I wanted to make some smart group folders but I can’t seem to find any way to tell the group to look for specific extensions (for example: .key or .pages). Is there a way to do this?
I’m also confused as to how notes are put into the “to do” smart group.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I’m trying to get my head wrapped around the program but frankly am having trouble doing so. I’ve watched the video tutorial and have browsed pretty well the user manual.
To find all Pages files, make a Smart Group search the Name field for the string “.pages”
The “To Do” Smart Group is a little more complicated. It looks for items with State = Shown. You can toggle the State of anything you put into DT by pulling down Data>Mark>Show State (or Data>Mark>Hide State). This feature is also available by Control-click. When the State is set to “shown” the file’s icon in list views is switched to a checkbox that you can treat like a to-do item.
If you’d like to see how other Smart Groups were set up, Control-click on the Smart Group icon and select Edit…
Ah! I never guessed to use the “name” selection. And the “State” is also interesting. I don’t quite understand the state and it being off or on or shown or hidden. But, I suppose that will come in time. Thanks for the help.
is there another way of making a smart group for pages files? i have devonthink set to strip the extensions from filenames when i import the files into devonthink.
if not, is there a way of reinstating the extension in the filename (i’d prefer not to have the extension in the filename if possible).
thanks
nick
Of course. In Smart Group Editor, set “Kind” to the desired extension.
how do i set ‘kind’ to the pages extension? seems like i am restricted to the file kinds listed and pages isn’t one of them.
Yes, that’s true. The ‘Kind’ selection doesn’t include all filetypes.
If you have created a smart group filtered by any criteria (or even one that lists everything in the search range, e.g., all open databases). The Kind criterion can be exploited even for filetypes that are not listed under that criterion.
If you want to look at all files that have a Kind not among the choices in Smart Editor, choose ‘Other’. Now the smart group excludes all of the listed filetypes. But it will include Pages, Keynote, etc.
If the smart group view doesn’t already include a sortable ‘Kind’ column, that can be added by choosing View > Columns > Kind. Now, click on the ‘Kind’ column header. All the Pages documents in the range the smart group covers (database or all open databases, for example) will be displayed. All the Keynote presentations will be grouped, etc.
OK – that’s a kludge. But if you are asking the question, “Do I have a Keynote or Powerpoint presentation that meets certain criteria?”, it’s a way to answer the question. 