Noodlesoft Forums

As a complete newbie to Hazel, I'm completely confused.
I set up a rule to move a matched file to a particular folder. I ran the rule and it did what I wanted. Very nicely, it moved the file to the folder I specified. But then I see the options that go along with this rule:
rename the file
replace the existing file
throw the file away
The first choice is checked. The file that was moved was not renamed. There is no way in the option to specify what to rename the file anyway. I wonder about the third choice. Why would I want to match a file, move it to a new location and then throw it away. This seems bizarre. I can't find any help topics to match these options. A search for "options" or "rename" in help don't come up with anything helpful. Is all of Hazel this opaque. As a mathematician and amateur programmer, I am surprised that something so basic is so mysterious. What is gong on here?

Preceding those options is "If file exists" which is the part I think you are missing. If the file exists at the destination, those options dictate how Hazel is to deal with it. Rename will tack a number at the end of the file to make the name unique so that it can be moved. The second option will have the file being moved replace the one at the destination and the third will throw the file away in favor of the file that is already there. Hopefully that clears things up.