Detailed searches can be made using the Finder® application on the Mac®®. Searches can range from criteria attached to the file using the Notes feature in AVA, to the number of layers in the document. These searches can be run on your hard drive, connected hard drives and servers. 

Advanced searching in the Finder® Window

1. Open a Finder® Window. 
2. Go to File Menu > Find. Alternatively you can use the keyboard shortcut ⌘F.
3. In the search field that opens, change the ‘Kind’ drop down menu to ‘Other’ 
4. Type AVA into the search bar. A list of searchable criteria for AVA files will appear. Tick them all and click OK.

The listed search criteria will now be updated and will appear in the Kind dropdown menu.

To further extend this list, change Kind to Other again, and tick all of the criteria you wish to be able to search. In the example below, Pixel height and Pixel width have been ticked.

Now select Pixel Width / Height from the drop down menu, and choose whether to search for files equals, is greater than, is less than or is not, for example 6400 pixels. All images which are greater in width than 3500 pixels are shown automatically.

The same process can be carried out to add specific search criteria to the list which relate to, for example, layer names, the number of layers in a file, and the width and height or resolution of files. Enter ‘layer’ or ‘resolution’ into the search field of the search attribute sheet and tick the found items and they will also be added to the standard search list.

Criteria added to the list will remain there, meaning you will not have to add them again in the future.