Specifically for the print folders, I use multiple folders because the action is different for each and couldn't figure out how to do it all within one rule set (it seemed not possible to me).
Each folder will rename the file, which is then sent to another folder which will run a shell script for a print preset: one for 1-sided, another for 2-sided printing, and a third for 4x6 label printing to a different printer. It seemed to me that I needed a separate folder for each distinct action.
The rules are very similar, but each set covers distinct criteria. If I could figure out how to do it all with one folder I would have.
For example, I need to process some of these multi-page PDFs as 1-sided prints, so using Page rule criteria to count pages doesn't work and I couldn't figure out how to otherwise distinguish the multi-page PDFs that should be printed 1-sided vs those to be printed 2-sided.
As a test, I just rebuilt my Desktop rule set to do process these files using only the Desktop rule set rather than rule sets for the individual folders, and it was definitely possible with "run rules on subfolders" and "enclosing folder" rules.
That said, I do like seeing visually each folder that gets rules applied so I know where things are being done. It's more obscure when everything is buried in a "run rules on these subfolders" rule. But I also can see how this might be inefficient and overkill. It's just easy to forget where some of these folders are nested, and where to look to edit the rules (or run them manually).
It also makes more sense for me to be able to just manually run the "print" rules for that folder rather than manually run the entire "Desktop" rule set when I know I just need to get some files printed and Hazel hasn't yet processed that folder (although it usually happens super fast).
But I also did find a lot of poorly-structured rules that I was able to consolidate by looking through all of these folders and rule sets.
Last edited by
gcoghill on Thu Dec 14, 2023 5:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.