Microsoft promises desktop search functionality by year's e...

[MacBytes]

Category: Microsoft
Link: Microsoft promises desktop search functionality by year\'s end.
Posted on MacBytes.com

Approved by Mudbug

[Fender2112]

Can someone explain how this "Desktop" search is different from the "Find" function that has been a part of the Mac OS since, at least OS 7. I must be missing something because I don't understand what the big deal is.

[brap]

I think they probably mean a sensible, database-indexed search, rather than the pathetic per-folder search we have in Windows now. Don't worry, it'll still suck, just marginally less so. It'll probably be just as patronising as XP search bar, too .

I hate looking for files in Windows, it took 5 minutes for my girlfriend's laptop to spit out a file she'd downloaded and lost last night. In Panther, nm Tiger, that'd be done in 5 seconds.

[Blue Velvet]

... that an example may be, for instance... say, you've got the Open dialog box of an app open but you can't find the file you want to open. So you can search straight from there within that dialog box.

Something I occasionally wish I could do.

But that's just a wild guess... nothing informed about it at all.

Somebody please tell me if/how you can do this already.

[macnulty]

Originally Posted by Blue Velvet

... that an example may be, for instance... say, you've got the Open dialog box of an app open but you can't find the file you want to open. So you can search straight from there within that dialog box.

Something I occasionally wish I could do.

But that's just a wild guess... nothing informed about it at all.

Somebody please tell me if/how you can do this already.

It goes by application, for example Photoshop Elements 2 has it but Nisus Writer 2 doesn't, neither does Canvas 8.

[redAPPLE]

and i promise New Year's Eve on the 31st of December

that was the same company that said looonghorn would be arrive in 2005, right?

[nsb3000]

Originally Posted by Fender2112

Can someone explain how this "Desktop" search is different from the "Find" function that has been a part of the Mac OS since, at least OS 7. I must be missing something because I don't understand what the big deal is.

You should look at Google's current offering to get an idea of what they are talking about. It is a database index based search function, so it will be a hell of a lot faster than what Microsoft current offers. But also, and this is key, it will let you search inside all sorts of files, which although you can do today on Mac OS X, you can't do it very quickly.

I can't speak for exacaly how Microsofts tool will work, but with Google's desktop search, it not only finds files with the word in the name, but email messages that countin the word, websites I have visited in the last week that have the word, PDFs, word documents ect. And it does it all in less than a second. I can tell you from haveing it installed on my PC at work that it is a very powerful feature. I don't think Microsoft wants to be outdone for long.