any better than spotlight?

[cyberone]

I created some doc folders - but spotlight doesntt index them properly.

many documents aren't indexed and excluded if I do a search for certain terms.

is there a reliable search program for data stored on my machine?

yes, did I mention that I love freewares?

[drumpat01]

well there is always quicksilver, although thats more of an application launcher but its worth a shot and its free. There is also one called LaunchBar 4 which you can get a free trial for.

[adese]

under normal surcumstances does spotlight recognize .docs?

if so than you should just reindex spotlight and you should be fine

in terminal:

sudo mdutil -E /

[adese]

sudo mdutil -E /


note that this will reindex the whole internal volume so if you are reindexing a different volume replace the "/" with the apropriate path

[cyberone]

under normal surcumstances does spotlight recognize .docs?

if so than you should just reindex spotlight and you should be fine

in terminal:

sudo mdutil -E /

adese - you are the man, its reindexing - takes about 3 hrs ... looks like it works! tks!

[cyberone]

adese - you are the man, its reindexing - takes about 3 hrs ... looks like it works! tks!

hmm, still doesnt work despite reindexing ... still misses out on the same files ... som docs are indexed, some not, even in the same folder ...

[RacerX]

If I recall correctly... Spotlight needs a helper for reading (parsing) documents from some programs. If the developer doesn't provide this, Spotlight is going to have problems indexing that information.

This was an issue back in the NeXT days with the Digital Librarian too.

[QCassidy352]

I have the same problem. Spotlight doesn't find certain files by content (especially old .doc files) and also, oddly, doesn't find certain other files (bluetooth setup assistant, for example). It's unreliable enough that I don't really trust it for everyday use, which is a major disappointment because it could be one of the best things about Tiger.

oh, and all that reindexing does it causes spotlight to "forget" all my mail messages until I select them individually.

[GimmeSlack12]

I've just fallen in love with Quicksilver.

If you think Spotlight is neat, Quicksilver is very impressive. I say give it a shot.

[QCassidy352]

I too am trying quicksilver and finding it very impressive. But can it search within a file's contents?

[cyberone]

I too am trying quicksilver and finding it very impressive. But can it search within a file's contents?

right, quicksilver doesnt search contents, just file names ...

what the heck could the problem be with that spotlight misses ...

think I have to wait for Google Desktop Search for mac ... spotlight just doesnt do it, what an alpha software.

[cyberone]

but when I'm re-saving a document that spotlight hasn't indexed - after the re-saving its indexed ...

go figure.

[MUCKYFINGERS]

Judging by all the praise it garners, I'll need to give Quicksilver a try sooner or later ...

[bigandy]

the command
sudo mdutil -E /
will cause a reindex of the internal volume, but what command do you need to reindex external volumes? or is it in fact, just that one. because i've got 4 x 250gb drives connected, and tis saying it's going to take 7hrs. so i'm assuming it may just do them all...

[whooleytoo]

I have the same problem. Spotlight doesn't find certain files by content (especially old .doc files) and also, oddly, doesn't find certain other files (bluetooth setup assistant, for example). It's unreliable enough that I don't really trust it for everyday use, which is a major disappointment because it could be one of the best things about Tiger.

oh, and all that reindexing does it causes spotlight to "forget" all my mail messages until I select them individually.

A couple of things that threw me when I started using Spotlight - when searching contents, you can only search for the beginning of words. (E.g. you won't find "Macworld" if you search the file for "world").

Also, when searching by filename, Spotlight treats capital letters like word breaks. So, if you search for "tooth", Spotlight will find a file called "BlueTooth Setup Assistant", but not "Bluetooth Setup Assistant".

Spotlight has been very unreliable for me too.