Making Folders Smarter

Learning to create Smart Folders is critical to using Zoot effectively. Fortunately, it is very easy to do. Suppose you want to create a Smart Folder like the Hot List folder described above, but this time you want the Smart Folder to look for items whose <Status> property equals Follow-up, and you want the Smart Folder to change the color of these items to green.


First create a rule to pull in your follow-up items:

1. In the Folder Tree of your database, create a folder and call it Follow up (or something similar).

2. On the toolbar, click the Smart button and choose Rules from the pop-up menu. Zoot displays the Rules Dialog.

3. Click the small square button [] at the right side of the Field edit box and choose Frequently Used from the pop-up menu. The menu will extend to reveal a variety of frequently used fields. Choose <Status> from the extended menu.

4. Click on the Value drop-down list and choose Follow up.

5. Click the Add button to add this rule to the Rules list box.

Click the OK button to close the Rules Dialog. You have now created a rule which tells the Follow Up folder to assign items whose <Status> value equals Follow Up. Any such items in your database are immediately assigned to the folder.


Now create an action to change the color of these items to green:

1. On the toolbar click the Smart button and choose Actions from the pop-up menu. Zoot displays the Actions Dialog.

2. From the Action drop-down list, choose Modify <Color>, then click on the color bar to choose a color (choose green).

3. Click the Add button to add this action to the Actions list box.

Click the OK button to close the Actions Dialog box. You have created an action which will act upon all items assigned to the Follow Up folder. Actions are performed as soon as an item is assigned (added) to a Smart Folder, so the color of any items currently assigned to the Follow Up folder will immediately change to green.


To see the Follow Up folder in action, try one of the following experiments:

·

Click the New button on the toolbar to create a new item. If the item color is already green, that's because you created the new item directly in the Follow Up folder, so the actions in the folder were triggered immediately. When an item is assigned directly to a folder, any folder actions are triggered immediately, even if the item does not match the folder's rules. If the item color is not green, click the Assign button on the toolbar and double-click the Follow Up folder to add it to the list of assigned folders. Click OK to close the Folder Assignments Dialog.

·

Locate an item in your database not currently assigned to the Follow Up folder. Press Ctrl+M and choose Follow Up from the pop-up menu. The item color changes to green indicating that the item was assigned to the Follow Up folder and its action was triggered. To confirm this, click on the Follow Up folder in the Folder Tree and you should see the item listed.

Look and Learn
One of the best ways to learn about Smart Folders is to look at the ones driving the Desktop Databases that ship with Zoot 4.0. The Tasks database, for example, includes Smart Folders that pick up natural language date expressions you've typed into the subject or body of an item. For instance, in the Tasks database, if you type "call Kevin next Friday, 6:00pm" in the subject or body text of an item, Zoot automatically gives the item a due date of next Friday at 6:00pm. This date parsing is controlled by a Smart Folder in the Tasks database called Find Due Date. This folder is located down below the System folder, in case you want to take a look at it.


The most efficient way to examine the Smart Folders in a database is as follows:

1. Click the Expand button just above the Folder Tree to expand the Folder Tree so that all folders are visible.

2. Right-click the top folder in the Folder Tree and choose Properties from the pop-up menu (or press F7). The Folder Properties Dialog will appear summarizing all of the properties for the folder currently selected in the Folder Tree.

3. Click once on the Folder Tree to set the input focus, then use the UpArrow and DownArrow keys to move among the folders in the Folder Tree. The Folder Properties Dialog will update automatically as you move about the Folder Tree.