jrosler Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Hi All, I bought the alfred powerpack a couple years ago with a mac I got at work and then I had to go back to using a windows laptop. I just recently got a new macbook and am back using a mac with vmware fusion. I've installed the lasted v2 with powerpack and am having a rather simple problem. I can't seem to find content Microsoft powerpoint 2010 files through their content. For example, I'd like to find a pptx file with the word foo in one of the slide captions. I'd think I could bring up alfred and just type foo or maybe find pptx foo or even in pptx foo or something like that. Alfred doesn't find it. However, if I go to spotlight and type in foo, spotlight finds the file without a problem. I tried setting all search types in the default results and that didn't help. The file is on my desktop and include folders in home is checked. Any thoughts on what settings I need to change here to make this work? Alfred should work better than spotlight, but doesn't seem to in this instance. Thanks. Link to comment
jdfwarrior Posted May 2, 2013 Share Posted May 2, 2013 Hi All, I bought the alfred powerpack a couple years ago with a mac I got at work and then I had to go back to using a windows laptop. I just recently got a new macbook and am back using a mac with vmware fusion. I've installed the lasted v2 with powerpack and am having a rather simple problem. I can't seem to find content Microsoft powerpoint 2010 files through their content. For example, I'd like to find a pptx file with the word foo in one of the slide captions. I'd think I could bring up alfred and just type foo or maybe find pptx foo or even in pptx foo or something like that. Alfred doesn't find it. However, if I go to spotlight and type in foo, spotlight finds the file without a problem. I tried setting all search types in the default results and that didn't help. The file is on my desktop and include folders in home is checked. Any thoughts on what settings I need to change here to make this work? Alfred should work better than spotlight, but doesn't seem to in this instance. Thanks. Have you attempted just the 'in' keyword with 'foo', e.g. 'in foo'. That should search within file contents for the word foo. Adding pptx to the beginning may be throwing it off. If that works, to simply things later, you could create a filter that would search only pptx files for contents matching the input query. Link to comment
jrosler Posted May 6, 2013 Author Share Posted May 6, 2013 Have you attempted just the 'in' keyword with 'foo', e.g. 'in foo'. That should search within file contents for the word foo. Adding pptx to the beginning may be throwing it off. If that works, to simply things later, you could create a filter that would search only pptx files for contents matching the input query. Thanks. It did start to show up with in (I swear it wasn't before). By creating a filter are you suggesting I create a workflow, or is there omething simpler? Link to comment
jdfwarrior Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 Thanks. It did start to show up with in (I swear it wasn't before). By creating a filter are you suggesting I create a workflow, or is there omething simpler? Yes, file filters are a part of workflows. Link to comment
jrosler Posted May 8, 2013 Author Share Posted May 8, 2013 Yes, file filters are a part of workflows. Ok, so I looked at workflows, but I'm still slightly confused on how to do this. Basically, I need to do an "in <search string>" for powerpoint types. I see that I can do the File FIlter input, but that does a find and not an in, so I don't find my content. Is there a way to do an in with a filter? Thanks. Link to comment
jdfwarrior Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Ok, so I looked at workflows, but I'm still slightly confused on how to do this. Basically, I need to do an "in <search string>" for powerpoint types. I see that I can do the File FIlter input, but that does a find and not an in, so I don't find my content. Is there a way to do an in with a filter? Thanks. Ok, check this out. I made you a workflow that does exactly what you want. Download here. Use the 'pptx' keyword If you still want to understand what I did and how to set this up so you can do it yourself in the future: Create a new workflow, starting with a Blank Workflow. Then add an Input->File Filter. You'll do the typical setup, adding a keyword, title, and subtitle. Next, we're going to set what file types to show. In this case, you only wanted .pptx results so, easiest thing to do (if you don't have a Finder window open with .pptx files visible) is to pop up Alfred and search and find a pptx, then drag it out of Alfred's results, and drop it on the File Types area. At this point, your filter would work. Using the keyword would only show results matching your query that were of the .pptx file type. You can customize this further by going to the Search Scope folder and telling it to only show results from a specific directory. The File Filter only show results that match by name though. To get it to match contents inside as well, jump to the Advanced tab. At the bottom right of the Fields area, click the + and in the little popup, select kMDItemTextContent. That gives the filter the ability to search the contents of the file as well. Save the filter, add a Action->Open File, connect the two, and your done! Link to comment
jrosler Posted May 9, 2013 Author Share Posted May 9, 2013 Ok, check this out. I made you a workflow that does exactly what you want. Download here. Use the 'pptx' keyword If you still want to understand what I did and how to set this up so you can do it yourself in the future: Create a new workflow, starting with a Blank Workflow. Then add an Input->File Filter. You'll do the typical setup, adding a keyword, title, and subtitle. Next, we're going to set what file types to show. In this case, you only wanted .pptx results so, easiest thing to do (if you don't have a Finder window open with .pptx files visible) is to pop up Alfred and search and find a pptx, then drag it out of Alfred's results, and drop it on the File Types area. At this point, your filter would work. Using the keyword would only show results matching your query that were of the .pptx file type. You can customize this further by going to the Search Scope folder and telling it to only show results from a specific directory. The File Filter only show results that match by name though. To get it to match contents inside as well, jump to the Advanced tab. At the bottom right of the Fields area, click the + and in the little popup, select kMDItemTextContent. That gives the filter the ability to search the contents of the file as well. Save the filter, add a Action->Open File, connect the two, and your done! Awesome! Thanks. The thing I missed in my workflow was the kMDItemTextContent. Link to comment
jdfwarrior Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Awesome! Thanks. The thing I missed in my workflow was the kMDItemTextContent. Awesome, glad you got it figured out Link to comment
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