Variables are data about files that you can use when creating rules
This can be metadata about the file like file name, size and modification date. It can also be a piece of data extracted from the contents of a document. Read more about using contents from files.
You can use variables when building conditions (If file size is larger than X) or when running actions (rename to file size).
Some variables variables require configuration, like variables that contain information from the contents of a document. You must define what File Juggler should look for and where in the document. Variables like file name, extension, size and many others cannot be configured. Configurable variables have a dark blue color and a settings icon when used, while regular variables have a light blue color.
Some variables can be defined and configured by you. For example, when using date variables you can configure the format of the date that File Juggler should use. This allows you to use a complete date in the file name of a file, or use the month name to sort files in folders named with the month they were created.
Word list with all beatles members
Dictionary with beatles' band members
Word list and dictionaries can be used to simplify setup in cases where you would use several words in the same way. For example a wordlist "if file contents contains John or Paul or George or Ringo move file to John or Paul or George or Ringo". See a wordlist example.
Dictionaries look for one word but uses another, so you could do "if file contents contains John, Paul, George or Ringo move file to Beatles". See a dictionary example.
You can use patterns and regular expressions to find and use custom snippets of data from documents.
Regular expressions is a syntax for searching and retrieving text snippets in larger texts. It's very powerful for finding custom text patterns in your documents, but it's difficult to understand and use.
Patterns can achieve some of the same complexity without attempting to grasp regex.
Read more about patterns and regular expressions and see some examples.
The variables that can be used to extract words from documents all have a few extra settings that can be used to specify more precisely what you are looking for in the document.
You can use occurrence to select the position of the text you are searching for in the document. Say you are looking for a date in a document and the document contains several dates.
You can also specify a text that should appear right before or after the result you are looking for. If for example a phone number is written like "phone: 123456789" you can write "phone:".
Use the preview see what the current settings find in the text of a document. You can either paste text into the preview window or open a file and load the text.