Search files with wildcards setting

[Teake]

I would like the file search to use wildcards by default. I tend to forget the exact word boundaries of filenames, and just type in snippets of the filename, and then get annoyed that the file isn't showing up in the search results. If I'm clever enough, I remember I have to append or prepend a wildcard "*", but most of the time I resort to Finder to look up the file.

 

I have just written a workflow that replaces spaces in a query with wildcard (so "this is a filename" becomes "*this*is*a*filename*"), and then runs mdfind on it via a Python wrapper. This gives me the results I'd like to see, albeit it a bit slower than it could be because of the Python overhead. Unfortunately my muscle memory is still <CMD-space, space>, so I'd much rather see the behaviour of Alfred's build-in file search incorporate the wildcards by default. I know adding the wildcards to the query will make it slower, but that's a price I'd happily pay.

 

This is probably not for everyone (although this issue comes up quite often in the forums), so perhaps a configuration setting in Alfred's preferences would do the trick? E.g. a toggle for "Search with wildcards"?

[TomBenz]

@Teake Have you found a way to use wildcards in searches?

 

I see a page on Alfred support and would like to find out if there is any update on it? @vitor @Vero

 

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/file-search/searching-with-wildcards/

 

I have tried custom file filter and playing with fields (words, split) to do exact search inside pdf file content but it doesn't give very reliable results. Pls help