Search Enhancement Request

[dpupello]

Is it possible to add the ability to only search the first X characters of a file when performing a search in X2?  (If not, is there a freeware or low-cost shareware utility that contains said sweet feature?).

For instance, say the first 1500 characters (or 100 or whatever amount is set). Or the first say 50 lines of the file.  Or a certain amount of K even.

Here's why this would rock, at least in my case.  I often have to search folders filled with hundreds -- or thousands -- of individual email messages.  These are text files, basically.

BUT... many of them are like 3mb, 5mb, 8mb -- they have giant MP3 or JPG attachments embedded in them.

The important info I'm searching for is always near the header of the file -- near the top.

So if I could set X2 to only search the first say 1500 characters of a file, it would blaze through those huge files instead of having to scan the entirety of each file.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Dennis
dennisfp ( at ) yahoo dot com

[nikos]

this could be an interesting idea
(it isn't possible at present)
if it is just for emails though,, wouldn't you be better off searching within outlook?

[dpupello]

this could be an interesting idea
(it isn't possible at present)
if it is just for emails though,, wouldn't you be better off searching within outlook?

Yes my purpose is mainly to do with emails, but they are not the messages held within the folder structure of Outlook or Outlook Express.  They are the individual mail messages (files ending in .msg) sitting in a set of regular disk folders.

These are the source-code text files of every individual mail message sent by an email server, archived to individual files.

Since there are so many thousands of them, and people insist on attaching 4mb BMP files they scanned at 300dpi of their grocery list , it's a pain to have to search through all the big files when the meaningful data is in the first 5k of each file.  Doh!

Oh well, could be worse.  Could be raining.

Dennis