I’m not a digiscrapper, but I do collect digital paper. I like to use it with my Cricut and computer crafting projects. This week I stumbled on a way to see it all easily. If you have a Mac with OS 10.4 or later then you have what is called Smart Folders. Smart Folders are virtual (not really a folder with files but a saved search with results), and are constantly updated, so they are especially wonderful for people who want to be organized without actually moving anything. Here’s how to set up a Smart Folder for your digital paper.
1) From the Finder (desktop), choose File>New Smart Folder.
2) Click the circle with the plus sign on the right hand side of the window near the top.
3) In the bar that appears, click and hold where it says “Kind” and select “Other…” from the pull down menu.
4) Type “pix” in the search window that appears.
5) Click the first row to select “Pixel Height” and click OK.
6) Enter “3600” into the text box. You will see the folder being populated with all the 12 x 12 print resolution digital paper on your Mac regardless of its format.
7) If you want to be more specific, you can repeat steps 2-6 to add “Pixel Width”.
8 ) Click on the Save button to name and save the Smart Folder to the location of your choice and check “Add to Sidebar”.
Any new paper you download, purchase or create will now automatically show up in this Smart Folder, easily reachable from any Finder window via the sidebar. I love to use Cover Flow view to quickly and easily browse every piece of digipaper on my Mac.
9) One more step to make this even more useful. Hold down the option key and drag the Smart Folder icon into the Places portion of the sidebar.
Now your digital paper folder is available from within any application. How cool is that!
Makes me wish I was a Mac user….
I am a Mac user and didn’t know about this. THANKS!
Thanks for informing of this great option for Mac users. I just made my very first smart folder and will be making more very soon. What a great feature!
Thanks so much for this post!! Now if you could just help me get the rest of my digi scrapping stuff organized! LOL 🙂
I am a Mac user and a dig scrapper, thanks for posting this! I had no idea!
How about all the other digi supplies? :):) Any more great ideas? This is pretty cool!!
Anke,
I have a smart folder for all fonts and I will make a post on how to do that in the near future.
As for other digiscrapping elements, do any have standard sizes?
Great tip! I love my Mac, but I have never explored the smart folder feature.However, I must be doing something wrong 🙁 I’ve tried this 4 times & none of my paper shows up.
I am using Mac OS 10.5.8
maybe the digi paper I have is saved in a diff size? is that possible?
Hmmm. Make sure you don’t have anything typed in the top window where the magnifying glass icon is. It’s unlikely that none of your digipaper is 3600x 3600 since that is standard but you can check by selecting the icon for any paper file and clicking command-I for Get Info. The size is listed under More Info>Dimensions, about halfway down the window.
Wow, that is extremely useful! Thank you for posting those steps. I have not paid much attention to Smart Folders, but I certainly will from now on!
-Ann
This is fantastic, I am a Mac user and didn’t know this. I love it and have set up a few smart folders already. Your instructions are great. Thank you so much for sharing.
Loraine
YOU ROCK! Thanks so much! I had no clue!!