Multiple source smart folder

I don't think there is a way in the GUI. However, you can edit the saved search with a Text editor or Property List Editor and add any number of paths, theoretically (I only tried adding one).

The search paths are in an array called: FXScopeArrayOfPaths
You can add strings within that array block.

<string>/Users/myName/AnotherFolder</string>

Property List Editor is part of Developer Tools. If you didn't install that, go download Textwrangler and use that to edit the file. Create a new smart folder and save it. Then, navigate to where it was saved (most likely your Library/Saved Searches/) and ctrl-Click on the file and select Open With… You can then choose to open the file with another program.

Or you could downgrade upgrade to a more familiar experience and install "Tiger" (10.4) which allowed multiple folders to be searched simultaneously through the "Other" option...

yeah i miss this Tiger feature a lot, I've sent feedback to apple asking for it to be re added.

does anyone know how you could do this with a Raw Query

biovizier wrote:
Or you could {...} install "Tiger" (10.4) which allowed multiple folders to be searched simultaneously through the "Other" option...

Except that Tiger's version never worked with networked drives. The Leopard version does ... kind of. (It isn't reliable & sometimes finds things only if you search in the folder that has the item but not if you search in the overall "Shared" location.)

Face it, neither version is all that great. 😟

Neither is all that great, agreed, but I doubt you will find many people who would consider the GUI of the 10.5 version to be an improvement. Equating the two downplays the infuriating arbitrary loss of usability, in spite of the improvements in the back end. Who, if anyone, is in charge of approving these changes?

Oh, and to clarify, I thought it was obvious that I was responding to this part of the OP's question:
..." Since we are on the subject is it possible to have it search multiple folders without selecting a common parent folder such as This Mac?'...

The kMDItemPath attribute cannot be used to search or sort, so no.

so there is absolutely no way to do search in several locations other than by editing the search file as you suggested?

Tigers version worked great in certain situations, for instance if you had lots of folders with the same name you could do a search for that name then add the results to the "others" list and use that as a starting point to search within these folders

None that I know of. When I was looking at the Saved Search I wanted to use for searching both my startup drive and my Data drive I used Property List Editor and added the path to my Data drive in both the RawQueryDict->Search Scopes field and in SearchCriteria->FXCriteriaSlices->FXScopeArrayOfPaths, since I didn't know which one REALLY controlled things. I set it up to search by name matches "xyz" and keep it in the Sidebar. I can change the criteria when I bring it up by going to the Action toolbar icon, select "Show Search Criteria" then change to the name I want to search and make any other mods (such as Kind: Images, size, and so on). Works pretty good, actually, and is just as fast as the method in Tiger where you went to the Other place menulet and added something. Of course, there is still the aggravation of the column arrangement defaulting to "Last Opened" being selected.... Gad, what kind of a mind thought "Last Opened" would be anyone's first choice for any kind of search at all times? Or even EVER?
Francine


Francine
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thanks, Francine.
They should definitely bring this option back to GUI. It's still there under the hood and I can't find a reasonable (or, in fact, any) explanation why it was taken out.