How do you edit a saved search (smart folder) in Leopard?

that seems to be impossible. This is definitely an oversight and should certainly be fixed.
However, you CAN search a smart folder from the folder search window just like you do with usual folders. This allows refining the parameters of the original search.
You can save the results of that search as usual.

Leopard has apparently changed the way it searches your computer for smart folders. First of all, there is a serious omission in the the option to restrict the search to selected discs or folders is missing.

APPLE: are you listening? This is a huge problem since now my smart searches find all the backup copies of my files also.

It appears that since this function is no longer available, you have to create a new smart folder in Leopard and redo your searches, which may be impossible (it is for me) for the reason that the search function appears to be crippled.

There are lots of other bugs in Leopard. My recommendation is to go back to Tiger which is what I have done.

You can still do an edit of a Saved Search, but the process seems to be a bit buggy here and there. See my description of the Leopard version of Spotlight here:

http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/Leopard/leospot.html

The key to amending the search is to use the "gear" icon (for Action) that is in the Finder toolbar. If you don't have it in your toolbar, you'll need to add it:

With a Finder window open, select the View menu, then Customize Toolbar and add the Action tool.

The buggy part comes in if you start to type something in the Search for box at the top. As long as you stick to editing stuff in the criteria section it seems to work fine. Well, except any changes you make seem to be preserved, without hitting Save, even if you go to another Saved search or even another place from the Sidebar; when you click your Sidebar Saved Search what shows up is your amended version, you have to open a new window to "revert" to the original. Not sure whether that is a bug or a feature....but it seems a bit odd to me.
Francine


Francine
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Thanks Francine. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do it. I do have to say that the procedure is not exactly transparent.

It's of piece with just about everything else in the GUI for Leopard's Spotlight. The entire GUI is just about as wrong-headed as it can possibly be. When you invoke a search with Command-F from inside a folder it would seem natural to assume that the folder would be where the search is set to happen. BZZZT. No. If you do a search on Date Created it would be pretty clear you would want the results listed by Date Created. BZZZT. No. Indeed, they can't be listed by Created, Modified, nor Size at all, even though those are perfectly normal Finder window options. I could go on, but I'm starting to feel depressed....
Francine


Francine
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