Smart Folders and MacVector

OS X’s Finder has many features for quickly finding and working with your files. Spotlight Search is one such tool that most Mac users are familiar with. However, Smart Folders is a tool that is very useful but often overlooked.

Smart Folders allow you to create a dynamic folder whose contents are derived from a Spotlight Search. The folders are permanent and dynamically updated, and can even be shown directly in the sidebar of Finder.

You can have very simple Smart Folders or complex ones. From “Show me all my Word documents” to “Show me all Pages Documents that were last modified within the past three months that contain the term ‘where are my sequences'”. Smart Folders are very useful for keeping track of your MacVector sequences. For example “show me all Assembly Projects last modified within the past month” or “Show me all trace files from the past seven days”“.

To create a Smart folder to show all MacVector sequences last opened in the past month:

  • Click FILE > NEW SMART FOLDER in Finder.
  • Click “+” next to SAVE
  • Enter “KIND“, is OTHERmacvector” for the search terms
  • Click “+”
  • Enter LAST OPENED DATE is WITHIN LAST 1 MONTHS
  • Click SAVE and enter a name. Don’t forget to include it in the Sidebar.
  • Here’s a few suggestions. See the screenshot for more.

  • Show all fastq files
  • Show all MacVector Sequence Files
  • Show all Assembly Projects created within the past year
  • Show all Align to Reference files last opened within the last week
  • Show Trace files from the past seven days
  • This month s MacVector Files savedSearch

    Do not forget that if you are looking for a specific sequence, then Align to Folder allows you to search your hard drive with a specific sequence and directly open matches to your sequence.

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