[X4U] Finder Question

[Christopher Collins]

Amazingly, the extra information provided in this email makes it  
simpler to figure out a solution.

Create a smart folder on the desktop with "kind is any" and "name  
begins with z" and change "contents" to "filename"

That will give you ALL the files and folders that start with "z" on  
your Mac.

Then you can do with them what you want. Unfortunately, the finder  
doesn't appear to show the existing folder they are in or not that I  
could find in about 3 minutes of playing with the finder.

Regards,

cjc


On 21/11/2008, at 3:39 PM, Ed Gould wrote:

>
> On Nov 19, 2008, at 9:38 AM, Jens Selvig wrote:
>
>> Ed and all,
>>
>> I don't understand why you would be using spotlight to find the  
>> folder a file is located in. (It has been a while since the  
>> beginning of this thread so I may be remembering the original  
>> problem incorrectly!)
>>
>> Are we all assuming you are using OSX 10.5.x?
>>
>> My recomendation is to use a 'finder window", enter one of the  
>> filenames in the search window. If there is a match, click on the  
>> file listed in the window and look at the bottom of the window.  
>> There you will see a path listing of where the file is located. If  
>> you click on the folder immediately to the left of the filename you  
>> will open that folder in a new finder window. (This I think is  
>> essentially one of the ways given by Linda and/or others earlier)  
>> If you have the tool bar turned off in finder windows, cmd-opt-T  
>> toggles it on and off.
>>
>> Spotlight in my mind, anyway, is more useful for finding a document  
>> that contains some know text internally.
>>
>> One of the problems with this discussion is finding the correct  
>> terminology to define actions and views. I find that the finder is  
>> full of duplicate meanings! ;)
>>
>> Jens
>>
>>
>
> I started this question out with an explanation of what I had done  
> accidentally and (I thought) what I was trying to accomplish and  
> that was find the files I had inadvertently moved into a folder that  
> contains over 100+ folders. I needed to essentially find all the  
> files I had dragged and dropped accidentally into that folder. It  
> looks to me like when the drop happened the finder (or who ever is  
> doing the dropping) scattered the files into at least 50 different  
> folders. I was trying to find the files so I could move them into  
> the correct folder (I try to be organized). Instead of opening up  
> each of the 100 folders I was attempting to cut the number down to a  
> reasonable number. I know that 50 is less than 100 and in some cases  
> the folders contain 10K of files so not only did I have to wait  
> 30-60 seconds for each folder to open I had to max down to the  
> bottom as the files all stated with "Z".
>
> This (to me was an exercise that was pure frustration) as opening  a  
> 100 folders does take a bit of time and then going to the bottom was  
> just plain tedious. My intent was to minimize the tedious part. I  
> figured if at least I could find each folder I had to open I was at  
> least 50 percent there. I thought if I could just find the path for  
> each file I could identify the folder(s) and only open the ones I  
> needed.
>
> On my system (10.4.11) dual core 2.7 MHz it just takes a LOT of  
> time(up to a minute) to open up folders that contain 10K of files.  
> It is a tedious job and *YES* I know I am to blame but (there are  
> health issues involved) I always try and do things needing the least  
> amount of effort as a result.
>
> I hope this explains the issue (again) and I apologize to the group  
> for not wanting to shut down my system to do this what should be  
> simple operation.
>
> Ed