Making time and headspace usually means working smarter, and when that avenue exhausts, bringing in help is next. Any Mac user with limited command over their fingers, hands and arms would really appreciate Hazel. She’s the most efficient secretary you’re likely to meet in any virtual space. Her ability to transform chaos into order makes her hot competition for the clairvoyant, super-PA Donna in the TV hit, ‘Suits’.
This is an app for those who delight in streamlining their workflows and banishing repetitive, boring tasks. If you’re willing to invest a little time to set Hazel up, here is a friend you will bring aboard every new Mac you buy. She doesn’t get in the way or demand attention, if notifications were turned off results would be the only clue to her work. Hazel warms the inner geek in the same way Textexpander snippet expansions and Keyboard Maestro macro actions do.
This post is a Hazel introduction, an overview rather than a ‘how to’.
“Hazel watches whatever folders you tell it to, automatically organising your files according to the rules you create. Have Hazel move files around based on name, date, type, what site it came from and much more. Automatically sort your movies or file your bills. Keep your files off the desktop and put them where they belong.”
“Hazel can open, archive, tag and even upload. You can have Hazel rename your files or sort them into sub folders based on name, date or whatever combination of attributes you choose. Coupled with Hazel’s powerful pattern matching feature, you can create workflows to process your files, your way.”
“Have Hazel keep your trash in check, deleting files that are too old or clearing things out when the trash gets too big. Also, when you delete applications, they can leave behind support files that never get cleaned up. With Hazel’s App Sweep, Hazel will detect when you throw an application away, search for its support files and offer to throw those away as well.”
Tip: This suggestion provides an initial meeting point between Hazel and your new files. Direct your file traffic (during save-as) to a single folder within your system. I call mine ‘Action-Dropbox’, guess where it lives. Use this folder a default target for app file output be it a scan, document or whatever. Think of it as a Hazel ‘post office’.
Hazel will watch and work from any location within your system. If you insert an identity for the file that Hazel has been instructed to look for within file traffic, she will grab and direct them in line with your instructions. Short alpha-numeric clues like 2016-05-02_inv_cell.pdf are all Hazel needs to do her work. In the example above, the PDF will auto-sort with others by date when it hits its destination folder. It’s an invoice from my mobile phone.
Another example – file naming: You may have seen similar dialogue boxes with Mail Rules etc. A student wants to store notes in preparation for an assignment (TMA02) in a particular folder (Notes-TMA02). When saving a file, somewhere within the file name she types ‘nt02’ (along with other clues she may want to leave) for Hazel to action. She saves her file to ‘Action Desktop’ – within moments Hazel does the rest.
*Note: I have included a couple of extra rules for Hazel to act upon. If she added today’s date at the front of the filename her notes will auto sort chronologically (set sort order to ’Name’ in Finder).
Textexpander: the two apps work together beautifully within a workflow. Create snippets for all your regular file naming requirements. Naming files becomes fun, quick and simple.
There you have it, Hazel is far more powerful than these examples demonstrate, there’s lots more to tell. Visit David Sparks’ blog at ‘MacSparky’. He’s particularly interested in software based automation, his work provides an excellent resource for those following the Mac/IOS trail. David’s Field Guides help the rest of us become Mac Power Users, he’s just completed a Hazel guide to cover Noodlesoft’s latest update. Tune into David and Katie Floyd’s MPU podcast to learn and stay ahead.
The Flying Soup Dragon 