Automator is difficult...

[Eazkk123]

I want to set up a quick action on automator that it would search my whole computer for .txt .rtf .png and .jpg files and move them into a folder on my desktop called "files" can someone please give me a quick step by step guide on how to do this.

Help Appreciated, Thank you.

 

[swiftaw]

Screenshot. However, I will caution you and ask you if this is something you really want. There are alot of those file types used by the system. If you run this automator action you will move all of them and your system might start behaving weirdly.

 

[Eazkk123]

Thank you for the detailed reply but...

OK yeah I agree that could crap up my system, so I want to search through my user (home icon next to it) e.g. desktop, documents, movies but not the library folder, may you please help.

Thank you

 

[jwkay]

Smart Folder

Just a thought, if you don't absolutely need to move the files, then a Smart Folder may be a better choice.

 

[swiftaw]

Ok,

You'll have to repeat the following 4 step process for each of the 4 file types, so your automator sequence will have 16 steps.

Step 1: Get Specified Finder Items, Add all the folders you want to search to the list

Step 2: Get Folder Contents (make sure "Repeat for each subfolder" is checked)

Step 3: Filter Finder Items, Name Extension is jpg

Step 4: Move Finder Items

 

[Mal]

Just a warning, too, that's a really horribly bad idea. Items stored on the Desktop, even in folders, are refreshed at a regular rate by the operating system. Having more than six or seven items in the Desktop folder causes that process to take up more than a good portion of your computer's resources, and increases the chances of mistakes which can cause data corruption. Saved searches and/or smart folders will be far more useful and far less potentially damaging to your computer.

Not to mention you'd end up with zero organization on your computer if you follow through with that action.

jW

 

[avalys]

Just a warning, too, that's a really horribly bad idea. Items stored on the Desktop, even in folders, are refreshed at a regular rate by the operating system. Having more than six or seven items in the Desktop folder causes that process to take up more than a good portion of your computer's resources, and increases the chances of mistakes which can cause data corruption.
jW

What the hell are you talking about? That makes absolutely no sense.

You can put as much **** on the Desktop as you want, it makes no difference. Nothing will be silently corrupted by being 'refreshed', whatever that even is supposed to mean.

 

[swiftaw]

What the hell are you talking about? That makes absolutely no sense.

You can put as much **** on the Desktop as you want, it makes no difference. Nothing will be silently corrupted by being 'refreshed', whatever that even is supposed to mean.

While i disagree with the corruption, it is true that the more stuff you have on your desktop the slower your machine will become.

 

[avalys]

While i disagree with the corruption, it is true that the more stuff you have on your desktop the slower your machine will become.

Technically, I suppose that's true. But the performance decrease is completely insignificant.

An Intel Core 2 Duo is pushing 25 billion operations per second these days. The overheard involved in iterating through a few extra icons on the Desktop is laughably small.

 

[Mal]

What the hell are you talking about? That makes absolutely no sense.

You can put as much **** on the Desktop as you want, it makes no difference. Nothing will be silently corrupted by being 'refreshed', whatever that even is supposed to mean.

No sense, huh?

I'm an Apple Certified Technician. Where I work, we clean up computers that have been rendered unusable by people who insist on keeping several hundreds of documents on their desktops all the time. I've seen first hand the damage caused by it. Sometimes we have to reinstall operating systems, sometimes DiskWarrior will bring them back, but it's always bad for the user.

Even if it wasn't true, no need to get nasty. Did someone stomp on your toys as a child or something?

jW