10.5: Run Spotlight searches based on Finder labels
To find files by label with Spotlight, or in the Finder's find box, type label:1 (or any other number up to 7). The numbers don't seem to correspond exactly to the order in the Finder; but you can see them by doing mdls on files. Here's how each number corresponds to one of the Finder's label colors:0 - None1 - Gray2 - Green3 - Purple4 - Blue5 - Yellow6 - Red7 - OrangeThe actual key name is kMDItemFSLabel in the mdls output.
published on Monday, the 31. December 2008, macosxhints
10.5: Switch the Finder's sidebar labels to lowercase
10.5 ships with uppercase menu items in the Finder's sidebar, similar to recent versions of iTunes. To make things lowercase like they should be, do the following. First, navigate to (or copy and paste the following into the Go » Go to Folder dialog):/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Duplicate the file called LocalizableCore.strings, and keep the duplicate as a backup. Open the original with Xcode or a text editor, then edit lines 50 to 53 to make them lowercase:"SD5" = "Devices";"SD6" = "Shared";"SD7" = "Search for";"SD8" = "Places";Save the file (entering your admin password if asked) and log out and back in or open Terminal and type killall Finder to relaunch the Finder and se...
published on Friday, the 9. November 2007, macosxhints
Mail Saver 3.5.4
Mail Saver saves messages from Apple's Mail into any Finder folder as message (.emlx) files. These saved files are Mail document files and reading them still requires Mail, but Mail is no longer required to store and organize them. This avoids cluttering Mail and allows you to save mail with a relevant project and to archive mail. Saved messages can be Replied, Redirected, Forwarded, Bounced and Printed, but cannot be Junked, Deleted or Flagged. Saved messages also retain attachments, if present. When Mail Saver saves a message, it simply makes a copy of the message and does not do any file conversion. The only change Mail Saver may make to Mail is to tell Mail to delete its original copy (into the Trash mailbox) after it has been saved. The saved copy of a message is modified so that: • The file name is the header's subject; • The modification date is the header's date sent; and • The comment is the header's To: address (for sent mail) or From: address (for received mail). Here is a brief summary of Mail Saver's features: Linked User Mailboxes — Route messages manually or automatically, using Mail's Rules, to User mailboxes, each linked to a folder. Mail Saver moves the contents of a linked mailbox into its linked folder, opens the folder and labels the moved messages as ready to read. The originals are not immediately erased, but are moved into the Trash mailbox. Mail Saver Menu — Gives you instant access to Mail Saver, Help, Mail-Safe, Spot-Mail and to your linked folders via a menu in the Dock or Script Menu. Save Selected Messages — Selected messages in the Inbox and Sent mailboxes can be saved to any location. The original message is not moved to the Trash mailbox, so you can save multiple copies to multiple locations. Spot-Mail — Spot-Mail uses Spotlight to search the content of .emlx files in the frontmost folder. (Spotlight cannot be used directly to search the content of .emlx files not stored within Mail.) Mail-Safe — Creates an archive of every message sent or received by Mail. The Trash mailbox is linked to a 'Mail-Safe' folder of your choice where outdated messages are saved into year-numbered folders containing month-numbered folders. The originals of these messages are erased from Mail. If you have a requirement to maintain an archive of your e-mail, Mail-Safe may meet your needs. This application is fully functional for a period of 30 days following installation, after which continued use requires purchase of an activation key (USD 9.95).
published on Monday, the 27. August 2007, scriptbuilders
Set Finder color labels via Butler and AppleScript
I'm one of those "keep my hand on the keyboard at all times" sort of guys. So I was annoyed recently when I discovered that there was no keyboard shortcut to set an item's color label in the Finder. While I don't always use the Finder's color labels, I often find them invaluable when working on projects with complex file and folder structures, indicating which files are "done" and which files are "pending." Using Butler's outstanding ability to execute any AppleScript code via a key combination, I set up the following script: tell application "Finder" set thisItem to selection as alias if label index of thisItem = 0 then set the label index of thisItem to 2 -- 2 = red else set label index of thisItem to 0 -- 0 = no label end if end tell I then set it to run with the arbitrary key-combination of Option-Command-Control-L. This code will toggle on and off the Red label only. However, using Butler ...
published on Thursday, the 7. June 2007, macosxhints
Mail Saver 3.5
Mail Saver saves messages from Apple's Mail into any Finder folder as message (.emlx) files. These saved files are Mail document files and reading them still requires Mail, but Mail is no longer required to store and organize them. This avoids cluttering Mail and allows you to save mail with a relevant project and to archive mail. Saved messages can be Replied, Redirected, Forwarded, Bounced and Printed, but cannot be Junked, Deleted or Flagged. Saved messages also retain attachments, if present. When Mail Saver saves a message, it simply makes a copy of the message and does not do any file conversion. The only change Mail Saver may make to Mail is to tell Mail to delete its original copy (into the Trash mailbox) after it has been saved. The saved copy of a message is modified so that: • The file name is the header's subject; • The modification date is the header's date sent; and • The comment is the header's To: address (for sent mail) or From: address (for received mail). Here is a brief summary of Mail Saver's features: Linked User Mailboxes — Route messages manually or automatically, using Mail's Rules, to User mailboxes, each linked to a folder. Mail Saver moves the contents of a linked mailbox into its linked folder, opens the folder and labels the moved messages as ready to read. The originals are not immediately erased, but are moved into the Trash mailbox. Mail Saver Menu — Gives you instant access to Mail Saver, Help, Mail-Safe, Spot-Mail and to your linked folders via a menu in the Dock or Script Menu. Save Selected Messages — Selected messages in the Inbox and Sent mailboxes can be saved to any location. The original message is not moved to the Trash mailbox, so you can save multiple copies to multiple locations. Spot-Mail — Spot-Mail uses Spotlight to search the content of .emlx files in the frontmost folder. (Spotlight cannot be used directly to search the content of .emlx files not stored within Mail.) Mail-Safe — Creates an archive of every message sent or received by Mail. The Trash mailbox is linked to a 'Mail-Safe' folder of your choice where outdated messages are saved into year-numbered folders containing month-numbered folders. The originals of these messages are erased from Mail. If you have a requirement to maintain an archive of your e-mail, Mail-Safe may meet your needs. This application is fully functional for a period of 30 days following installation, after which continued use requires purchase of an activation key (US$9.95).
published on Tuesday, the 24. April 2007, scriptbuilders
10.4: Use Spotlight to identify a program's purpose
Application names frequently don't reflect the actual task that they perform. The name Safari, for instance, really doesn't have much relation to web browsing after all. If you download lots of shareware applications, the situation is even worse, with application names often being obscure or jokey. As an example, I recently found a great address label printing application, but now I can't find it again because I can't remember what the heck it was called ! I know it's in my Applications folder, but I just can't seem to find it. Well, there's an easy way to keep track of what task applications perform. Use Get Info in the Finder on the application in question, and in the Spotlight comments section, type a few descriptive words about what that application does. In the example above, I'd probably type address labels. Now, next time you want to find an application...
published on Thursday, the 21. December 2006, macosxhints
10.4: Apply Finder labels based on application type
Having just bought a MacBookPro, I wanted a fast and easy way to see what apps I have that are universal, versus the ones that are PowerPC. This AppleScript will apply finder color labels to all of you applications. PowerPC a...
published on Wednesday, the 10. May 2006, macosxhints