Hacking OSX Finder SmartFolders

Finder will protect the extension from being changed, and will will not provide any open-in functionality. This means we have to circumvent this with a terminal.

Opening the File

First, navigate to the directory where the saved search is. This is usually cd "$HOME/Library/Saved Searches/".

At this point, you can use one of two ways. You can use simple sed, or you can use cp. If you are like me and want to see it, you can just use cat "./FILENAME.savedSearch".

If you want to view/edit it in an editor, use cp to copy it to another filename, the extension for which should be .plist. Then just open the xml plist file in your favorite plist editor and enjoy. Just remember to copy the .plist back to a .savedSearch.

Hack #1: Changing ANDs to ORs

I found this to be one of the simplest and most useful hacks. By replacing the && with ||, you are making it into an 'or statement'.