File search steps

[rnfolsom]

I don't know why I hadn't tried to use Xplorer² 1.8.0.13 file search previously, but this morning was my first attempt (as best I can remember), and I failed to get any useful results.

I suspect I was missing some initial settings for the scrap container, but for an hour or more I carefully studied the QuickStart and the also the main manual and failed to find anything about settings for the search information I wanted (described below).  Instead, all of the settings were about limiting my search, which was what I definitely did NOT want to do.

I was in my Win2kSp4 Administrator account.

I took a very simple approach.  I went to Tools, Find files and folders (Ctrl+F), set the Look In field blank, selected Special Folders to Local Hard Drives (there's one physical drive with two partitions), checked Search subfolders, selected Search in depth, and in the Named field entered "wp13us*" (without the quotes) which are the initial characters of WordPerfect's default templates.  I was trying to locate all of WP's default templates (which are customizable) that I had created in gradually importing settings from WordPerfect 12 into WordPerfect 13 (actually it's version X3, but the file names use 13) that I had scattered in various places as I upgraded from WordPerfect 12 to X3.

I left the Containing Text field blank, and left the Additional Rules and Predefined fields blank because, based on my probably wrong understanding of what I had read in the manuals, those fields were intended to limit the search.

I then clicked OK.

My results were simply a list of wp13us files (with their complete names), most of which had different names because I had created them at different stages during my gradual customizations of WordPerfect X3.  But some filenames were identical because I had stored backups of them in different locations.

What I wanted to know, for each file in each location, was its filename, extension, path to each file, and modification and creation dates.

Instead I got only a list of filenames, which was useless to me.  So I used Xplorer²'s dual panes to go to the locations where I remembered storing active and backup template files, and manually rearranged the backup storage locations.  But the whole task would have been a lot simpler if I had been able to start with a list of where the files' initial locations were, and what their characteristics were.

Just now, while in my Restricted (Limited) user account and writing this message, I went through the same procedures described above, because I wanted to be precisely accurate about what I had done.  But this time --- to my astonished surprise --- I got the full list of information I had wanted, as described above.

If anyone can tell me what I omitted doing this morning while in my Administrator account, and what I accidentally did right this evening while in my Restricted User account, I would very much appreciate any clues, or even guesses.

Perhaps the best help would be to tell me where I should be looking -- ideally exactly what topic --- in the Quick Start or Main manuals.

But I will appreciate any help at all.

Roger Folsom

[nikos]

if you can't find something, and assuming this something exists, there can be two things

either you are looking at the wrong place
or your search criteria are not what you intend to search for

rather than hypothesize, have a look at the demo videos here and see if you grasp the operation any better
www.zabkat.com/tour3.htm

[fgagnon]

@ Instead I got only a list of filenames... -

In that first case, it sounds to me like you had the view style set to "List" when you wanted "Details".  

Use the Views toolbar button, or [Ctrl+Alt+V] to access the View style choices.

[rnfolsom]

@ Instead I got only a list of filenames... -
In that first case, it sounds to me like you had the view style set to "List" when you wanted "Details".  
Use the Views toolbar button, or [Ctrl+Alt+V] to access the View style choices.

That wasn't the problem.

Today I went back into my Administrator account and opened Xplorer².  When I got the scrap container for searching, my understanding was (and still is) that View > Select Columns (Alt+K) should give me the scrap container columns I needed, but Alt+K did nothing.

So I dragged a file into the scrap container.  For some reason, that woke the scrap container up, and it now listed the columns I had expected: filename, extension, modification date, path, etc.

In the scrap container I then deleted the file I had dragged into it, ran a search, and in the columns that now were there I got all the information I needed  --- in Details view.

One odd thing is that this was the first scrap container I had opened, and it was number #2. What #1 was, or where it was located, I know not.
In my Administrator and my User accounts, in a newly opened Xplorer² (with no other Xplorer² open), the first scrap container always is #2 rather than #1.  Weird, but not a serious problem.

Nikos recommends the tours, but I didn't find any discussion of how to get a scrap container to have columns, other than using View > Select Columns (Alt+K), which for me initially didn't work.

On reflection, I suspect that the reason the original search (yesterday morning) didn't work in my Administrator account, but later (yesterday afternoon) did work in my User account, is that probably I had never before used Xplorer² to search while in my Administrator account.  Usually the files I am searching for are data files, and for that I wouldn't ever have had to be in my Administrator account.  But yesterday was different, because I needed to compare details for active and backed up program files (WordPerfect templates).

Roger Folsom

[Kilmatead]

In my Administrator and my User accounts, in a newly opened Xplorer² (with no other Xplorer² open), the first scrap container always is #2 rather than #1.  Weird, but not a serious problem.

Nikos recommends the tours, but I didn't find any discussion of how to get a scrap container to have columns, other than using View > Select Columns (Alt+K), which for me initially didn't work.

These aspects, whilst perhaps obscure to divine (what inhabits the Greek soul?), are perfectly normal.  Scrap containers start at #2 as you may consider the scrap pane (in the primary x2 window) View -> Mini Scrap to be scrap #1, whether you use it actively or not, it's always there.

As regards columns, as you discovered, you can't define a permanent layout for scrap containers until you have at least one item within one.  Once you have included an object, define the columns as you wish, and (in the main x2 window) select Actions -> Save settings now to preserve those settings for future searches, which will then be the default for found objects - this even extends to having each scrap container as dual pane (should you so desire), etc.

Ironically, while these things aren't exactly rocket science (they are quite simple once you get the hang of it), Nikos didn't really seem to have designed some aspects of x2 with user-friendliness in mind - only productivity - so (to counter my rhetorical query above) "intuition" does not seem to be part of his Greek conception of the soul.    Consider what would happen if he were to tackle Transubstantiation - we'd probably drown in (endlessly productive) rivulets of blood and wine, making the vicissitudes of scrap-container divination child's-play by comparison.

Persevere, and you'll get the hang of it.  Scrap Containers, at the end of the day, are much more than mere places to display search results, though that's convenient too.

[rnfolsom]

Kilmatead:

Thanks for explaining the obvious (except to me) that the Mini Scrap is Scrap #1, even though it's a bit different from #2 and up.  I've used Scrap containers before for several simple uses in addition to search, but somehow I had never noticed before that the first one was #2.

As for the rest of your message, thanks for clarifying the reasons for the results that I had stumbled upon earlier today.  They were very useful, especially your paragraph

As regards columns, as you discovered, you can't define a permanent layout for scrap containers until you have at least one item within one.  Once you have included an object, define the columns as you wish, and (in the main x2 window) select Actions -> Save settings now to preserve those settings for future searches, which will then be the default for found objects - this even extends to having each scrap container as dual pane (should you so desire), etc.

And thanks for your humor.  Reading your message was a great ending to my very long day (it's 22:35 in California USA).

Roger Folsom