PGN files with Spotlight

PGN (Portable Game Notation) is a text format used to store chess games. The content is just plain text, is there a way to get spotlight to index these files?
Thanks!

Offhand (or onhand, for that matter) I can't see why the contents aren't being searched - I assume you have "Contents" selected in the Search bar of the search window. Contents are automatically indexed - you can't have only a file name indexed, it's not a separate procedure - so this is a puzzle.
Are these files found when you search for them by name or Kind? (Just to check that they've been indexed.)
I'm very puzzled, and intrigued. If you'd like to send me some of the files in question, I'd be happy to look into this more deeply on my end. You can send them to 33books (at) 33thingsbooks followed by dot-com. (Isn't it ridiculous to have to describe it that way to avoid some bot collecting the address for spam?)
sharon

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Finding file with Spotlight

How do I find a file with Spotlight? Or, more to the point, why does Spotlight make it soooo hard to find the location of files?
Example: I want to find file "foo.xls". I type in "foo.xls" into Spotlight and sure enough, there it is! Great! Er .. but wait. All Spotlight lets me do is OPEN the file. I don't want to do that, I just want to know where it is; what folder it is in.
How do I do that? I can't right-click on items in the Spotlight result list (why not? isn't this what most users would do?). I can't press spacebar for quicklook. I can't seem to do ANYTHING with Spotlight EXCEPT open the file.
I presume there is some hidden shortcut key involving some obscure combination of option+command etc etc, but how am I supposed to know that? Isn't this supposed to be easy?
This is, to say the least, very frustrating.
--Tim

In 10.6 and prior, the user would need only hover over the item in Spotlight's results and a yellow flag would appear with the location. In 10.7, a new Spotlight feature emerged, the preview, so the yellow flag is gone.
Use Finder's Spotlight instead in the upper right of the Finder window. You can always use Finder's "Show Path Bar" view, so that, after doing a Finder Spotlight search, you can single click on a file and see the path listed at the bottom of the window.

Search inside Coldfusion files with Spotlight?

I've recently found to my dismay that you cannot search inside .cfm files with Spotlight, and there appears to be no easy way to tell Spotlight to start looking in those files. I would assume that since they're just text files, and Spotlight does seem to search inside .htm files, that it shouldn't be too difficult to get Spotlight to do this, but I'm at a loss as to going about it.
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Thanks.

For Spotlight to index content there has to be an mdimporter for that content type. If the files are in fact plain text, it is possible to do a bit of hacking to get them indexed, see this discussion at MacOSXHints:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050514182520714&query=mdimport
Be sure to read the comments! And don't do it without a current clone of your system on an external drive that is NOT attached when you try this out (if you do try it).
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Locating a Text File with spotlight??

With recent Updates of OS X, Spotlight simply finds the File but no way to tell where it is. Have tried everything I can think of; but, so far, the only way I have found is to Duplicate and then Move that to the Desktop fromwhich I can then place it where I want it.
the loss of the Save as availability after the initial Save is irksome..
I have little faith in the apple seeds who make these changes, but .. this seems pretty far out and surely others have the problem, too.
appreciate,
Ed

Hold down command and click the file in Spotlight's list.
You can view where it is by holding down cmd+opt while hovering over it.
Also, if you have it open, cmd-click or right-click on the title and it will drop down the path to the file.
To get to Save As, hold down the option key, or export, or duplicate.

When I find a file with spotlight how can I find out where it is?

I need to know the directory path to it.
In case it matters I'm using Lion on an iMac.

Mac 101: Spotlight does't go into it, but as far back as I can remember Snow Leopard, Leopard and maybe even Tiger had a pop-up name and path feature.
Sorry for not getting back sooner, it took me a couple of tries to capture the pop-up because it kept re-hiding, plus I'm working on moving the desks and Macs in my office to make room for my new Mid 2010 Mac Mini.

How to copy a files spotlight comments for an entire folder and place them in a different file with that same name

I have the same question in a different discussion but I already marked it as solved because one of the questions was answered. Here's the linke to the other discussion if your interested https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5970421
I have movie covers saved as a jpeg for every movie my family and I own. There is about 700 and they each have a comment of the main actors, release dates, and descriptions. This makes it easy to find what to watch.Is there an applescript, automator, program I can download, or program code supported in xcode that will do the following set of inscructions?
Take the name of the picture file and spotlight comment, copy and paste it to a movie file's comments to a file with the same name but obviously has different extention. For an example
In a Pictures folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.jpeg       Comment: (2008) Genre: Action...             <- copy comment
In a Movie Folder
Name: Dark Knight, The.m4v       Comment:                                               <- paste
and do this for all 700 files

Clendenen02 wrote:
where should I run the code? in the terminal, or an applescript, or should put it in xcode and run it from there or the terminal.
What MrHoffman said.
But if it's easier, you can wrap it in Automator and have Automator ask for the Folders: (Test on a sample of your files before running on all 700 files)
(do you really own 700 movies??)
The Workflow is:
Put this in the Run Shell Script Action (and pass input as arguments":
PicDir=$1
MovDir=$2
for f in $PicDir/*
do
     if [ ! -d "$f" -a "${f##*.}" = "jpeg" ]; then
          comment=$(mdls -raw -name kMDItemFinderComment "$f")
          if [[ $comment != "(null)" ]]; then
               picname=${f##*/}
               movname=${picname%.*}.m4v
               if [[ -e "$MovDir"/$movname ]]; then
osascript <<-EOF
tell application "Finder"
set comment of file (POSIX file "$MovDir/$movname") to "$comment"
end tell
EOF
               fi
          fi
     fi
done
(BTW, I know that this is a bit of sloppy scripting (wraping an osascript in a Bash Script wrapped in Automator, but it does what you need)

Spotlight does not find files with "_" (underscores), but only for certain file types

Hey Folks,
this is strange, maybe someone has an idea.
I already searched the internet for a while, nothing found so far.
I have a file "calc_mean.m" on my desktop.
When I type "calc" in spotlight, it shows the file.
But when I type "calc_" it suddenly does not show the file anymore. Nor does find the file, when I enter "calc_mean.m" in spotlight.
When I enter "calc mean.m" in spotlight, it finds it (using space instead of the underscore).
Now comes the real surprise:
When I rename the file to "calc_mean.txt", spotlight suddenly DOES find the file when entering "calc_mean.txt".
I recreated this "feature" with other files, copying and renaming ".txt" files to ".m" files, and if there's a underscore in the file, spotlight wont find it.
Playing around a bit more, it seems spotlight does find files with underscore when they are documents, at least it works for the following extensions:
.pdf
.doc
.txt
.xls
But these extensions for example do not work:
.mp3
.m
.k
.a
.ka
(and other random endings I tried).
I am pretty confused. Sure it's no big deal learning to search for files that include underscores in their name using space instead. But I'm still quite puzzled. Any idea?

All of those have meaning in various database search syntax (not sure if it matters).
_ usually means any character.
% usually means any run of characters.
- is often used to negate what comes next, i.e. "don't include results that have the following text."
I don't see any problem on my Mac, though.
I also don't have any problem finding file names with those accented characters using Spotlight. I would suggest reindexing Spotlight, but if cmd-f finds them, I'm not sure that would help.
Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

Spotlight/Finder can't find a file, yet when I search the timecapsule for they find it. If I try to restore the file I get "file with that name already exists...." What is wrong?

I was trying to find a file (iTunes Backup). When using finder/Spotlight they couldn't find the file.
I then opened up my timecapsule and searched for the file....tick-a-de-da it found it in yesterdays backup. I attempted to restore the file and got the prompt "A file with that name already exists in this location, would you like to keep both, replace the file or cancel the request.
So if the file is there why can't spotlight/finder find the file??
If it helps I get this from the terminal when checking if indexing was enabled.
$ mdutil -s -a
Indexing enabled.
/Volumes/Data:
2014-11-18 18:09:39.542 mdutil[1472:572531] Metadata.framework [Error]: mdsCopyStoreAttributes failed: (8) (os/kern) no access
No index.
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups:
Indexing and searching disabled.
/Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb:
Indexing enabled.

Hi Danielle,
Is there any possibilty that some of your files (a VI or DLL?) have been moved, renamed, or deleted? Also, what version of LabVIEW are you using and are you using any .NET DLLs? Another option to consider would involve VISA or DAQmx property nodes. Are you using any of these property nodes in your code? Here is a KnowledgeBase article to describe more about the VISA and DAQmx property nodes in a source distribution:
Error Creating Source Distributions Involving rc Files: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/833BFD5E9CA0224886257584004DAA4C?OpenDocument
I hope this is able to help.
Anna L
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

Spotlight content search : excludes files with .php5 extension

My Spotlight does not find strings in files with .php5 extension. It probably does not consider these as text files.
How can I change that ?

I guess I found the right page :
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Carbon/Conceptual/understandingutis/understand_utis_intro/chapter_1_section_1.html#//appleref/doc/uid/TP40001319-CH201-SW1

Can't find files either with Spotlight or Finder

So (for example) I just created a file (with Photoshop) called "duellingremotes.jpg" and it's in a folder in another folder on the Desktop. Nothing comes up when I search for "remote" either in Spotlight or by going Command-F. Is this not one of the basic abilities that I should have? What am I doing wrong?

To add to Daniel's response,
When you search for a term in Spotlight, it assumes that the term you are searching for represents a word or the beginning of a word. That said, it will find the word within the file name as long as it is delineated in the filename either with-punctuation, ChangeOfCase, or spac ing.
So, if you named the file DuellingRemotes.jpg, it would find it if you searched for "remote." But it would not find it on searching for "mote"
If you want to search for something that is an embedded string in a file name, use the Name Contains option in Cmd-F.
With that, you could search for "ingrem", "otes" or any other part of the file name.

What has happened with Spotlight? Can't find files anymore. Why?

Apparently I have two iPhoto libraries. When I use Spotlight to find them, I get an iPad user guide as the first return. One library is in Pictures. If I search that Finder folder for iTunes Library, search finds nothing. If I search that folder for iPhoto it returns iPhoto Slideshows, a file that follows after the iPhoto library file. If I use Spotlight, it returns hundreds of unrelated files. Not useful.
If I double-click the library in Pictures, I get this message in iPhoto: Do you want to switch the current iPhoto Library from “iPhoto Library” to “iPhoto Library” and relaunch iPhoto?
I suspect if I do, I'll never find the library that is now open. How'd I get two libraries? I didn't do that.
My main question: Why doesn't Spotlight return the location of the file I'm looking for?
Seems to me I've been finding files very efficiently with Spotlight for years, but this new version is almost useless.

Yes, I've done that. I just did it again in response your suggestion. Had a fusion disk problem s few days ago; had to wipe it and restore so I'm working with a clean system. Should have been indexed... I dropped my whole hard disk in the privacy space; nothing happened. Then I dropped iMac Home; I could see it was indexing. But nothing changed...
Today the problem was searching for a library and I wondered if Spotlight is coded to not find such Apple created fundamentals.... But daily, no matter what I'm searching for, even if I find it, it is not as efficient as it used to be.
Maybe I'm just a grouchy old man, but it seems to me Spotlight was better before it was improved.

Spotlight fails to find files with search items

I just did a Spotlight search on
Japanese English は
Spotlight found more than 3500 items, but the two sample Word files I looked at didn't have は in them.
This is really frustrating. Is there a way to ensure Spotlight only finds files with the input?

Spotlight is notorious for its weaknesses and erratic behavior. You might try reindexing your Spotlight. Open up Spotlight in Sys Prefs, go to Privacy and drag the HD Folder there. Leave it a minute then remove it by clicking on the minus at the bottom. This will force Spotlight to reindex the drive, which may take some time.
I mostly use EasyFind (free) instead of Spotlight.
http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/freeware/

Is tagging files necessary with Spotlight?

I'm an attorney, so I save a lot of case law on my computer. They are usally PDFs. I've thought about adding tags to the files so that I can search certain legal terms. However, the legal terms (the tags I would use) are all words and phrases that are used within the files. With Spotlight I can just type the word or phrase and the files using them show up in the search result without the file ever having been tagged. If all that I'm ever searching are these words or phrases that are already used within the file, would there be any benefit to tagging these files with the words or phrases?

X423424X wrote:
On the subject of spotlight tags
(1) Let's get one thing straight. (I thought I had done that when I wrote "edit a PDF in Acrobat".) We're not talking Spotlight tags (even if they exist). We're talking PDF tags. These are read and understood by any app which understands the PDF document information dictionary (see PDF Reference, 6th edition, §10.2.1), which is the most basic level (we'll ignore metadata streams). These stay with the document, and get carried over with the document; which means not only that they'll be understood by any properly designed PDF manager, but that they will be used also on Windows, Linux, and so on. IOW, the investment of work on tagging these files is not only not tied to Spotlight, it is not even tied to Mac OS X. Hence, definitely worth doing, AFAIC.
Personally I don't waste my time remembering various properties spotlight can use
(2) À chacun son goût, maître. (I find that it's not remembering that takes time -- faster hard drive, maybe?) The point of the little trick was answering the OP's question, ie, using Spotlight to search for PDF tags only. As to remembering, well, there are such things as saved searches and 'smart folders'. Moreover, anyone who can handle the spelling and pronunciation of sundry Anglo-Norman juicy bits like "avowtry", "postremogeniture", "nuncupative will", or "writ of oyer & terminer" will hardly have a coughing fit over two measly kMDItem keywords, now will he?
I use spotlight for basic filename
(3) IMHO, that's exactly where SL falls very short; but, to each his own. As anyone who's read my posts knows, I can hardly be described as a fan of SL. In my case, 99% of my searches are of filenames, and, unfortunately, there's no replacement for SL that fits my needs. None of the three apps I use on a regular basis (John R Chang's Find File, Thomas Tempelmann's FindAnyFile, and Christian Grünenberg's EasyFind) are a complete replacement for the Find utility in Panther. As to my PDFs, I manage those with EndNote. I don't recommend it (it's really not a PDF manager at all), but I have a lot of data in it and haven't found yet something worth converting to. But I'm not a lawyer; if I were, I'd certainly take a very close look at DevonThink.
On the subject of spotlight tags, although I never use them, there's even a utility for them as well. It's called TagIt.
(4) I would urge some degree of caution when considering TagIt. It's not a "spotlight tags" utility (in fact, are there any "spotlight tags", other than comments?); it's really part of OpenMeta; the developer, Ironic Software, lately seems missing in action, and Yep, their foremost product, hasn't been updated in quite some time. Unlike PDF metadata, OpenMeta is not cross-platform and it is not transferable.

Audibook files can be found and played on the iphone only with spotlight. Help me get them to show and play.

I download audiobooks to Overdrive console, then all parts are transfered to iphone 4s with IOS 7.1. Files can be found and played on phone only with spotlight. This is a difficult procedure for my wife. Help me to show and play audiobooks downloaded from library using Overdrive. Tried Sync and beboot several timnes.
Thanks in advance

I used it once for audiobooks with a phone that had iOS 6, and the audiobook was transferred into the music app.
I think the audiobook in question was in the WMA format, though, and was converted to MP3 in iTunes and then transferred to my phone, now that I think about it a bit more.
There is a program/app for the computer that can play liason between phone and computer, rather than just using the app on the iPhone. That could be contributing to the issue here.
~Lyssa

Problems with Spotlight searching of shared volumes

According to: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html#spotlight, I should be able to "...search any connected Mac with Personal File Sharing enabled or a file server that’s sharing its files."
It doesn't specify what "file server", so I presume it means Spotlight should be able to search any mounted shared volume (assuming, of course, that indexing has been enabled).
I have a NAS device that I want to be able to search with Spotlight. According to mdutil, the volume is enabled for indexing, but I don't see any results when I search under "Shared" in Finder via Cmd+F. (I checked, and there's no .Spotlight folders on the volume.)
From what I recall, under Tiger you could manually specify a network volume to index, but if you dismounted the volume, you'd have to re-enable indexing on next mount. This worked for other file systems (such as Fat32 & NTFS), as well as for HFS+ drives.
According to mdutil in Leopard, the volume is still enabled for indexing even across dismounts. The NAS drive is not HFS+ formatted, but uses XFS.
I've tried deleting the index, to no avail.
Has anyone successfully used Spotlight to search mounted volumes on volumes not shared via another Mac?
Am I missing something?

You have not missed anything.... Leopard promises but does NOT deliver.
I use an AFP server with Bonjour enabled. And NO NO NO Spotlight search is possible on this network volume...
This is outrageous and FALSE information....
Oh and - that Leopard is Sporting 300 new features is false info too.... Not even the "What is New in Leopard" says anything about 300 features.. But it sounds great doesn't it....

PGN files with Spotlight

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