As noted in the Basic Users Manual, the Criteria Dialog is divided into three sections. We will look at the three sections independently, starting with the Criteria section:
At the very top of this section is a checkbox that turns Criteria on and off named Use Attribute Criteria. If you turn Criteria on by checking this checkbox, you must also select one of the radio buttons to the right of the checkbox to tell MacUpdate whether you want the Criteria applied to files, folders, or both files and folders.
Using the Files Only options results in all folders being processed, but only the files that meet the specified Criteria within those folders will be synchronized.
Using the Folders Only option means that only folders that meet the specified Criteria will be processed. All of the files in any folder that meets Criteria will be synchronized. This is useful, for example, if you append at the end of folders to be updated the text ".BACKUP". Then all files in any folder that ends with ".BACKUP" will be synchronized.
Using the Both option means that both the file to be synchronized and it's parent (containing) folder must meet Criteria in order to have MacUpdate synchronize the file.
The two checkboxes at the bottom of this section, Re-Apply Criteria to Sub-Folders of Folders that meet Criteria, and Exclude all Sub-Folders in any Folder that does not meet Criteria, are only enabled if the Folders Only or Both option are chosen. If one of these two options are chosen, it means that Criteria will be applied to Folders. In this case, MacUpdate needs to know a little bit more information about how to process Folders that do and do not meet Criteria.
Here's the basic gist of it: Let's say you are using Criteria as shown in the picture above (Name ends with .BACKUP, applied to Folders Only). Now imagine you have a folder named "MyStuff.BACKUP". Inside of this folder, you keep many files, and other sub-folders with all your important data. Let's also say that the sub-folders in "MyStuff.BACKUP" do *not* have the ".BACKUP" extension on them. What should MacUpdate do? There are two possibilities: (1) Re-Apply the Criteria to the sub-folders. In this case, the sub-folders would *not* be synchronized, becuase they do not meet the Criteria that was (re-)applied. (2) Don't re-apply the Criteria, and just go ahead and synchronize the sub-folders, since the parent folder met Criteria.
The other side of this dilemma is what to do when a folder does *not* meet Criteria: Should MacUpdate: (1) exclude all sub-folders within the folder that did not meet Criteria (even if some of the sub-folders meet Criteria), or (2) continue processing sub-folders in case a sub-folder that *does* meet Criteria is found? Your answer to that question will determine whether or not you check the Exclude all Sub-Folders in any Folder that does not meet Criteria checkbox.
Criteria Type
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Shown below is the Criteria Type popup menu:
This menu lets you choose exactly what you want MacUpdate to look at when evaluating Criteria. Name and Label are particularly useful. Note there is an editable text section where you enter the actual Criteria you are looking for. In the example above, this is filled in with ".BACKUP", so any folders whose name ends in ".BACKUP" will be included in synchronization. If you use the Lock Criteria Type, there is no editable text. You just chose either "Locked" or "Unlocked" from the Criteria Qualifier popup menu.
Criteria Qualifier
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Each Criteria Type has it's own Criteria Qualifier popup menu. The Criteria Qualifier popup menus are shown below:
Menu 1 is for Name, 2 is for Size, 3 is for Kind and Comments, 4 is for Label, 5 is for Date Created, Date Modified, and Version, and 6 is for Lock.
If you use the Label Criteria Type, the editable text is replaced with the Label popup menu. Note that the Label colors are not reflected in this menu, only the Label names. The Label popup menu is shown below:
By using the Label Criteria Type, you can color-code the items you want to be synchronized with a particular label, and let MacUpdate do the rest. Any items that are not labeled with your specified label will be skipped. Only the items labeled with your specified label will be synchronized.
Type Filter
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The next section is the Type Filter Section:
If Any Type is selected, all the other options in this section are disabled. To use the Type Filter, you have to select Only Specified, and then one of either Include or Exclude. The Type Filter can be set up to either ignore (Exclude) or process (Include) files that are in the type list. The Type List shows the types that are in the Type Filter on the right-hand side of this section.
Types and Creator Codes
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You can remove a type by selecting it in the Type List, and clicking on the Remove button. When you click on the Add button to add a new type, you will be presented with the Type Creator Specification Dialog, shown below:
If you're a power user, you may already know about Types and Creator Codes. If not, here's a quick overview:
Each program on your Mac has a Creator Code associated with it. For the files that an application creates, it sets the files' Creator Code to the program's Creator Code. For example, TeachText's Creator Code (from the picture above) is 'ttxt'. Other examples include MS Word ('MSWD') and MS Excel ('XCEL'). Notice Types and Creator Codes are always 4 characters, no more, no less. The Type code is used by a program to identify the different kinds of file types the program interacts with. For example, MS Word knows about text files ('TEXT'), MS Word files ('WDBN'), it's own preference file ('PREF'), dictionaries ('DICT'), and lots of others. Each combination of Type and Creator Code has it's own icon associated with it in the Mac's Desktop Database.
OK, enough of the overview. There is lots more information on Types and Creator Codes at other locations (check Apple's WWW site as a good place to start).
If you know the Type and Creator Code you are interested in Including or Excluding, you can just type them right it. If you don't know the codes off-hand, or if all of this discussion of codes seems like mumbo jumbo, you should use the Select File button, which will let you select a "sample" file and extract the Type and Creator Code from the file you select.
So, for example, if you want to exclude Netscape Cache files, Add a new Type to the Type Filter, and when you get to the Type Creator Specification Dialog, click on Select File and then find one of those Netscape Cache files that you want to exclude. MacUpdate will automatically figure out the Type and Creator code when you select the file.
Global Settings
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The bottom section is the Global Settings Section:
The bottom section contains "global" settings for what to process. The Include Folder checkbox should be checked unless you do NOT want to synchronize sub-folders from a folder Pair (only the files located directly in the folder Pair). The Include Files checkbox should ALWAYS be checked, unless you just want to duplicate a directory structure, without actually copying any files, or you only want to synchronize folder custom icons, or folder information.
The Include Invisibles checkbox should be un-checked unless you want to process invisible items (they will remain invisible in the Destination). The Exclude Empty Folders checkbox defaults to being checked. This is useful if you have Loner folders on a Source, and you are using Criteria: if nothing in the Loner folder meets the specified Criteria, the folder will still be created on the Destination, even though it will be empty (since no items from the folder on the Source met Criteria). Checking the Exclude Empty Folders checkbox will delete these folders that are created, but have no items in them that match Criteria.
Notice you can save Criteria Settings to disk (the Save As... button) and open them up at a later time (the Open... button). This can be a real timesaver if you use the same complicated criteria on multiple Pairs.
