Mac OS X has many great features, and the next release of the operating system has many more that look to be amazing. One great thing about the current version, Tiger, is something called Finder Smart Folders.
Smart Folders appear in many Mac applications, from Apple Aperture to iTunes. They typically represent an automatic grouping or search of content based on a certain criteria set by the user. In iTunes, this can mean a smart “album” of music from the 1960’s and 1990’s. In Aperture, a smart “album” can mean photos that span the year 2006, have particular keywords assigned, and are from a certain area of the world. They can be as simple or as complex as the user wishes.
Smart folders in Mac OS X Tiger’s Finder are similar to those described above - they search various sources for particular content and display it in a grouped fashion. Continue reading to see how you can use Finder’s Smart Folders to find files that are up to 1GB is size on your drive in a few simple steps.
To create a smart folder from Finder, select “New Smart Folder” from the Finder’s File menu, or use the shortcut key defined by the operating system.
In the dialog that appears, you are presented with some options for building your smart folder. The options are in the form of search terms and criteria. You can tailor the smart folder’s content by setting the criteria to match your expected outcome.
By default, the smart folder will search your computer’s hard drive. This is denoted by the word “Computer” that appears selected in the first criteria bar of the smart folder window. You can change this to search servers that may be on your network, your specific Home folder, or “Others” whic can be networked drives, etc.
In addition, you are given two rows of search information to work with. The first row is set to search for a “Kind” of file. Next to this option, you will see “Any” in the menu control. All together, these two lines and the search location bar above them tell the smart folder to look for “Any Kind of File on this Computer”.
If you feel constrained by the number of displayed search terms, choose the “Others…” menu option and you will be presented with a window containing hundreds of other search terms.
As a simple example, let’s find the files on your drive that are less than 1GB in size. Define a few search criteria lines as follows: for the first line (below the “Kind” and “All” line), choose “Size” as the first criteria, and “Greater than…” as the second criteria. In the small text box that appears, enter the number “100″, and select “MB” from the menu that is to the left of the text box. So, your first line should read “Size - Greater than… - 100 - MB”.
Add an additional criteria line by clicking on the “+” symbol to the right of the last line you entered. In the new criteria line, select the appropriate values so the line reads “Size - Less than… - 999 - MB”. The smart folder will automatically start “finding” content that matches your criteria as you update the details. The end result should be something like the following:
If this smart folder is one that you will be referring to again and again, it’s useful to save it to the Finder’s sidebar. To do this, click on the “Save” button in the top-right corner of the smart folder window. You will be presented with a window asking for a name and location. Enter a name that suits the smart folder’s content (”Files 100MB - 999MB” is fitting here), choose a location to save the smart folder, and make sure “Add To Sidebar” is checked. This ensures the smart folder is saved to the sidebar, where it’s accessible by a single click of the mouse.
Now, you have a smart folder that will be always up-to-date with your system’s content. You will always be able to find large files with a single click, and decide whether they need to be deleted to save space on your hard drive. The smart folder will group the files by content type (Music, Movies, etc), so it’s easy to distinguish where the files are used and if they are critical or not.
You can use this same technique to search for files larger than 1GB (to expose those space hogs!), particular file types (Where did all those downloaded PDFs go?), or the location of any file on the network drive containing the words “cool feature”. The possibilities are endless!
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