There's a difference, it would seem, between swap files being created, and swap files being used.
Some *nix systems immediately create a swap file that's the same size as installed RAM on boot, even if it isn't used. I'm not quite sure what the logic of that is.
The most relevant figure, which you can see with tools like top or MemMeter, is not swap files per se, but pageouts. If the number of pageouts isn't 0, the system is in fact using that virtual memory.
Right now, I have one swap file that's 1 GB in size, but it's not being used; I'm showing 0 pageouts. My laptop has 16 GB of memory, of which 1.45 GB is free and 5.75 GB is inactive (meaning it can be used if necessary).
