Automagically organize your files with Hazel

If you can’t seem to keep your files organized and your desktop’s turned into a smelly junkyard, Hazel might help. An ingenius Mac app from Paul Kim, Hazel lets you create and attach rules and actions to any folder on your Mac——even the desktop.

Drag files into a folder or desktop, and Hazel processes and organizes them automatically. Hazel is like Mac OS X’s Folder Actions but on steroids and with an easier-to-use interface.

Setting up rules is simple and straightforward, very much like creating rules in Mail.app. For example, you can create rules to automagically:

• Empty the trash at set intervals
• Move stray files cluttering your desktop to an Inbox folder for processing
• Creates archives of any files placed into a specific folder
• Organize images, disk images, text files into separate folders

If you’re feeling advanced, you can also set up rules to launch Automator workflows and Applescripts to create even more complex actions.

Thanks Paul for sending this over. Sorry it took me so long to write it up.