Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rutgers!ucsd!nosc!humu!uhccux!mikem
From: mikem@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Mike Morton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Finder proposal: "Select by..."
Keywords: Finder icon select criteria
Message-ID: <2712@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 88 05:11:46 GMT
Organization: University of Hawaii
Lines: 32


As long as we're helping Apple redesign the Finder, I have a request:

I'd like a "Select by..." menu item, probably below "Select All".  It would
let you select by Unix-like criteria.  Choosing the menu item would bring
up a dialog, allowing you to enter criteria for:
     * minimum and maximum length or modification time
     * file type (folder, APPL, document, name of owning application)
     * name restrictions, using [shudder] wildcards

Restrictions left blank are ignored; others are ANDed together.  When you
click "OK", the icons in the active window meeting these criteria are
selected.

Multiple selection is done with a checkbox named something like "Add to
current selection".  Of course, holding down Shift while selecting the
menu item would make the dialog appear with this option checked.  (This
is how you OR together multiple criteria.)

This feature isn't useful for everyone, but it makes a few tasks much
easier:
     * quick backups (select modification date greater than...)
     * copy all my Word documents written in September
     * a sort of View by Suffix, for files ending in ".p" or ".c" or...
(Perhaps this would be a bit too weird, but a toggled command in the
View menu could bring selected items to the top of the window, when
viewing by Name, Date, Size, etc...)

Comments?  Refinement?  Denunciations?

 -- Mike Morton // P.O. Box 11378, Honolulu, HI  96828, (808) 676-6966 HST
      Internet: msm@ceta.ics.hawaii.edu
    (anagrams): Mr. Machine Tool; Ethical Mormon; Chosen Immortal; etc.