Wildcards

i read the previous posts regarding wildcards and they weren't of much help...

our corporate scanner by default labels PDFs in the following format (as an example)...
2012030504351.pdf, 2012030504352.pdf, et cetera...

so it can be broken down into ?????????????.pdf...
i routinely grab them off the remote share and throw onto my desktop...
i want hazel to automatically throw them into a folder for further processing

is there any way to get hazel to take grab any file with 13 wildcards with a pdf extension?
i am currently using the following rule:

extension contains pdf
name starts with 201

Look up "match patterns" in the help.

Assuming a file like 2012030504351.pdf is named like our scanner, I'd use Custom (•) to create several fields for sorting into subfolders:

Code: Select all: Custom 1, named YEAR is (1)(1)(1)(1) Custom 2, named MONTH is (1)(1) Custom 3, named DAY is (1)(1) Custom 4, named TIME is (1)(1)(1)(1) Custom 5, named NUMBER is (...)

Then, the matching pattern is this:

Code: Select all: (YEAR •)(MONTH •)(DAY •)(TIME •)(NUMBER •)

Then, if you'd like you can:

Code: Select all: Sort into Subfolder with pattern (YEAR •)/(MONTH •)/(DAY •)

afreyer, thank you so much.
that was very helpful

caspianshaun wrote:afreyer, thank you so much.
that was very helpful

Glad to help - let me know if there are any other questions!

Matching is one of the most powerful features of Hazel; I use it in dozens of rules. I suggest experimenting around with it to learn its true power.