[Solved] Browse Flat & Autofilter Folders

[Kilmatead]

What I want to see for the Folder Whacker Test folder is 80 folders named folder01 thru folder80 and 80 text files named New File.txt in a scrap pane

I know that - although we already discerned that Browse Flat will not show you the subfolders under any conditions (I thought you knew that), so I was just verifying that x2 does not "fail" after <x> subfolder recursions. This is the reason I keep telling you not to use flatten!

You need to do a proper <Ctrl+F> search on your folder from within the main x2 window. Browse into the base of your whacker folder. Hit <Ctrl+F>. Enter *? in the "Named" field and go forth to conquer the dark continent. That's it. Done. Dusted. Out to pasture.

This is what we've been saying since the very beginning! (If you hadn't so easily dismissed my little utility, we have had this solved a week ago and been drinking poorly-made piña-coladas and getting into fights with the locals in a dive-bar in Mombassa by now!)

The filterbox is just that - it filters what is already available/displayed - it does not initiate a new discovery search.

[RightPaddock]

You need to do a proper <Ctrl+F> search on your folder from within the main x2 window. Browse into the base of your whacker folder. Hit <Ctrl+F>. Enter *? in the "Named" field and go forth to conquer the dark continent. That's it. Done. Dusted. Out to pasture.

This is what we've been saying since the very beginning!

That is the first mention in this thread of Ctrl/F which the shortcut for F I N D - F I L E S

I think both you and Nikos referred to S E A R C H and as far as I can see the only poster in the thread who used the word - F I N D - in a post was me.

The Tools->Fast Search does nothing in Pro, I can set the filter box to Search but I don't think it means much in Pro either

I have never used X2's Find Files until now - and yes I got exactly what I wanted.

Thanks RP

[Kilmatead]

This thread got to two pages because of semantics? That's gotta be some kind of record. This is exactly why old people dislike hip-hop "music" so much - just when you get a hint of a melody going, BAM! the whole thing goes to pot.

I was an accomplice in my own frustration.

In Mombassa, the little umbrellas they put in drinks are shaped just like AK47's. No mistake.

[nikos]

I can set the filter box to Search but I don't think it means much in Pro either

not quite, it does work. If you have nothing ticked in the search box submenu, it starts a search by NAME under the current folder. If you have Text contents ticked, it tries to match either name or text contents. FInally with "all properties" it will try to find your keyword in any of the text columns you have showing in x2. It works best for a single keyword searched

(note and reminder to self)
Tools > Fast search on the other hand (ultimate version) does multiple keywords in the AND fashion on some text attributes fixed in the advanced settings editor

[Kilmatead]

You know, speaking of that, isn't there some way for x2 to know that if a filter like "*?" has been used, it doesn't popup that damned "Didn't find your toes? Click here for dieting advice" message? Essentially, if everything that was possible to be found in the structure was found, that message is meaningless and just makes you feel like you're missing something you're not.

Just a thought from the lost chamber of x2 ergonomics.

[nikos]

desktop search is never 100% reliable. For example if you have some symbolic links they won't be found even when you search for *.*

[Kilmatead]

Well, isn't that interesting. Mount-Point reparse-points do show up, but junctions and symlinks don't. Nothin' like a tear in the condom to ruin a good evening. Bummer.

[Kilmatead]

I was rather of thinking of something along the lines of collating the Contents [S] column as each folder is parsed, then compared to the number of items found - if they match, it's Casablanca time, no? Crude but effective.

I mention it simply because as I said above I stopped using Flatten a long time ago in favour of *? to get a proper flattening, and seeing that message daily really tins my coins. (And, it would appear, I'm going to have to add an extra attribute 'J' check to my default search rule too!)

[Kilmatead]

(And, it would appear, I'm going to have to add an extra attribute 'J' check to my default search rule too!)

Eek! That doesn't work either. Just when I was getting used to the benefits of desktop search, you throw a spanner in the works.

As a point of procedure, shouldn't Desktop-Search-By-Default (from <Ctrl+F>) be disabled if "extra-funky" rules are detected in the parameters? Fine for plain old named-searches, but it seems to me that if I explicitly set extra-curricular rules that should automatically disable desktop for that round as it probably wouldn't be even functionally able to find what I want!

x2 needs better AI.

[RightPaddock]

This thread got to two pages because of semantics?

Is that not what the the 'net is about - discussions on semen ticks and sin taxes?

IMO the problem was one of perception (semantics if you will), I saw my need as a one of presentation - display the folders and files in this folder tree as a composite list. I couldn't (still can't, really) see my need in terms of having to search or find anything, I knew the exactly which folder tree I wanted displayed - F L A T.

Why can't Browse Flat do what its name suggests - ie what's writ on the tin. Or undergo a name change to better reflect what it actually does do - which is what? We know its not to present a folder tree as a flat list.

RP

[RightPaddock]

I can set the filter box to Search but I don't think it means much in Pro either

not quite, it does work. If you have nothing ticked in the search box submenu, it starts a search by NAME under the current folder. If you have Text contents ticked, it tries to match either name or text contents. FInally with "all properties" it will try to find your keyword in any of the text columns you have showing in x2. It works best for a single keyword searched

(note and reminder to self)
Tools > Fast search on the other hand (ultimate version) does multiple keywords in the AND fashion on some text attributes fixed in the advanced settings editor

@nikos - Just to be sure we're talking about the same thing, when I refer to the Filter box I'm referring to this

Capture1.JPG

I call it the Filter box because by default the radio button selection (Mode)seems to be Filter hence it displays the word Filter in the box and the icon on the right is shown as a funnel, which I assume contains a Filter paper.

The basic difference I see between Filter and Search Modes is how the results are presented. In Filter Mode they're presented in the current browse pane/tab of the main X2 GUI, whereas in Search Mode the same results are displayed in a Scrap Pane. Both are useful. I'm more like to use Filter Mode because I can usually deal with the results on the spot, only occasionally do I have a need to put the results aside in a Scrap Pane and deal with them later. Also I don't like having Scrap Panes lying around, they look like proverbial spare what-its in one of K's Mombassa houses of ill repute

BTW I believe that Green arrow button operates on the Address Bar, so why is it pointing at the Filter Box? Yes I know there's a separator line, but that's about as visible as a line of Ukrainian coppers in Putingrad (Simferopol) would be. If I'm right then flip it horizontal so that it points at the data on which it operates, or use a row of TU-34's along the line of demarcation.

RP

[RightPaddock]

Just a thought from the lost chamber of x2 ergonomics.

Just a thought, wouldn't - 'from the chamber of x2 lost ergonomics' - be better

[RightPaddock]

Another semantic point - to me Find is about looking for file system objects whose Name (including extension) meets the criteria, whereas Search is looking for files whose Content (including 'metadata') meets the criteria.

desktop search is never 100% reliable. For example if you have some symbolic links they won't be found even when you search for *.*

Pretty sure Locate32 will show them, it will also drill into them if you insist, just make sure you have no circularities

Locate32 still has a lot going for it as a file finder.

RP

[Kilmatead]

desktop search is never 100% reliable. For example if you have some symbolic links they won't be found even when you search for *.*

Pretty sure Locate32 will show them

When Nikos refers to "desktop search" he's talking about WDS v4.0 which is what Windows itself uses (in conjunction with its indexing services, etc.) - x2 (Ultimate) takes advantage of this (for speed) for initial and/or quick-searches.

This is to be understood as being distinct from x2's built-in search which is far more powerful (if slower), and can do pretty much anything, including reparse-points, of course. His comment above was aimed at a limitation of WDS only, not x2 search.

It also doesn't help that we're using a programme where the English translation is actually done by a Greek who (by his own admission) sounds like a Russian, so it's probably best not to peer too close to the edge.

To be fair, considering the "international nature" of the x2 audience, and that we're using a bejangled version of English to refer to everything on this forum, I don't make a "public" distinction between Search and Find - in a milieu where not everyone's English will be of any measurable calibre it's best not to get hung up on "degrees of definition". (That said, OJ Simpson was obviously guilty and so is that Pistorious fella, so common sense must prevail.) Amusingly, this topic-in-distinction seems to have some popularity in software-design circles. Publicly, when trying to "help" someone, I am not going to get hung up on semantics because that's not at all helpful to an international user-base.

(As contrast, when I'm not attempting to help anyone and am just waffling about foolish human existence, I'll happily use whatever colloquial/demotic/vernacular form of a word that strikes my fancy. I don't believe in the language-police, for they are intellectual death incarnate.)

[RightPaddock]

As a volunteer of various sorts in the inner suburbs of Sydney I am more often than not communicating with non English speaking migrants and refugees. One thing I've learnt from doing this is to assiduously avoid using the same word with different meanings and different words with the same meaning - especially in written communications.

However the discombobulation and ambiguities one finds here and in X2 itself are to be found on many similar forums and software products, its a trait of the software industry that has little to do with the mother tongue of the lead developers. I can think of a couple of products where I know for a fact that the lead developers mother tongue is English, how do I know, they once reported to me. They're just the same, they overload the same word with different meanings. I have one example in mind where even IT jargon words like 'virtual' and 'tag' are used in ways that are utterly perverse to their common IT usage.

Re Windows Search not finding files, junctions whatever - please tell me something new. It never has been much good at finding objects by name, not even when it had its own seeing eye dog to help it. That's why there's a market for things like Locate32, Ransack, Everything etc.

I don't have a great need for file finders, even though I have at least three of them. In this respect I'm an accord with one of the other frequent posters here, if you maintain a well ordered folder hierarchy using sensible names you shouldn't need to find files by name, they should be where they 'belong'... Tuxman I think.

Anyway I'm happy I found out about Find files, its now in x2's context menu where I can find it - so thanks to you both

RP