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Hazel update brings even more productivity to automated file manager

by David Chartier Feb 13th 2007 at 10:30AM



I instantly fell in love with Hazel from Noodlesoft the first time I found it back in September '06, and since then it has received a literal landslide of new features that make it even more indispensable to any heavy file trafficker. For those just tuning in, Hazel is fundamentally a file organization utility; it allows you to set up a series of rules that watch files in directories of your choosing, and then it carries out various actions based on your criteria. For example: I download a lot of videos, particularly motion pieces I find from studios all over the web. I also download a lot of DMGs and ZIPs in the name of TUAW, and as you might guess, after just a busy morning of all this watching and downloading, my desktop is about as messy as the typical freshman dormroom.

Enter Hazel, the background file management ninja. For these two scenarios, I have a couple of rules that watch my Desktop for files of type Movie, DMG or ZIP which were added more than 1 day ago. These rules will then move said files into their respective directories (Movies and Software, as one might guess) and apply a blue label to them, just to make sure I know what was moved how.
Hazel can do so much more to your files though - copy them, add Spotlight comments, archive and even run shell scripts or AppleScripts/Automator workflows. Even better, however, is a series of updates and new features since I first stumbled on Hazel to make it even more incredible. Here's a brief overview (no seriously, by comparison, this is brief) of what's new:
  • "Run rules now" option for doing just what it says. Should give better feedback to the user when testing out rules.
  • New rule actions:
    • Open file
    • Import into iTunes
    • Import into iPhoto
    • Run AppleScript
    • Run Automator workflow
    • Run shell script
    • Run rules on folder contents
  • New feature: can now drag rules between folders. If "spring-loaded folders" is enabled in Finder's preferences, folders in Hazel's folder list will "spring" as well.
  • Removed restriction on using the same type of action more than once in a rule. You can now, for instance, have two moves within the same rule.
  • Added "does not start with" and "does not end with" operators.
  • Added ability to drag and drop folders on the folder list.
  • Rule matches are now logged to Console.
  • Rudimentary checks added to prevent move and copy actions from having the same source and destination folders.
And much, much more. The possibilities for making your Mac do even more file management work for you are endless, and Hazel almost instantly became some of the best $16 I've ever spent on my computing. To help get you started, Hazel's 14-day demo comes with an example set of rules that should get the idea gears grinding, but Noodlesoft also has a support forum where users are poking at the ins and outs and trading ideas, as well as their own list of tips and tricks.

If you've been looking to take the 'manual' out of file management 'labor,' Hazel might be right up your alley.

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I instantly fell in love with Hazel from Noodlesoft the first time I found it back in September '06, and since then it has received a...
 

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8 Comments

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David Chartier

#4: Graham, you sure can do that; you can set iCal appointments to open/run just about anything you want, and I actually do this for some things (in particular, Lifehacker's Project365). However, I think that system gets really clunky after just a workflow or two, as building the same rules and functions is *far* easier in Hazel. And for those in need of a lot of automated file organization, Hazel's ease of operation and unique rules scale much better for those who need to govern a lot of different directories and file types.

February 14 2007 at 10:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
J.V.

@John: Not sure about it but have u tried the software "syncOtunes"? I don´t know I´m not using it but maybe give it a try?!

February 13 2007 at 5:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John

Does anyone know a decent program or a way to sync your music folders over networked drives? I really wanna to mirror my Mac and PC's librarys

February 13 2007 at 2:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Graham

Not that I've done it, but I thought that Automator actions can be transformed into ICal entries, which would take care of the need to remember to run Automator daily.

I agree that Hazel appears to be better sorted out.

February 13 2007 at 12:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
J.V.

Personally the combination of Hazel and the Spotlight tool "Punakea" is just perfect. Just drag a downloaded file onto a spotlight comment on the Punakea slide and let Hazel do the rest based on the comment..! This way I am perfectly able to keep track of where I want my files to be moved (e.g. specific sub-folders for projects based on spotlight comments)

Maybe Apple is going to buy this program for Leopard ;)

February 13 2007 at 11:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David Chartier

@2: Carl, the idea behind Hazel is that it runs in the background; it's a System Preferences pane with a background process that's constantly watching whatever directories and files you tell it to, negating any need on your part to manually run something like an Automator action.

Here's another scenario that might help things: instead of using rules that wait a few days to move files, you could simply set up Hazel to automatically and immediately file all your downloads from the likes of browsers and BitTorrent apps based on what type they are or even what their name is. DMGs you download from BitTorrent and Safari could go into a Software folder, while movie files go into Movies, and pictures get automatically added into your iPhoto library instead of simply moved to a folder.

The possibilities really are endless and darn powerful if you look through Hazel's rule system. It's amazing.

February 13 2007 at 11:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John

Does this support updating shared network windows drives? I really want something that will keep all my music synced on my mac and PC

February 13 2007 at 11:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kevin

you would think automator would take care of this kind of stuff

February 13 2007 at 10:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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