS 9 and before; Mac OS X can understand them. The four-letter Type code tells the operating system if the file is an application, a document, a system file, and so on. For instance, the type code APPL signifies the file is an application. The Type code also determines which files get displayed in an application’s Open window.
[2]Type and Creator codes were used in Mac OS 9 and before; Mac OS X can understand them. The four-letter Creator code is used to link documents to the application that created them. For instance, when you double-click on a Microsoft Excel document, the Creator code XCEL is what tells the operating system to launch Excel. | |
Working with Found Files and Folders
When a search of the volumes on your computer ends, Find displays a list of files, folders, and disks that match your search criteria in a Search Results window. This list of found items appears in a separate window from the Find window, the Search Results window, and you can go back to the Find window to change your search criteria.
Obviously, you can browse the list of found items for items that particularly interest you. Less obviously, you can see the volume and folders in which a found item is located, and you can copy the name of a found item to the Clipboard. You can move or copy found items to any Finder window or the Desktop, make aliases of found items, and move found items to the Trash.
In addition, you can open found items or the folders that enclose them. If a found item is a document, you can print it. If a found item is an alias, you can show its original in a Finder window. With some types of found files, you can have Find find similar files. This section describes how to do all these tasks.
Seeing the path to a found item
Mac OS X will display the path to a found item through the hierarchy of its enclosing folders. The path is shown in an area at the bottom of the Search Results window.
As mentioned earlier in this Chapter, in Mac OS 10.3, this path-viewing area features three different modes of display. Which mode is shown is based on the size of the viewing area, which you can change.
The path-viewing area is located just below the bottom scroll bar of the Search Results window, by default minimized to a single line, as shown in Figure 7-12. When the window first opens, nothing shows in this area, because you must select an item for its path to be shown.
Figure 7-12: The initial, simple path view takes up only one line at the bottom of the Search Results window.
When you select an item, a row of items appears in the path area, separated by arrowheads, starting with drive icon on the left and ending with the selected item on the right. This is the simplest mode of the path display, and is meant to show how many levels deep in the hierarchy your selected item is located.
You can view the name of a folder in this mode by positioning your cursor over it; it takes a little longer than a second for the name to appear in a faintly yellow box, and it will disappear after about eight seconds.
In this simplified viewing mode, it is still easy to perform one of the more common actions you may wish to take while viewing a path: opening the folder that encloses your selected item. Simply double-click on the folder just to the left of the item, and a Finder window will open to display the contents of the folder, including your selected item.
Just above the path area, in the center of the bar that separates it from the window’s bottom scroll bar, you find an indented dot, the path area’s drag handle. Moving your cursor over this dot turns the cursor into a horizontal bar with arrowheads pointing up and down; if you hold down the mouse button, you can drag the separation and scroll bars upward, expanding the path area.
When you have expanded the path area to a little more than double its initial height, the path display switches to its second mode. Now the names of the folders appear, and the path can take up two lines, as shown in Figure 7-13. If the path is long, the folder names will appear abbreviated, with an ellipsis (...) in the middle. You can make the full name appear in a light yellow box by positioning the cursor over the abbreviated name.
Figure 7-13: Expanding the path-viewing area allows the item names to be seen.
As you expand the path area further, the path is displayed on three lines, and the names are less abbreviated.
Expanding the path area a little beyond this causes the display to switch to its third mode, in which the successive folders appear indented to the right as you go deeper into the hierarchy, with your selection appearing at the bottom, as shown in Figure 7-14. This path view was used in versions of Mac OS X before Panther. Note that in this view, the path takes one line for each level, and is therefore a fixed number of lines; if the area is not expanded enough, you will not be able to see the entire path.
Figure 7-14: Expanding the path-viewing area reveals each hierarchy level on its own line.
Copying the name of a found item
You can copy the name of a found item by selecting it in the Search Results window’s path area when the path is displayed in its most expanded mode, and choosing Edit Copy. Note that when you select the item, the name itself does not highlight, only the item’s icon. Then you can insert the name in the TextEdit application or anywhere else you can edit text by going to that application and choosing Edit Paste.
Moving or copying a found item
You can move a found item by dragging it from the list of found items (not from the path area) to a Finder window, the Desktop, or a folder icon in either of these places. If you want to copy an item instead of moving it, simply press the Option key while you drag it from Find’s list of found items. You don’t need to press Option if the place you’re dragging an item is on a different volume than the item’s current location. Items are always copied, not moved, when you drag them to a different volume. You can tell that an item will be drag-copied when you see a green dot with a plus sign next to the cursor as you drag it.
If you change your mind about moving or copying a folder while in the midst of dragging it, you can cancel the operation by dragging to the menu bar and releasing the mouse button. Alternatively, you can drag the folder back where it came from or to the title bar of Find’s window, but the menu bar is an easier target to hit. If you change your mind after you’ve dragged it, you can undo the move by choosing Edit Undo Move of [file name] — Find supplies the file name to help you remember what you just did — or use the keyboard shortcut Command-Z.
When you move an item, if it is still selected in the Search Results window, you will see the path display change to reflect its new position.
If you can’t move or copy any items to a particular folder, then you may not have the privilege to make changes to that folder. If you can’t move or copy one particular item to any folder, you do not have privileges to change that item or the folder it’s in. Either your privileges for the item don’t allow moving it from its folder or your privileges for the folder don’t allow moving anything out of it. (We cover the effect of privileges on moving and copying in Chapter 4.)
| Tip | Instead of moving, copying, or performing another operation on found items one at a time, select multiple items and act on them all at once. Click one item to select it and then Command-click each additional item that you want to select. Select a range of items by dragging across them or by clicking the first item and then Shift-clicking the last one. |
Making an alias of a found item
You can make an alias of a found item by pressing the Option and Command keys while you drag it from Find’s list of found items to a Finder window or the Desktop.
Opening a found item
You can open a found item by double-clicking it or by selecting it and choosing File Open Item. The item you open can be in the list of found items or it can be in the hierarchical path displayed at the bottom of the Find window. Opening a folder displays its contents in a Finder window. Opening a document file opens the associated application and displays the document contents in a window.
| Tip | While opening a found item from a Find window, you can simultaneously close the Find window by holding down the Option key as you double-click or choosing File Open Item. |
Opening a found item’s enclosing folder
You can open the folder that encloses a found item by selecting the found item and choosing File Open Enclosing Folder. A Finder window opens, showing the found item selected among the other contents of the enclosing folder.
Alternately, as noted above, you may also double-click on the enclosing folder in the path area.
Moving a found item to the Trash
You can move a found item to the Trash by dragging it from the list of found items to the Trash icon in the Dock or by selecting the item and choosing File Move to Trash.
You can also select the item and press Command-Delete. Hearing a click means that the item’s path has changed to show that the item is now in the Trash, and the item will be removed from any Finder window, or the Desktop, and appear in the Trash window. If you remove the file from the Trash, the path will change to show its new location.
Seeing the original of an alias
You can see the original of an alias in the list of found items by selecting the alias and choosing File Get Info. A Get Info window opens for the alias, with the path to the original shown in the General pane of the Get Info window.
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