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Tag: Files

Creating Snippets in HoudahSpot

In HoudahSpot, snippets let you to set aside frequently used combinations of search criteria. HoudahSpot comes with a few pre-installed snippets, but you can also define your own.

Snippets can hold a single search criterion or a group of criteria that serve a certain purpose. The pre-installed snippet “Date Created range”, for example, holds two criteria in an “All of the following are true” group: “Content created before” and “Content created after”. Use this snippet whenever you want to find files created in a range of dates.

HoudahSpot's Sidebar & Refine Pane
Drag the snippet from the sidebar to refine pane (example: Date range snippet)

Continue reading Creating Snippets in HoudahSpot

Stash Extra Criteria in Search Templates

In HoudahSpot, you can temporarily disable individual search criteria. This is particularly useful in combination with templates: have different criteria preconfigured, enable them as needed. Continue reading Stash Extra Criteria in Search Templates

Find Files from a List of Names

Sometimes, you get a list of file names and need to find the actual files. You may be a photographer who sent out a contact sheet for photo proofing and got back an email listing the images to be printed. Or you may have sent friends messages with tiny photos and got a reply asking for larger copies of images 7359, 7365 and 7366.

HoudahSpot can help you work through such notes and collect the requested files. Continue reading Find Files from a List of Names

Save Queries for Recurring Searches

HoudahSpot allows you to customize many aspects of a file search:  query, criteria, locations, columns, sort order, etc.

You will want to save such customized searches for later reuse. HoudahSpot gives you different ways to do so.

Continue reading Save Queries for Recurring Searches

Find Copies of a Specific File

You can use HoudahSpot to find out whether a specific file on your Mac has identical twins somewhere in your file system.

This comes in handy if you want to make sure you have a backup copy before you start working on a file. Or you may want to check if a specific file – e.g. in your Dropbox folder – is a copy and not the original before you delete it.

Continue reading Find Copies of a Specific File

File Search: Exclude Folders by Drag & Drop

What can you do if your file search produces too many results? You’ll need to narrow down your search, and one way to do this is by specifying or excluding search locations. This refocuses the search on certain folders and excludes others.

Continue reading File Search: Exclude Folders by Drag & Drop

Find and refile misplaced files

Let’s say you have set out to store all your MP3 and AAC songs in the Music folder. Yet, over time, some of those files have been saved to other locations. You can use HoudahSpot to find the misplaced files and move these where they belong. Continue reading Find and refile misplaced files

Change Default Application for File Type

Within HoudahSpot and Tembo, you can open files directly from the search results list. Just double click or select “Open” from the context menu, and the file selected will open in the default application for its file type.

In OS X, you can change the default application for a certain file type by following these steps: Continue reading Change Default Application for File Type