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TheGreatButcher · May 9, 2005, 12:03 AM

I am extremely frustrated with the search options in Tiger. There are times where I don't want a Google style "close enough" search and want to search based only on filename contents. I have my external FireWire hard disk plugged in and on one partition it is failing to find most of the file names in even the root directory. Can anyone help with this - am I doing something wrong here?

:dragonflypro: · May 9, 2005, 01:26 AM

There is still standard cmd-F in the Finder as there was before and you can choose "Others" and you will get search options like the old "Specific Places"

Effectively, Find was rolled into a Finder window rather than the plain frame that was there before.

Also, I did notice the first time i plugged in a FW drive Spotlight went to index it. I suppose that could be affecting the result in the quick Spotlight search.

T

TheGreatButcher · May 9, 2005, 01:33 AM

I was using Command-F as well, and that made no difference. It worked with the first partition fine, the second partition it found some files, not others. Very unreliable - behaves more like Windows' search function

bmedina · May 9, 2005, 01:53 AM

1) When you hit Command-F in Finder, choose "Other..." from the first pop-down menu. You'll get all kinds of options. You can even perform a raw query (like you would from the command line), giving you access to Boolean logic and grouping.
2) Along the top row, choose "Others..." instead of "Computer". Then you can specifically tell it which drive to search. If it still isn't finding things on that drive, it may not be finished indexing that partition. You can also force a rebuild of the index for that drive. Use Spotlight's Privacy preferences to turn off indexing of that drive, then turn it back on.

zoe77 · May 10, 2005, 02:46 AM

hate spotlight.. slow and useless... the fact that I have to now manually choose Find by Name *every single time* i want to do a simple filename-based search is crazy. Panther was so much zippier in this aspect.

step · May 10, 2005, 04:01 AM

i agree, it's like getting the car out of the garage just to go around the corner!
it locks up everytime i start to write out a keyword, i don't need this stuff to happen live!
give me a "go"button and stop trying to guess what i want after two blinking letters!
i'm switching to pathfinder

warnergt · Jul 13, 2005, 10:39 AM

I HATE this friggen' search utility that came with Tiger.
It starts searching before I type the entire name in.
It won't let me complete typing the name until
it does a certain amount of searching.
It finds all kind of crap that I don't want only
to remove most of it after I am finally able to
finish typing in the string I am really looking for.

APPLE, GET RID OF THIS STUPID SEARCH UTILITY!
Give us back the old search.

TheGreatButcher · Jul 13, 2005, 11:34 AM

I don't think you're understanding

I have used the "Others" feature, I have told it specifically to search on one drive, and I have forced reindexing, and I have the same problems. It is inherent to the program

step · Jul 13, 2005, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by TheGreatButcher

I don't think you're understanding

I have used the "Others" feature, I have told it specifically to search on one drive, and I have forced reindexing, and I have the same problems. It is inherent to the program

tiger just CAN'T do this, you're not doing anything wrong, basic "cmd f" finding has been replaced by spotlight...and spotlight is unpredictable, if you want to be SURE to find something that you know is there somewhere, then you'll have to use a third party freeware like " easyfind" http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11076
it's good though, works a charm

spotlight actually works pretty well in mail and address book, it's just useless for finding files!!

mAxximo · 12:25 PM

Silly me, I was hoping 10.4.2 would fix this pathetic Spotlight behaviour. I got a Widget Manager instead, big deal. I refuse having to index all my external FW drives and backup DVDs to just be able to find by name. WTF is that? Screw Find by Content, all I need is a regular search. Too much to ask from the “Most Advanced OS in the World”, apparently.

Detrius · Jul 13, 2005, 11:28 PM

Originally Posted by step

...spotlight actually works pretty well in mail and address book, it's just useless for finding files!!

I keep having problems in mail on two different computers... it won't search by content. I noticed on one of the computers that somehow, indexing got turned off on all of my volumes. I turned it back on (via the command line), and spotlight worked like a charm for a day or two. Then, I noticed yesterday that they were all turned off again... had to turn it back on.

Spotlight definitely needs some work. When I can't find e-mails without looking by hand, something is wrong.

GENERAL_SMILEY · Jul 14, 2005, 07:09 AM

I hate to be the sort of person who comes on to message boards, and says it all works fine here - but I don't really understand the problem.

When I type in spotlight, even the little corner thing, a word like "CV' I get the file I'm looking for, admittedly it's grouped in PDFs at the bottom, but it's clear enough, and at least as fast as the old file search.

At worst you might have to put it in inverted commas, like when I type "fla" because there are so many files on the system which include those letters.

Could you not make an applescript / automator application which performed all the necessary set ups for your spotlight search, then hotkey your tiny app?

skytalon · Jul 14, 2005, 10:23 AM

TheGreatButcher, you're not the only one. I hate the search. It's too slow espeically when I need to search for images on another server. I usually have to send cds or process images into web ready images to send out to the dealers for their needs.

It's just not right. I searched for other apps to do the search for you but they won't include network servers. I want to search a certain server you know?

GENERAL_SMILEY, I like the spotlight-- but it's useless if you need to search for the images that is not housed on your own hard drive. Our image archive is too big to be stored on a individual computer. Spotlight is useless on my work computer but I do use it alot on my own iBook.

GENERAL_SMILEY · Jul 14, 2005, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by skytalon

TheGreatButcher
GENERAL_SMILEY, I like the spotlight-- but it's useless if you need to search for the images that is not housed on your own hard drive. Our image archive is too big to be stored on a individual computer. Spotlight is useless on my work computer but I do use it alot on my own iBook.

I know you are probably well versed in these things - but if searching for images on networked servers, or removable drives, I would try something like Cumulus. It's been awhile since I used it, (in the end it didn't meet our needs, so we wrote our own intranet web based image browser) but I would be surprised if it isn't capable of doing what you ask.

Horsepoo!!! · Jul 14, 2005, 10:44 AM

I don't think there's any instance where I searched for a file name and it didn't display as the "Top Hit".

The file name has precedence over everything else. If you typed something that resembles the file name, there's very little reason why it wouldn't be the Top Hit.

Randman · Jul 14, 2005, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by zoe77

hate spotlight.. slow and useless... the fact that I have to now manually choose Find by Name *every single time* i want to do a simple filename-based search is crazy.

You have gone into Preferences > Spotlight and sorted the search order and set other criteria for searches?

You have, haven't you?

I search text first, email second and images third so I set those as my first three items. Others, such as fonts, I turned off because I already have a font-management plan in place.

mAxximo · Jul 14, 2005, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Randman

You have gone into Preferences > Spotlight and sorted the search order and set other criteria for searches?

Sort the search order, check. Now setting other criteria for searches, where's that?

Horsepoo!!! · 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by mAxximo

Sort the search order, check. Now setting other criteria for searches, where's that?

Remove your blinders.

You can tell Spotlight to not search for Fonts, or Preference panels, or whatever you never search for that would otherwise make the search result list tedious to go through.

You can also tell Spotlight to not search certain folders or entire drives.

If you only put your Home folder and remove your Library folder from Spotlight search, it would be extremely hard *not* to find the file you're searching for provided you type in something that is actually in the file name.

Do you even have Mac OS 10.4? You may put your blinders back on. Here, there's some hay for you to munch on.

iREZ · Jul 14, 2005, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by mAxximo

I refuse having to index all my external FW drives and backup DVDs to just be able to find by name

there's a way to do this?

mAxximo · Jul 14, 2005, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

Remove your blinders.

You can tell Spotlight to not search for Fonts, or Preference panels, or whatever you never search for that would otherwise make the search result list tedious to go through.

You can also tell Spotlight to not search certain folders or entire drives.

If you only put your Home folder and remove your Library folder from Spotlight search, it would be extremely hard *not* to find the file you're searching for provided you type in something that is actually in the file name.

Do you even have Mac OS 10.4? You may put your blinders back on. Here, there's some hay for you to munch on.

I was talking to your dad. Now shut up and go to bed, fool.

eddiecatflap · Jul 14, 2005, 03:34 PM

there's no need to be rude

i got flamed for saying search was crap in tiger

at least now i feel vindicated

Randman · Jul 14, 2005, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by mAxximo

Sort the search order, check. Now setting other criteria for searches, where's that?

Do a kind search or a date search. for instance, you can type in "last week" and only get items modified or added in the last week. If you type in January, 26, 2005, you would only get items modified or added on that day (or mentioned in a text document or email, as well).

You can also type in kind:images and get images. kind:documents only shows documents.

Finally, you can combine all of these into customizing the search anyway you want it. Apple really needed to explain the functions a little better (Mac Help does help, btw), but once you learn a few tricks, it is amazingly powerful and helpful.

mAxximo · Jul 14, 2005, 05:08 PM

Got you. No, I knew about the boolean stuff but I thought you were saying some of those options were also in Preferences. Like for example an “always look for filenames, forget about content” sort of thing. That would be really handy...for me at least.

skytalon · Jul 15, 2005, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by GENERAL_SMILEY

I know you are probably well versed in these things - but if searching for images on networked servers, or removable drives, I would try something like Cumulus. It's been awhile since I used it, (in the end it didn't meet our needs, so we wrote our own intranet web based image browser) but I would be surprised if it isn't capable of doing what you ask.

Oh, we tried Cumulus.. did not work out too well.

Now it's abandoned. Poo.

tombless · Jul 16, 2005, 09:33 PM

What about working with zillions of css and js files and being unable to find them by contents?

The funniest part is my workaround: I installed Win98 on Virtual PC. I move the folders there, do my search (F3, *css, "whateverIneed") and voilá. Then I open the "sister" files on my Mac, althought they'r no more "grouped", which, again, sucks.

And, by the way, on Win98 I can EASILY move the shortcuts I need to the "send to" folder, and they all appear on right-click. How the hell do I do that on OSX? Right-click + open with + "other" + scroll down until "text edit" (for instance) and double click...
No, please, no "enable folder actions" or "automator"!! They SOLD ME the gorgeous world of Apple as "you don't need to be a programmer to do every basic task"... well... search inside css files, or having the programs I want on my right-click seem quite basic to me...

It's a shame that OSX can still be beaten by Win98 in 2 such basic tasks. All that Mac-pride sucks, sorry.

Randman · Jul 17, 2005, 01:16 AM

Kind:css should do it. You can also set preferences to show the applications/folders you need first. You can always turn the spotlight criteria off for what you don't need (though Apple F searches will still access all data).

Don't blame Apple when the problem exists on operator error.

tombless · 08:09 PM

Excuse me if I didn't explain myself, but I thought it was obvious:
0. I'm looking for css files containing certain words. Searching contents. (Spotlight and Finder)
1. Of course "Kind:css"
2. Of course, then, "contents:whateverImLookingfor"
3. Of course no results

I don't get what you mean with "operator". But I definitely blame Apple if they can't offer me the easy, basic search that I could do 7 years ago (Win98, remember?) on "the ridiculous platform". The pride of Apple, the continuous "poor Wintel users" and that kind of arrogance is what makes me (anyone) being harsh. Wouldn't Apple evangelists be so, wouldn't my expectations be so high.
And, well, searching like an old Win98 doesn't seem a high expectation to me.

PS: you get quite "unfriendly" when people is pissed with Spotlight... It ain't personal, ok? Just the "greatest OS ever. Again" has "the worst searching engine. Ever"