Limit search to folders or increase folder priority in results

[cmacminn]

Hi -

 

I want to use Alfred to quickly access a folder, but many of my folders have fairly generic names like "Notes" or "Resources" and they don't come up in the top however-many file search results. Is there a way to limit a search to folders, or to raise the priority of folders in the list of search results?

 

Thanks!

Best, Chris

[Andrew]

Hi -

 

I want to use Alfred to quickly access a folder, but many of my folders have fairly generic names like "Notes" or "Resources" and they don't come up in the top however-many file search results. Is there a way to limit a search to folders, or to raise the priority of folders in the list of search results?

 

Thanks!

Best, Chris

 

Hi Chris,

 

The best thing to use for this is a workflow file filter. In fact, one of the examples is for searching for only folders in your home folder. In the Workflow prefs, click the [+] button in the bottom left, select examples and then "Filter for folders in home". You can then use the 'f' keyword to find folders e.g. show Alfred and type

 

f resources

 

Hope this helps

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[cmacminn]

Hi Chris,

 

The best thing to use for this is a workflow file filter. In fact, one of the examples is for searching for only folders in your home folder. In the Workflow prefs, click the [+] button in the bottom left, select examples and then "Filter for folders in home". You can then use the 'f' keyword to find folders e.g. show Alfred and type

 

f resources

 

Hope this helps

 

Cheers,

Andrew

 

 

Hi Andrew -

 

Perfect, that did it. Thanks!

 

Best, Chris

[pier]

Hi

Sorry to bring up an old post.

I'm using the workflow solution to search only for folders, but I think it would be a better solution to be able to dismiss files in the default search results.
 

90% of the times I search for folders and not files. Pressing 'space' twice is the fastest shortcut of all and having to use a different shortcut for the general case is counterintuitive to me. It would make more sense to be able to search only folders by default and files with a special command.

I understand my case is not necessarily the general user case, but having a "Show only folders" checkbox in the "Default results" shouldn't be too difficult to implement.

 

[Vero]

Hi

Sorry to bring up an old post.

I'm using the workflow solution to search only for folders, but I think it would be a better solution to be able to dismiss files in the default search results.

 

90% of the times I search for folders and not files. Pressing 'space' twice is the fastest shortcut of all and having to use a different shortcut for the general case is counterintuitive to me. It would make more sense to be able to search only folders by default and files with a special command.

I understand my case is not necessarily the general user case, but having a "Show only folders" checkbox in the "Default results" shouldn't be too difficult to implement.

 

Hi Pier,

 

Files aren't included by default in Alfred's Default Results. By default, only Applications, Contacts and Preferences are included. You can add Folders and not add Text Files and Documents to essentially achieve exactly what you described.

 

Take a look at Alfred's preferences under Features > Default Results and look at the Essentials and Extras you've checked the box for.

 

Cheers,

Vero

[johnyull]

This folder filters are great but for sometimes the Mobile Documents create a problem.  For instance when searching for the Documents folder in my home directory I get dozens of "document" results which are from iPhone Applications I believe.  Anyway to avoid this? 

 

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1700881/Document%20Results.png

[jdfwarrior]

 

This folder filters are great but for sometimes the Mobile Documents create a problem.  For instance when searching for the Documents folder in my home directory I get dozens of "document" results which are from iPhone Applications I believe.  Anyway to avoid this? 

 

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1700881/Document%20Results.png

 

 

If they are results that you wish to never see then you could try adding them into Spotlight's Privacy section within Spotlight Preferences. This will prevent the folders from showing up within Alfred's results. If you need any further help setting this up, let me know and I'll assist further

[johnyull]

Thanks David.  I have 20 folders in my Spotlight privacy section already.  I believe I would have to place mobile documents in there.  These are all folders in iCloud.  When I reveal he any of the 30+ "document" folders they all go to iCloud.  I couldn't add them to Spotlight Privacy even if I wanted to.  However, I pretty sure I don't want to exclude Mobile Documents from Spotlight search.

[Vero]

Thanks David.  I have 20 folders in my Spotlight privacy section already.  I believe I would have to place mobile documents in there.  These are all folders in iCloud.  When I reveal he any of the 30+ "document" folders they all go to iCloud.  I couldn't add them to Spotlight Privacy even if I wanted to.  However, I pretty sure I don't want to exclude Mobile Documents from Spotlight search.

 

It's not strictly necessary to stop these Documents folders from appearing, as once you've selected your main ~/Documents folder a few times, it'll come to the top of Alfred's results, making it easy to choose. On my Mac, I see the various ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ folders but the main Documents folder always comes to the top, so I never even noticed  

 

In your case, I would very much recommending using a theme that shows the subtext path below the folder name as your current theme hides that text, making it trickier to figure out which folder you're selecting.

[johnyull]

I was hoping to not have those Mobile Documents "document" folder disappear as they have no use anyway as far as I can see.  Yes, thanks for the heads up on Themes.  I tweaked my settings in the Advanced tabs to see more info.  

 

Thank you