Quick Smart Folders

Plug In Actions
1

Quick Smart Folders

by Ian Kirkland

Description

Applying color labels to items in Finder has long been a practice of productivity nerds and organization enthusiasts. Unfortunately, it's tedious to initiate a new search, specify what color of file label you want to look for, make sure its search scope is correct, then either save it as a smart folder in the hassle-to-reach 'Saved Searches' folder or navigate and save to your original search folder in the Save dialog. That's where this plugin action, Quick Smart Folders, comes in. It lets you instantly generate a custom-named, color-file-label-based smart folder where you need it most...the current directory.

Example

Let's say you're working on a web project with a deeply nested folder hierarchy and you decide to track files that need code revisions by marking them with a red file label. Simply create a Keyboard Maestro macro with the Quick Smart Folders plugin action and define the file label color (in this case, "Red") and smart folder name.

Action Configuration Example1090×123 538 KB

(If the name field is the left blank, it will supply one for you using the same format as the default text value). You're all set! Now, simply navigate in Finder to the top-level folder of your search scope (such as the root directory of your web project or the directory containing all your web projects) and trigger your new macro. You will instantly get a smart folder with all the web project files with red file labels – which, in our example – are those needing code revisions. ![]( "Example In Use")

Additional Notes

  • This action relies on Finder items' "label index" property not label names.
  • As with all .savedSearch files, moving a smart folder to a new directory does not alter its search scope
  • Please report any bugs at: ianthekirkland@me.com

Download

Download this zip file and drop it on Keyboard Maestro to install the Plug In Action:

Quick Smart Folders.zip (98.5 KB)

Legal

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

6 Likes