Re: spotlight content indexing

sawney beane <> wrote:

> In the past I've *thought* Spotlight failed to find some documents when
> I searched by content. Yesterday I used Spotlight to search a certain
> folder by content and found that the folder's content had apparently not
> been included in Spotlight's index.
>
> How can I make Spotlight index the content of a folder?

man mdimport

m.

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matt neuburg wrote:
> sawney beane <> wrote:
>
>> In the past I've *thought* Spotlight failed to find some documents when
>> I searched by content. Yesterday I used Spotlight to search a certain
>> folder by content and found that the folder's content had apparently not
>> been included in Spotlight's index.
>>
>> How can I make Spotlight index the content of a folder?
>
> man mdimport
>
> m.
>
Thanks. Should I type that into the console?

Why wouldn't that folder already be indexed?

I created that folder a few weeks ago as a copy of a folder of ducuments
in MS Word 5. In this folder I opened and saved each document as a
ClarisWorks 5 document so I could open it with AppleWorks 6. Spotlight
has indexed other ClarisWorks 5 documents.

In that connections, Spotlights shows four mdimporters:
AppleWorks.mdimporter
Keynote.mdimporter
Microsoft Office.mdimporter
Pages.mdimporter

Is that all I should have?

sawney beane <> wrote:

> matt neuburg wrote:
> > sawney beane <> wrote:
> >
> >> In the past I've *thought* Spotlight failed to find some documents when
> >> I searched by content. Yesterday I used Spotlight to search a certain
> >> folder by content and found that the folder's content had apparently not
> >> been included in Spotlight's index.
> >>
> >> How can I make Spotlight index the content of a folder?
> >
> > man mdimport
> >
> > m.
> >
> Thanks. Should I type that into the console?

The Terminal. It will teach you about forcing a folder to be indexed.

> Why wouldn't that folder already be indexed?

Some areas are protected from indexing, by default. You can protect
others from indexing by your settings in System Preferences. And
sometimes things do just break down.

By the way, also "man mdls". You can use "mdls" to find out what
Spotlight knows about a given file.

> I created that folder a few weeks ago as a copy of a folder of ducuments
> in MS Word 5. In this folder I opened and saved each document as a
> ClarisWorks 5 document so I could open it with AppleWorks 6. Spotlight
> has indexed other ClarisWorks 5 documents.
>
> In that connections, Spotlights shows four mdimporters:
> AppleWorks.mdimporter
> Keynote.mdimporter
> Microsoft Office.mdimporter
> Pages.mdimporter

Yes. And don't worry too much about this, since there can be other
importers that you don't see in that folder.

What I'd do in your case is separate two issues: (1) are the files being
seen by Spotlight at all, and (2) is their content being indexed. To
find out the former, do a name search for the name of one of the files
in that folder. If Spotlight doesn't know about the file at all, that's
why the content isn't being indexed. On the other hand, if it does know
about the file but the content still isn't being indexed, that suggests
that Spotlight doesn't know how to read that type of file (i.e. it
hasn't an importer).

You can use my free NotLight program as a way of controlling easily
precisely what you ask Spotlight. For example, with NotLight two issues
distinguished above are easily kept distinct, since you are in clear
charge of what kind of search you're doing. m.

--
matt neuburg, phd = , http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
Tiger - http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-customizing.html
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matt neuburg wrote:
> sawney beane <> wrote:
>
>> matt neuburg wrote:
>>> sawney beane <> wrote:
>>>
>>>> In the past I've *thought* Spotlight failed to find some documents when
>>>> I searched by content. Yesterday I used Spotlight to search a certain
>>>> folder by content and found that the folder's content had apparently not
>>>> been included in Spotlight's index.
>>>>
>>>> How can I make Spotlight index the content of a folder?
>>> man mdimport
>>>
>>> m.
>>>
>> Thanks. Should I type that into the console?
>
> The Terminal. It will teach you about forcing a folder to be indexed.

Found it. I'm not sure how to use the information. Will it index if I
simply type mdimport?

>
>> Why wouldn't that folder already be indexed?
>
> Some areas are protected from indexing, by default. You can protect
> others from indexing by your settings in System Preferences. And
> sometimes things do just break down.
>
> By the way, also "man mdls". You can use "mdls" to find out what
> Spotlight knows about a given file.
>
>> I created that folder a few weeks ago as a copy of a folder of ducuments
>> in MS Word 5. In this folder I opened and saved each document as a
>> ClarisWorks 5 document so I could open it with AppleWorks 6. Spotlight
>> has indexed other ClarisWorks 5 documents.
>>

> What I'd do in your case is separate two issues: (1) are the files being
> seen by Spotlight at all, and (2) is their content being indexed. To
> find out the former, do a name search for the name of one of the files
> in that folder. If Spotlight doesn't know about the file at all, that's
> why the content isn't being indexed. On the other hand, if it does know
> about the file but the content still isn't being indexed, that suggests
> that Spotlight doesn't know how to read that type of file (i.e. it
> hasn't an importer).
>
> You can use my free NotLight program as a way of controlling easily
> precisely what you ask Spotlight. For example, with NotLight two issues
> distinguished above are easily kept distinct, since you are in clear
> charge of what kind of search you're doing. m.
>


It seems to see all file names. It seems to see the content of Word 5
files saved in 1991, but not my Word 5 files saved from 1992 to 2005. I
thought it had the content of my ClarisWorks files, but now it's not
finding it.

sawney beane <> wrote:

> matt neuburg wrote:
> > sawney beane <> wrote:
> >
> >> matt neuburg wrote:
> >>> sawney beane <> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> In the past I've *thought* Spotlight failed to find some documents when
> >>>> I searched by content. Yesterday I used Spotlight to search a certain
> >>>> folder by content and found that the folder's content had apparently not
> >>>> been included in Spotlight's index.
> >>>>
> >>>> How can I make Spotlight index the content of a folder?
> >>> man mdimport
> >>>
> >>> m.
> >>>
> >> Thanks. Should I type that into the console?
> >
> > The Terminal. It will teach you about forcing a folder to be indexed.
>
> Found it. I'm not sure how to use the information. Will it index if I
> simply type mdimport?
>
> >
> >> Why wouldn't that folder already be indexed?
> >
> > Some areas are protected from indexing, by default. You can protect
> > others from indexing by your settings in System Preferences. And
> > sometimes things do just break down.
> >
> > By the way, also "man mdls". You can use "mdls" to find out what
> > Spotlight knows about a given file.
> >
> >> I created that folder a few weeks ago as a copy of a folder of ducuments
> >> in MS Word 5. In this folder I opened and saved each document as a
> >> ClarisWorks 5 document so I could open it with AppleWorks 6. Spotlight
> >> has indexed other ClarisWorks 5 documents.
> >>
>
> > What I'd do in your case is separate two issues: (1) are the files being
> > seen by Spotlight at all, and (2) is their content being indexed. To
> > find out the former, do a name search for the name of one of the files
> > in that folder. If Spotlight doesn't know about the file at all, that's
> > why the content isn't being indexed. On the other hand, if it does know
> > about the file but the content still isn't being indexed, that suggests
> > that Spotlight doesn't know how to read that type of file (i.e. it
> > hasn't an importer).
> >
> > You can use my free NotLight program as a way of controlling easily
> > precisely what you ask Spotlight. For example, with NotLight two issues
> > distinguished above are easily kept distinct, since you are in clear
> > charge of what kind of search you're doing. m.
> >
>
>
> It seems to see all file names. It seems to see the content of Word 5
> files saved in 1991, but not my Word 5 files saved from 1992 to 2005. I
> thought it had the content of my ClarisWorks files, but now it's not
> finding it.

Then there is no more to do. Spotlight is behaving as expected; it sees
the files and can't index their content because it doesn't know how to
read a ClarisWorks 5 file (not surprising). m.

--
matt neuburg, phd = , http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
Tiger - http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-customizing.html
AppleScript - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596102119
Read TidBITS! It's free and smart. http://www.tidbits.com

matt neuburg wrote:
> sawney beane <> wrote:
>>
>> It seems to see all file names. It seems to see the content of Word 5
>> files saved in 1991, but not my Word 5 files saved from 1992 to 2005. I
>> thought it had the content of my ClarisWorks files, but now it's not
>> finding it.
>
> Then there is no more to do. Spotlight is behaving as expected; it sees
> the files and can't index their content because it doesn't know how to
> read a ClarisWorks 5 file (not surprising). m.
>

Maybe the files saved in 1991 are from a version of Word before 5. How
can I search the content of my Word 5 and ClarisWorks 5 WP files?

Jim <> wrote:

> In article <1hgehir.1rzxe6z1956bomN%>,
> (matt neuburg) wrote:
>
> > Then there is no more to do. Spotlight is behaving as expected; it sees
> > the files and can't index their content because it doesn't know how to
> > read a ClarisWorks 5 file (not surprising). m.
>
> Anyone know... should Spotlight index content of .textClipping files?

Offhand, I believe not. m.

--
matt neuburg, phd = , http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
Tiger - http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-customizing.html
AppleScript - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596102119
Read TidBITS! It's free and smart. http://www.tidbits.com