Smart folders are special folders
that contain links to files rather than actually
containing files. The file links contained in a Smart
folder are determined by criteria you set either from a
Spotlight search or by defining criteria manually.
Unlike the contents of regular folders that changes
only when you add or remove files from the folder, the
links in a Smart folder change dynamically, according
to the criteria set for the folder.
Burn folders are also special folders, and, like Smart
folders, they only contain links to files. However,
when you choose to burn the contents of the folder, the
actual files are copied and burned to your CD or
DVD.
In this short tutorial, I'll show you how to use a
Smart folder in conjunction with a Burn folder to
create archival disks of all new data and applications
on your drive.
We are going to create two folders - a Smart folder and
a Burn folder - and we'll place them in the Finder
Sidebar. We'll name both folders "Backup Files," but
the extensions will differ (.savedSearch for the Smart
folder and .fpbf for the Burn folder).
1. Select "New Smart Folder" from
the Finder File menu. A pane will open and you can
start setting criteria for your Smart folder by
clicking the Kind button. In Mac OS X 10.5
(Leopard), you need to first click the plus symbol at
the right end of the Search Bar. A drop-down menu will
appear with several options, including Kind and
Name. For our example, we will select Last
Modified (Last modified date in Mac OS X
10.5).
2. Click the button to the right of the first button
and select Today from the drop-down menu.
3. We don't need a second row of criteria, so click the
minus symbol at the end of the second row (for Mac OS X
10.4 only).
4. Click the Save button in the top right corner
of the window. Save the Smart folder as "Backup Files"
and make certain the box in front of "Add to Sidebar"
is checked.
5. Select your hard drive in the
Sidebar, and then select "New Burn Folder" from the
File menu.
6. Drag the Burn folder that is created to the Sidebar.
Rename the folder "Backup Files".
7. Select the Smart folder and drag
the items in it that you want to back up to the Burn
folder. Click the Burn button next to the Burn
folder to burn the contents to a CD or DVD.
Set an alarm in iCal to remind you to back up the Smart
folder every night (I set mine for 11:45 PM). If you
use AppleScript and Automator, you can create an
application to do the backup for you.
Now that you know how to create Smart folders and Burn folders, I'm sure you'll find many new ways to use them effectively.