I have previously suggested DT3 to offer a method to allow the user to convert smart group into smart rule to avoid duplicating the efforts in setting up the same filtering criteria. @cgrunenberg has kindly advised using smart rule instead of smart group for its flexibility as rule/group. The issue is that smart rule is a global element, and the sidebar may end up with a long list of rules that can be hard to distinguish whether they are global or database-specific (unless we add a prefix to the name).
I hope DT3 will find a clever way to sort out this issue - after the bugs are fixed.
Regarding the suggestion above to use Smart Rules… How can I create a Smart Rule such that it only displays the matched files (i.e. behaves same as a Smart Group)? Can then easily expand this with actions as needed later on. I only have a single DB and so don’t think the global object scope impacts me and will use a naming convention for sidebar.
Related Q on icons: Default for smart group/rule is cog/double-cog - right? Seems both group/rule icons can then be rejigged as timer/unread/other? Is this behaviour documented somewhere?
A Smart Rule always displays the matched items. There’s no difference between a Smart Group and a Smart Rule, both will only display what they match.
The icons are updated automatically. I guess this is not documented, but you could search in DEVONthink’s help.