Moderators: Mr_Noodle, Moderators
gcoghill wrote:Giving a Folder Some Time
This might be obvious, but I had a kind of a 'eureka' moment when I realized by adding multiple "Date Added" conditions, I could control the processing a little better when desired.
To process only files created Today, but not process them immediately, add two "Date Added" rules:
• Date Added is Today
• Date Added is not in the last XX hours
Another method would be:
• Date Added is in the last 6 hours
• Date Added is not in the last 3 hours
Haydardk wrote:gcoghill wrote:Giving a Folder Some Time
This might be obvious, but I had a kind of a 'eureka' moment when I realized by adding multiple "Date Added" conditions, I could control the processing a little better when desired.
To process only files created Today, but not process them immediately, add two "Date Added" rules:
• Date Added is Today
• Date Added is not in the last XX hours
Another method would be:
• Date Added is in the last 6 hours
• Date Added is not in the last 3 hours
HI ! any screen capture of this ?? would be so thankful ,,
gcoghill wrote:Processing New Files Only
"Date Last Matched is Today" ...... also helps if you are adding new rules to folders Hazel is already watching. This would be done if you do not want Hazel processing all the files retroactively.
I found this tip in many places on the forums here.
gcoghill wrote:
"Date Added is after Date Last Matched"
"Date Last Matched is This Week"
gcoghill wrote:Sorting files into monthly & yearly archives:
I have some rules on various folders set up to sort my files into date-based archives. For example, I have my Downloads folder set up to process any files left in the folder after a week to be sorted into a Monthly archive, and then after 6 weeks into a Yearly archive. After a week is up, Hazel will move any files added in say June to a folder which Hazel auto-created (based on a rule). The folder is named "2009-06". After the current month is over, the monthly folder is then moved into a Yearly archive folder, again auto-created by Hazel. In this case it would be created using the "Date Created" attribute.
One thing I have discovered for all such time-based archives or file/folder processing is that it's best to set as one of the rule conditions the following:
"Date Last Matched is not Today"
Since these files only need to be checked once a day to see if they fit the "1 week" or "not this month" criteria, there's no reason to have Hazel constantly analyzing these files. In my usage, I also add some color label "aging" to the files as they approach the 1 week mark—Added Today = Green, 3 Days = Red. Without the "Date Last Matched is not Today" rule, Hazel would constantly be matching these files.
I believe Hazel is smart enough to not keep adding the color label each time (I think I read this somewhere on the forums before). But I see constant Console messages about Hazel matching rules that only need to be checked once a day to see if they are "old enough" to have label colors change or move to an archive. No need to be checking these every time Hazel runs.