Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

Smart Folders

Once you've grown comfortable with the layout of the Search dialog box, you may notice the little Save button in the upper-right corner. That button generates a Smart Folder—a self-updating folder that, in essence, performs a continual, 24-hour search for the criteria you specify. (Smart folders are a lot like smart albums in iPhoto and iTunes, smart folders in Mail, and so on.)

Note

In truth, the smart folder performs a search for the specified criteria at the moment you open it. But because it's so fast, and because it's always up to date, it feels as though it's been quietly searching all along.

Figure 3-13. Mac OS X can preserve your search as a smart folder on the desktop. (If you turn on Add to Sidebar, you'll also make the smart folder available as a single-click icon in your Sidebar.) You can stash a smart folder in your Dock, too, although it doesn't display a pop-up menu of its contents, as normal folders do.

POWER USERS' CLINIC: The Raw Power of the Raw Query

You may have just slogged through 20 pages of Spotlight details—but if you can believe it, there are another 40 or 60 to be written. It turns out that the Spotlight most people see is only a subset of the true power awaiting in Tiger.

For example, what if you wanted to see all the files you've opened in the last 24 hours except email messages and address book entries? Or what if you want to round up all PDF ...