Question - Find Files

jgt1942 · Post by **jgt1942** » 2009 Feb 14, 08:01

I've been attempting to use the Tools > Find Files function and don't know if I'm just using it incorrectly or it does not work for me. About once a month or so I download 1,000s of files from various news groups using the Agent Newsreader application. All of the files are downloaded into a Agent-Temp folder. What I need to do is open a search window, type my desired search string and find all files that have this string. So far the X2 function will do this. Now I want to enter a new search string and find another set of files in the Agent-Temp folder. It seems that it is necessary for me to open a new X2 Find Files window to run another search against my Agent-Temp folder. Is this correct or am I doing something wrong.

It also seem that the performance of X2 is slower then the function I'm currently using. I need to move to a new function as I move to 64 bit OS, my current application only runs on 32 bit OS.

Post by **nikos** » 2009 Feb 14, 08:27

there are many issues here. If you are searching in a single folder you don't even need find, just do a ctrl+G (search for text) or alt+G (super mark)

the speed of the search will depend on many factors. If you are looking into pure text files clearing "search non-text files too" checkbox will speed things significantly

Mr.Pleasant · Post by **Mr.Pleasant** » 2009 Feb 14, 11:10

It seems that it is necessary for me to open a new X2 Find Files window to run another search against my Agent-Temp folder.

You can uncheck 'Local search' in the 'Find files or folders' dialog to do a new search in the old Find Files window. (Previous search results will be gone, though)

jgt1942 · Post by **jgt1942** » 2009 Feb 15, 00:22

nikos wrote:there are many issues here. If you are searching in a single folder you don't even need find, just do a ctrl+G (search for text) or alt+G (super mark)

the speed of the search will depend on many factors. If you are looking into pure text files clearing "search non-text files too" checkbox will speed things significantly

I'm searching for filenames, I'm not searching within the file (example - I have 1,000 files in my Agent-Temp folder and I want to see all files that have "sebold" in the filename) . When I do the Ctrl+G and search I get no hits or none that I can see (I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong). If I do Alt+G I do get hits but I only want to see the hits in the search.

With the current application I'm using, once I search and see only the filenames that match my search (I don't have to enter the full filename, just part will work) I then select all of the files, cut and paste them into the new desired folder which is on another drive.

jgt1942 · Post by **jgt1942** » 2009 Feb 15, 00:26

Mr.Pleasant wrote:You can uncheck 'Local search' in the 'Find files or folders' dialog to do a new search in the old Find Files window. (Previous search results will be gone, though)

AH - this is VERY close to what I want!

jgt1942 · Post by **jgt1942** » 2009 Feb 15, 00:30

In the search results window I have two panes, the one on the left has all the info about the files found and the one on the right is totally blank. What is the window on the right for? Can I eliminate it? I cannot find anything in the user manual that explains the results window.

Post by **nikos** » 2009 Feb 15, 04:34

if you don't need the 2nd pane in a scrap window just close it from View > Dual pane menu

if you are looking only for filenames and if your files are in a single folder, the easiest way to mark files is to use Mark > Quicksearch, typing : then part of the filename you are after, then all matching files will be selected. If you press shift+enter, only matching files will show

ScottWall · Post by **ScottWall** » 2009 Feb 19, 15:42

If you only want to see the files that you are searching for in the current directory, you can use View > Visual Filters > Wild Card.
All other files will be hidden.

jgt1942 · Post by **jgt1942** » 2009 Mar 20, 04:04

When I tried the View > Visual Filters > Wild Card nothing was presented. The search window disappeared and nothing replaced it.

BRX · Post by **BRX** » 2009 Mar 20, 11:30

jgt1942 wrote:In the search results window I have two panes, the one on the left has all the info about the files found and the one on the right is totally blank. What is the window on the right for? Can I eliminate it? I cannot find anything in the user manual that explains the results window.

Maybe you don't want to eliminate it. Did you try this?

Start a search in your agent-temp dir.
Drag the results with the mouse into the other pane, delete the results from the original pane, do another search from the now empty scrap pane, repeat if needed.

ScottWall · Post by **ScottWall** » 2009 Mar 20, 16:16

jgt1942 wrote:When I tried the View > Visual Filters > Wild Card nothing was presented. The search window disappeared and nothing replaced it.

Could you be more specific? What do you mean by "nothing was presented"?

Selecting V>VF>WC in a scrap pane, should give you a single field dialog where you can enter something like *.jpg to show only image files. You can change the filter to something else, e.g., *.mp3 to show audio files, without doing another search.