New Demo User Question

I tried Hazel a few days ago and could not get it to do what I wanted. I suspect Hazel will, but I'm just a little slow. I would like to know if Hazel does what I need/want and if yes, how to do it. I have subfolders under Documents named County and Vista (not Windows Vista). In these subfolders are documents pertaining to each setting (Country and Vista -- they are places that I visit and I write up documents for these places). Anyway, when I write these documents in Word 2008 I save them with their names/filenames having either "Country" or "Vista" (quotes added) in the filename. I would like Hazel to automatically move these documents to their proper subfolders.
1) Does/Can Hazel do this?
2) If so, how?

I'm sorry if this is basic, but I could not figure it out on my own. Thanks in advance.

If I understand you correctly, I think something like this would work;

"If name contains Country, move file to Country"
"If name contains Vista, move file to Vista"

That's only in the case where there's a fixed set of types you are sorting.

There is the "sort into subfolders" action that can do it dynamically. The problem I see is that there's currently no way to get a sub-part of the name. For instance, if you have "Country-xxxxxx" or something like that, there currently isn't a way to extract the "Country" part (and then to likewise reference that part in the subfolder pattern).

There is the option of using Applescript though that's not always palatable or feasible for many users. Another option is to use something like Default Folder X which allows you to set a comment on the file when you save it. You can then have Hazel use this comment for filtering and sorting. Slightly roundabout I will admit, though.

Thank you for your reply. I know the wish list is probably quite long. Any chance anything like this will be added? If not, I understand.

It's on the list but a lot of it is more a question of "how" than "if". Some people have suggested using regular expressions. If you don't know what those are, you may want to Google it. If you find that your eyes glaze over as you read about them, then you see why I'm balking at using them. So, I can't say when it'll happen but it is something being thought about.

had a tough time finding regex tutorials which didn't make my eyes glaze over. found one, though, which spoke enough geek to be useful and enough english for me to understand. ymmv.

Regular Expressions explained
Regular Expressions explained (printer-friendly)

Just to let you know that a more visual and much easier to understand interface for doing patterns for matching and substitution is being worked on right now. I'm looking to get a beta out before the end of the month (keep an eye on the forums).

For those that know regular expressions, it will appear as a simplified version but it should handle most of the actual cases people want to use them for.