Advanced search: Find text in specific files

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akapuma
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Advanced search: Find text in specific files

Post by akapuma »

Hello,

with "advanced search", I can find files with a specific word in all files in a folder and it's subfolders.

For example, I have thousands of files in these folders. 100 of these files contain the word "pepper" in their filenames. Now I am searching for the word "hot" in all files which "pepper" in the filename. It's not needed to examine all thousands of files, only the 100 "pepper" files.

It this possible with the PDF-XChange Editor? I have not found a filename option.

Best regards

akapuma
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: Advanced search: Find text in specific files

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Hi,

Only searching in files with a specific name is not possible at this moment (for as far as I know).

Nevertheless it would be very interesting to have this possibility as an additional option in the Search feature.

It would incredibly accelerate the search process in the given circumstances.


@Tracker Software Software : is this a worthy question for a new feature request ?


Kind regards.

Willy
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Advanced search: Find text in specific files

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hi, Willy and Akapuma!

I do think this would make an excellent feature request, and have as such done just that. Though all tickets are internal only, you can check with us here in the future for news on its developments. I cannot promise that this will be implemented at this point, but I can say that it will be considered by our Dev team when we are next looking for new features.

RT#5671: FR: Search - in filename by contained keyword

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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akapuma
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Re: Advanced search: Find text in specific files

Post by akapuma »

Thank you both so much!

Best regards

akapuma
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: Advanced search: Find text in specific files

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Also my thanks to Tracker Software Support for considering this question as a worthy one and for making a feature request for it.

Let us hope that it will get the needed priority and that it will soon be implemented.

Regards.

Willy
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Advanced search: Find text in specific files

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

:)
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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DIV
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RFE: restrict by filename (with wildcards) when searching for PDF files containing specified text

Post by DIV »

When searching for PDF files containing specified text it would be useful to be able to restrict the search with more powerful options.
Currently the text searching functionality is quite powerful, with the option of running an ordinary text search (subject to several Options), or to use Advanced Criteria.
However, as regards the files, there are currently only two things that the user can specify, so this functionality is rather weaker. One can specify
  • the (base) path to search, a.k.a. "WHERE would you like to search?"; and
  • whether or not to Look in Sub-Folders (under Options)
Thus it would be a substantial improvement to allow greater restriction of the search, as per:
  • restrict by filename (with wildcards);
  • restrict by date range (possibly selectable as the original-creation date, last-modified date, and last-accessed date?);
  • other parameters (e.g. file size, number of pages, file attributes?).
Example of usage
There may be a drive whose root directory contains folders for a large number (hundreds) of projects. Each project would contain dozens or even hundreds of PDF files. Within each project some of the files are systematically named as e.g. ProjABC_Proposal_ver2-0.pdf and ProjXYZ_Variation_ver1-2.pdf.
Suppose you are searching for the contract variation that referred to a natural disaster or "Act of God", which you recall was from a project commenced within the past couple of years, but cannot recall the project ID.
Currently the only two options within Editor would be either (i) searching all PDF files in all folders on the drive for the phrase "Act of God" (and perhaps the word "Variation"), which might easily amount to 10000 files, or (ii) selectively searching all PDF files in individual folders on the drive for the phrase "Act of God" (and perhaps the word "Variation"), which would be very laborious, and would require a lot of luck to stumble upon the relevant folder.
With the proposed enhancements the user could selectively search PDF files in all folders on the drive for the phrase "Act of God" with the filename of "*Variation*.pdf" and a creation date after January 2019, which might amount to just a dozen files (say).

—DIV
Last edited by DIV on Tue Oct 26, 2021 2:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: RFE: restrict by filename (with wildcards) when searching for PDF files containing specified text

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

I suppose this request can be merged with an already existing one:
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=37119

Kind regards.

Willy
DIV
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Re: RFE: restrict by filename (with wildcards) when searching for PDF files containing specified text

Post by DIV »

You're right, Willy.
I did try to search the forum beforehand for previous posts on this issue, but had not managed to locate the relevant post you have linked to.

The cross-over is indeed substantial.
Please note that my suggestion is somewhat broader, though, as I have indicated the potential benefits of being able to restrict the search by other file properties besides the file name (e.g. file size, file date, ...).

—DIV
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: RFE: restrict by filename (with wildcards) when searching for PDF files containing specified text

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Your suggestion is indeed "somewhat broader". That is why I proposed to "merge" it with the other one.

+1 for your request to add some additional search properties.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Advanced search: Find text in specific files

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, everyone!

I have merged the two threads, and added DiV's suggestions to the existing ticket as well. I Still cannot promise implementation here, and unfortunately the original ticket still has not been assigned a work item number to date. Since we are adding some "broader" ideas to the ticket now, that is probably for the best, but do know that it has yet to be reviewed and accepted by the team currently. It may still be some time before that discussion occurs.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
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