Mac Hazel Rule Copy Folders

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“Don’t repeat yourself” is one of the most important rules programming. And it makes sense: why do the same thing over and over again manually when we have computers to do that for us? For fortunately, you don’t need to be a programmer to avoid repeating yourself. Hazel brings programming concepts to even the most code-illiterate. The app can help you organize your files automatically, increasing your efficiency and freeing your mind painstaking process of filing all your bits manually.

  1. Apr 30, 2014  Hazel. Hazel is a folder and file automation service for Mac. It runs in the background and executes user defined rules on specified folders. It does things like cleaning up old files, archiving photos, and keeping my desktop organized. Heck, it even posts to Macdrifter for me when I tag a draft. It's one of the first things I install on a new Mac.
  2. For example, you can setup rules (as Hazel calls them) like the following: If a file is in the Downloads folder and is bigger than 1GB and hasn’t been opened in 2 weeks, then move it to the trash folder. If the file name contains “invoice”, then color it green and make a copy in the Finance folder.
  3. May 13, 2017 How To Use Hazel Rules to Increase Productivity - PC - Hazel is a Mac system alternatives pane that watches a folder and does distinct units of moves The basic premise of the personal laptop is to make its person’s existence easier. However, the mundane and repetitive computer responsibilities, along with sorting and shifting documents from.

What Is Hazel?

Exit function in dev c++. Apr 30, 2014 Hazel is a folder and file automation service for Mac. It runs in the background and executes user defined rules on specified folders. It does things like cleaning up old files, archiving photos, and keeping my desktop organized.

Hazel brings the logic of programming to folks that don’t know how to write code. It’s a macOS app with an easy-to-use graphical interface for some fairly advanced scripting capabilities. It relies on a simple “if this, then that” sort of structure, meaning that it matches specific parameters to specific files, and then performs a task if those parameters are met. The logic is simple but powerful.

Setting Up Hazel

Hazel is easy to set up. After you’ve downloaded and installed the application, you’ll find it in your System Preferences. Click on the icon to open the preference pane, and you’ll be able to get started.

When you first launch the pane, you’ll be in the Info tab which tells you whether or not Hazel is currently running. You’ll see a button that says “Start Hazel,” but leave it off for now.

Tick the box below that says “Show Hazel status in the menu bar.”

On the left side of the window, you’ll see a column with a list of folders. Click on one of those folders, and you’ll see the pane on the right, labeled “Rules,” fill up with some checkboxes.

These rules are what tells Hazel what to do with different files in different situations. We’ll be creating some of our own, but the included demonstration rules are useful for inspiration. Rules apply to particular folders, and each folder contains its own set of rules.

1. Clean Your Downloads Folder Regularly

I use my Downloads folder as a sort of “on deck” folder for containing working files. Unfortunately, I don’t clean it up too often. Hazel can help me out with that, however.

1. To create a new rule in Hazel, we first need to select the folder we want the rule to “watch.” Since we’re working in the Downloads folder, we’ll obviously select Downloads. Then, I’ll add a new rule by clicking the plus button.

2. Let’s give our rule an easy-to-understand name.

Now we’ll set up our criteria. These are the criteria a file has to meet before Hazel processes it. My goal is to set up files older than seven days for processing, so I’ll tell Hazel to target those.

3. Click the drop down menu labeled “Name,” and change it to “Date Last Opened.”

4. Check the drop down labelled “is,” to “is not in the last.”

5. Change “1 hour” to “7 days.”

In the next section, we’ll set what to do with files that match our criteria.

6. Click “no folder selected,” and change it to “Trash.” This will move all the old files into the trash.

7. To save the rule, click OK. Since we have Hazel turned off right now, the rule won’t apply immediately. We’ll need to turn Hazel on before we can do that.

This is perhaps the simplest possible Hazel rule, but it’s still useful. Here’s a few other rules I use to manage my downloads folder.

2. Organize and ZIP Old Files

This rule has two bits. First, we’ll set up a rule that puts old files into a specific folder. Then, we’ll archive that folder.

1. Select on your Desktop folder in the sidebar. If the Desktop folder isn’t there, click the plus button under the list of folders and add it.

2. Click in the plus button in the rules pane to create a new rule.

3. Change your Name drop-down to “Date last modified,” “is not in the last,” and change the time interval to one week.

4. Change the “Move” drop-down to “Sort into subfolder.”

5. Click the text box after “with pattern” to bring up a list of renaming tokens you can use. Select “current date.”

6. Click after the current date token in your text box and type “archive.”

7. Click Done to close the text box and OK to confirm the rule.

Now we’ll set up as a rule to compress those folders into ZIP archives.

8. Create another new rule in the Desktop folder by clicking the plus button under the rules list.

9. Create two rules: Name contains “archive” and Kind is folder.

Mac Hazel Rule Copy Folders On Mac

10. Click the action drop-down to select Archive.

This rule will automatically archive everything that hasn’t been modified in the last seven days.

3. Rename and File Scanned Documents Based on OCR Content

This last rule requires some external hardware or software to make it work. I use my ScanSnap, which converts scanned documents into PDFs with live text data embedded. This way I can automatically file scanned paperwork into the appropriate folders.

By now, you know how to read this rule. It matches three conditions, using the contents of the PDF as triggers for the actions below. When it finds a match, the rule renames the folder with the date the scan was created and the name of the bill, and files it in my “Statements” folder.

Conclusion

Once you’re done creating all your rules, you can return to System Preferences and turn Hazel on. All your rules will apply immediately, so make sure you’ve got everything correctly programmed!

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Mail User Guide

You can create rules that help you manage incoming email messages and automate tasks, such as replying to or deleting messages. For example, you can create a rule that highlights messages from a specific person, or that automatically moves messages from your inbox to other mailboxes.

  1. In the Mail app on your Mac, choose Mail > Preferences, then click Rules.

    To review an example of a rule, select a provided rule, then click Edit. To close the rule, click Cancel.

  2. Click Add Rule, then type a name for the rule.

  3. Indicate whether any or all of the conditions must be true for the rule to be applied to a message.

  4. Specify the conditions.

    To use different header fields in conditions, choose Edit Header List from the first pop-up menu. To add your own header, click the Add button in the Message Headers window.

  5. Choose actions to perform on messages that meet the conditions. To specify multiple actions, click the Add button .

    You can use AppleScript scripts as rule actions.

  6. When you’re done, click OK, then decide to apply rules to existing messages already in mailboxes or to new messages.

    You can apply rules to existing messages later by choosing Message > Apply Rules.

Mac Copy Folder Path

If you have multiple rules, they’re applied in the order in which they appear in the list of rules; drag a rule up or down to change the order.

Mail stops applying rules to a message when it encounters the Stop Evaluating Rules action, or when a message is transferred to another mailbox by rules used on a mail server or computer or device synced to your computer.

If you use iCloud Drive, your rules are available on your other Mac computers that have iCloud Drive turned on. Files attached to rules, such as sound files or scripts, aren’t available. See Use iCloud Drive to store documents.

Mac Hazel Rule Copy Folders 2017

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