solved Simple move / copy and paste files while navigating folders

[FaradayFluff]

Hi,

 

I've been looking for a solution for this off and on for months and surprisingly haven't found anything specific in the forums, on google, or on Youtube. I don't know if I'm missing something or what.

 

Here's my situation: I frequently download files that need to be put into folders on my company's shared google drive (which I have connected with the google drive client). Without Alfred, I would normally open two Finder windows side-by-side, the first being the downloads folder and the other being the destination folder. I would open the destination folder window by navigating through the folder structure visually using the mouse. Obviously, this takes time.

 

I want to use Alfred to speed this process up. I've learned how to navigate the folder structure from Alfred and I've learned how to add files to the buffer and action them. However, I do not see how to replicate the normal ability to copy a file from one location and paste it to the destination that I navigate to. This seems like basic functionality so I'm assuming I'm missing something. How do I accomplish this?

 

Clarifications: After copying the file it appears that all I can do is search for a destination folder. As I stated above, I need to move the downloaded files to *different* folders all the time. The destination is rarely the same. Therefore, I do *not* have the destination folder names memorized nor do I plan on memorizing them. Therefore the search feature to find the destination folder is useless to me. I need to visually navigate to the destination each time, where I then want to paste the file from the buffer.

 

Please see this example on video where I demonstrate my issue.

 

If there are existing forum topics already handling this specific issue that I missed when I searched for them, feel free to let me know and we can close out this redundant entry.

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by FaradayFluff

[vitor]

When you’re in the Universal Actions pane, drill down to a directory by pressing ⌘↓. You can also make it work with the left and right arrow keys (without ⌘) in Alfred Preferences → Features → File Search → Navigation → Shortcuts. These will also work in the Google Drive Workflow. You do need to know the name of one directory so you can search for it and use it as your “anchor”, but then you go up or down as you please.

[FaradayFluff]

@vitor 

I did not realize I could drill up or down into directories using ⌘↑ or ⌘↓. Thank you! The thing I was still unclear on is how to then paste the file into that directory once I get there. I realize now though that the function for that is in the Action Items menu for the file in the Buffer. I can choose either "Copy [With Replace] to..." or "Paste [With Replace] to..." options and they will then paste the file into the directory I choose.

 

I've demonstrated in this video. Super helpful! I think some of this basic functionality could benefit from being included in the tutorial for using File Search, Navigation, and Buffer features. I feel like this is more basic than sending files from Buffer to an email which I see in tutorials constantly.

 

I also see now this is simply a basic action on any file and if I'm actioning the file directly from Finder to begin with, I don't even need to put it in the buffer. I can just action the file and then choose the destination to move to directly. I suppose the Buffer would only be needed if I was trying to copy a group of files to a single destination.

 

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by FaradayFluff
Update that buffer is not needed to perform this function for a single file

[andy4222]

9 hours ago, FaradayFluff said:

I suppose the Buffer would only be needed if I was trying to copy a group of files to a single destination

You don't need Buffer for that either. Universal Actions accepts multiples files. Select all the files in Finder and then press the Universal Action trigger button (For me its double tap Shift key) and you can do all operations on multiple files that you could on one file. 

 

 

You could also write a workflow that would show you the list of source folders and the list of destination folders. This would work if you want to sync all files. Customizing this would need more effort, although could be doable. 

I feel you might need Hazel which automatically manages files your you in the background based on the rules you specify. There are also some free options I found like https://github.com/tfeldmann/organize but require more setup I guess. 

 

[FaradayFluff]

11 hours ago, andy4222 said:

You don't need Buffer for that either. Universal Actions accepts multiples files. Select all the files in Finder and then press the Universal Action trigger button (For me its double tap Shift key) and you can do all operations on multiple files that you could on one file. 

 

Good to know! I didn't realize that! Makes sense. I love how intuitive Alfred is.

 

11 hours ago, andy4222 said:

You could also write a workflow that would show you the list of source folders and the list of destination folders. This would work if you want to sync all files. Customizing this would need more effort, although could be doable. 

 

Yeah, I've only started with building the simplest workflows like URL shortcuts. They feel pretty daunting to me since I'm not a programmer. Interesting idea though! I love the power it has! Just not sure how to get into it without knowing how to program.

 

11 hours ago, andy4222 said:

I feel you might need Hazel which automatically manages files your you in the background based on the rules you specify. There are also some free options I found like https://github.com/tfeldmann/organize but require more setup I guess. 

 

I've heard about Hazel in the past but have never used it. Didn't think about it's application here but that could be helpful! I'll check into it more. Thanks!

[vitor]

9 minutes ago, FaradayFluff said:

Just not sure how to get into it without knowing how to program.

 

You can build complex Workflows without knowing how to program. Plenty of people do. New features in Alfred 5, like Automation Tasks, take that goal even further. All you need is patience and logical thinking, both of which can be trained. The documentation is comprehensive, and you can learn about any object fast by pressing the (?) on their editing windows.

[FaradayFluff]

6 minutes ago, vitor said:

 

You can build complex Workflows without knowing how to program. Plenty of people do. New features in Alfred 5, like Automation Tasks, take that goal even further. All you need is patience and logical thinking, both of which can be trained. The documentation is comprehensive, and you can learn about any object fast by pressing the (?) on their editing windows.

 

Cool! I haven't gotten a chance to check it out since Alfred 5 landed. I will look at that. If Alfred can make workflow building something the common person can do, that would be a huge leap forward in benefits over something like Raycast (in addition to the greater efficiency). Exciting to think about!

 

I lightly used Alfred years ago and recently got back into it a month ago but checked out Raycast at the same time. It's definitely new and shiny and clearly has the benefits of venture capital backing but I think Alfred is much more efficient to use if you're actually trying to be productive minimizing keystrokes with core tasks. I decided to double-down on Alfred at that point with a Mega Supporter license. The more we can organize the workflow access the better we can compete with Raycast. I love the idea of taking it a step further and enabling the common person to build their own workflows with good documentation and tutorials.